Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-11
SOVIET WORKERS
TOURING ENGLAND
$50 in Group Rewarded for
Early Fulfilment of Five
Year Pan.
BY NEGLEY PARsoN.


BY Gable to The Star
LONDON, England, August 1.-THE
red nag, with the symbolic hammer
and sickle, is dangling from the rain
drenched mainmast of the Soviet S. S.
Ukraine, made fast below London
Bridge, which has brought the first
party OF Russian tourists to land in
England in Is years
These visitors are vastly different
from the old lot. They are not call
culated to make London hotel pro-
prietors, concierges, restaurateurs and
shopkeeperS leap with JOY. These are
$50 factory workers-heroes of the
Soviet's industrial front-who have
been given a 35-day bonus In the form
OF a sightseeing tour of the capitalist
world from the Baltic to the Black
Sea, as a special award for their fac
tories fulfillment Of the five-year plan
IN half the time. Each factory or
enterprise selected its candidates whose
MUM fund to boost factory output,
trade unions and Soviet ''proletarian
tours"
Boxes for Trunks.
Instead of wardrobe trunks their
cabins are stuffed with cloth parcels
and three-ply wooden boxes. which
always accompany Russian when he
is on the move. The scene along the
rail of the Ukraine yesterday as it
docked through the gray mist was like
that on a cheap excursion steamer or
in any factory town when the IL
o'clock whistle blows
The Russians CAPPED at LOndon's
docks and the stevedores working under
the capitalist system like men from
Mars. Hardly 8 single soul had ever
been outside the Soviet Union before.
I'VE have just come in from HAM
burg" they told newspaper men. We
were greatly impressed by the 300 ships
lying dead in Hamburg's port--we were
even more struck by the poverty of the
working -claSs dwellings there"
The visitors had spent four days in
Hamburg sightseeing, but were living on
the ship. When asked what they were
gong to see in London their spokes-
man answered that they would take the
rubberneck buses and do the usual
sightseeing tour, with a Soviet inter-
prefer along TO explain what's what.
Interested in st. Paul's.
"Of course, we are interested" he
said. 'in st. Paul's Cathedral and
Westminster Abbey. But only from the
architectural ylewpoint-not the reli-
gious.
Landing permits were given to the
party by groups, each in charge OF such
an interpreter. There will be no un-
authorized expeditions alone-'for feaT
we might not find our way" Exhibi-
tions and art museums will be visited IN
particular But I'VE have not enough
time to see any factories here"
The Ukraine Sails Thursday for
Genoa. proceeding thence to Istanbul
and Odessa. Whatever shore reception
the tourists viii have will be from the
sSoviet colony" in each Of these ports.
Eighty girls among the party mostly
OF high school age-provided the CHIEF
point of interest to London. They gave
ample evidence of Lady Astor's recent
Moscow verdict that the Russian wom-
an has lost her sex appeal. Ambitious
photographers lined up what are called
the flower of their womanhoed, gath
ering about a dozen, who, after arrang-
ing their hair and powdering their noses,
posed for a picture with the ships NE
buoy. exactly like capitalist girls. fave
OF them we're girl tractor drivers from
big state farms.
No Farm Representatives.
There were no representatives aboard
the Ukraine from collective farms. Col
lectiye workers were not considered pro-
letarians-yet.
The girls with cotton stockings and
cheap, but what to them were their best
frocks certainly better than those their
sister comrades wear in MOSCOW. were
characterized by the English watching
them as proper for q little factory
girl"
Outstanding among the men was the
head CT the Communist Boosters OF
the very yards which launched the Tx
raine this year She is 5,500-ton fast
passenger steamer. built 20 run between
Leningrad and. Odessa. She is 100 per
cent Soviet ship. including the engines.
Fom what one could see from super
fetal survey, she is an extremely serv-
iceable ship.
In endeavortng to arrange for passen-
ger landing permits the group Is faced
with the obligation Of informing Scot
land Yard in advance as to where they
are going in London.
tCopyright. 1897