Evening star., 1955-07-31
BY FATHER
GEORGES BISSONETTE


NEW YORK, July 30.-By the
end of February, 1854, the great
drab metropolis which is Moscow
had become very distasteful to
me. A two-month bout with
jaundice made me wish fol
nothing SO much as a change OF
scenery.
A benevolent providence came
to my help. Adalberto Figarolo
di Gropello. the italian counse-
lor. was due to go back to Italy
inside a month. He wished to
avoid the endless round of fare
well lunches, cocktails and din
ners. So. one Sunday morning
after the noon mass, he had q
proposal.
do you think you could stand
d little tour of Central Asia?
Tashke1t, Samarkand, Bokhara
Khiva, Alma Alta 2"
Visions of gold domes looking
down on the eternal squalor OF
the East trotted through my
imagination, and secured per-
mission for the trip from the
provincial in New York. We
would fly to Tashkent, 1900
miles southeast of Moscow, via
"Aeroflot." the government
operated airline.
Plenty of Clothing
Our plane was a yellow-tailed
"Convair type" with seats for
1S. The heating system was out
of order and the temperature
inside the plane remained the
same as outside-20 degrees.
Our fellow passengers followed
the old Russian customs for
travelers-wear all the clothes
you own and, if it gets warm,
take of as many layers as nee
essary.
The hostess, a rather pretty
young girl from Tashkent (capi-
tai of Uzbekistan) wrapped our
feet in rugs, which was very nice
OF her, but a poor substitute for
regular heat. She then gave us
the better part of the thermos
OF tea she had, and told us to
try to sleep, as its easitr to "for-
get how cold you are, then"
Her good advice did not pre-
vent us from sleeping no more
than 10 minutes at a time be-
cause we were afraid of FROST
bitten feet if we ever went into
a sound sleep.
From about 5000 feet, every
thing below was devoid of any
life or vegetation, the snow at
least three feet deep. BY noon
the hostess brought in three
chess boards and invited us to
join in.
I did and played against what
seemed a bumbling old idiot but
was in fact, a canny old peasant
who grabbed off all my pieces
while entertaining me with
stories of his rheumatism.
Outmaneuvered at Chess
An old officer and a little fat
woman told the old man he was
taking advantage of my naivete
and did their best to warn me Of
impending disasters. But the OLD
boy was too much for even our
combined efforts and kept on
winning easily.
Tashkent is a very large city
The atlas Of the USSR gives 1t
more than a million inhabitants,
Three-fifths of it has been re-
built to resemble a provincial
Moscow but the rest is still the
way 1t has been for centuries.
We were to find out that the
''new CITY," despite it's greater
area, housed no more people
than the "old city"
We knew from the papers
that Tashkent was the Industrial
metropolis and communications
hub Of Central Asia. It might
be interesting here to note the
role that Tashkent PLAYED in
the Soviet policy toward Asians
1t is their showplace, an ex-
ample of what Soviet organiza-
ton can do for the peoples OF
Asia If they are willing to "hitch
their wagon to the Red Star"
Intourist, in the person o1
Markov, a man with a paralyzed
right arm and a crooked smile
took us in tow and parked us
at the TasEkent Hotel. Next
day we asked Markov to arrange
for us to visit the National Uni
versity, a cotton collective farm
and a champagne bottlins plant
His answer brought home to us
how direct Moscow's influence
was even this far, and in a
republic" supposedly as free as
the Ukrainian and White Rus
sian republics.
Helped by Guide
'T'm very sorry but permis-
sion to visit those institutions
must be obtained from the
ministries from which they de-
pend in Moscow" said Markov
We resolved to see the Mufti
and his Bureau for the Spiritual
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