Evening star., 1941-10-30
Continued From First Page)


second street. The walls are as high
as two-story buildings and they are
punctuated by 10 towers. Inside
there are streets and squares, i'm
posing three-story and four-story
buildings and many churches with
bulbous, beet-shaped towers of their
own. Lenin's tomb is just outside
the walls on the north, facing the
often photographed Red Square. On
the west there's a much larger
square, fianked by the new eight
story Moscow Hotel, which is re-
served for Soviet citizens only, and
the old National Hotel, where l
stayed. and which was taken over
later by the Beaverbrook- Hartman
commission. This is the square on
which the roofs of whole city are
painted to confound the NaZi air.
men.
The Moscow River curves along
the west side of the Kremlin and l
was later to orientate myself by 1t
when looked out of windows of a
building in the Kremlin, across the
river to the British Embassy on the
other side. The Borovitsky Gate,
which I was told to enter, is on the
northeast corner. Borovitsky means
forest. Once upon time the woods
came unbroken up to this entrance.
Driver Was Excited.
After he heard my address, the
driver was much too excited to pay
attention to traffic lights. The third
one we went through was right op-
posite the gate and we coasted up
a little ramp with several grim,
steel -helmeted policemen running
after us. My drivers instinct was
right. When they saw where we
were going they turned back to
their workaday traffic.
The gate is an arch in the wall
1t was not barricaded, but there
were five or six sentries about and
car was drawn up directly in our
path so that we had to stop abruptly
An officer ran up and opened the
door. I had mastered Soviet in
sigma and recognized him as a
major incidentally, I should not
say oficer, because the Russians
insist on this fine distinction: There
are no officers in their army, only
commanders The major was a
Russian commander. He had a
broad grin on his face. I noticed
that the sentries, too, were smiling
and that they were very young
boys. All the sentries in the Krem-
lin remember as very young and
scrubbed and smiling.
Ths major conveyed the idea that
he would 90 in the car that blocked
our way and that we were to follow
him. Off we went, up the ramp and
through the gate, picking up speed
rapidly and driving very fast. We
went along the south side of the
Kremlin inside the walls, past big
building whose blinds were all
drawn as for blackout, then turned
sharply into a labyrinth of streets
and little squares. remember pass
ing a monster cannon from the Ma
poleonic era. 1t had four cannon
balls stacked in front of it and each
must have been 3 feet across. I
have never seen any other cannon
balls so big We stopped suddenly
in a triangular little square with
prim flower garden in the middle of
1t. There was gif! postman walk
ing across the far side, unhurried.
Unimposing Entrance.
We stopped in front of half
dozen steps leading up to an en-
tranceway about AS imposing as
that of side-street apartment
house. But there was red carpeting
on the stairs leading to it and an
other major was coming down them
to meet me. got out and the
major who had brought me got out.
He saluted and we shook hands. In
Russia you shake hands both before
and after even the most routine
business. The second major sug-
gested I follow him.
Just inside the doorway, on the
right, was a small open-work auto
matte elevator We got into it and
my new major pressed button and
we went up to the second story.
Then I shared the experience am
bassadors had had before and de-
ecribed to me-of walking at break
neck, almost tripping, speed, down
more narrow, high-ceilinged corri-
dors than you can conceive of inside
any given building. At intervals
there were sentries, all smiling.
We passed a succession of closed
and unidentified doors, once came
oat past some high portiered win
oows where I saw the river, and
then doubled back again into the
interior of the building. I can't be
sure, but I think we ended not
many feet from where We came in,
having circled large structure. I
know was definitely out OF breath.
We went through the first open
door had seen, into a hall on the
other side of which were two other
open doors. One led to an Office
equipped with two desks and two
rather stout commanders. The
other opened into a neat waiting
room with a green bsize table, on
which there were cigarettes and
ash trays. Ny major exchanged
words with the other officers through
the door; I was popped into the
waiting room.
Joined by Civilian.
Almost instantly I was joined by
a small inconspicuous civilian who
said in English:
Mr.. Stain will see you in few
minutes. I will be your interpreter. "
I had time to light a cigarette and
say how pleased 1 was to be there
before one of the stout officers
opened the door and the little
Interpreter led the way out across
the Office, opening a door on the far
nde and motioning me in.
This door opened into a very long
room. Along the whole of one side
stretched a gray, baize-covered table,
perhaps 3 feet wide. Empty chairs
were neatly ranged along each side
of 1t with expectant ash trays at
intervals. This was on my left.
There was an unoccupied desk on
my right. The walls seemed very
bare and can only recall portrait
of Lenin and a montage of news