in times of disorder or days of peace has any
Government endeavoured to do more. I have
met scores of critics who condemn the Soviet
regime root and branch, but, when pressed,
even the most bitter critic is obliged to confess that within the narrow limits of their
means, and these are miserably small owing to
our infamous blockade and the subsidised
wars, the Bolsheviks, led by Lunacharsky the
Minister for Education, have done everything
possible to preserve the life of the children,
both mentally and physically.
It is the joyous gift of play these Russian children possess which from start to finish when meeting them captured my imagination. Whether looking at the weirdly dressed crowd of boys and girls which thronged round me on my arrival at Moscow in a vain endeavour to carry my bags, or standing, as occasionally I did, outside St. Saviour's Cathedral watching crowds of laughing, shouting children of all ages skating, toboganning or sliding, it was always the same. Want and suffering had not, could not quench their spirits or damp their ardour in striving to get joy out of life. Even the elder children who, on occasion, would be seen assisting the adults in snow-clearing, appeared to look on the task as something out of which amusement should be obtained.
In East London I have often seen children
