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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 14, No. 1. February 28, 1951

Russia Through Rhodes-Coloured Spectacles

page 3

Russia Through Rhodes-Coloured Spectacles

Hwinston Rhodes, back from leave of absence from his position at Canterbury College, recently toured New Zealand, telling of "Russia as I Saw It." Tall, wavy-haired, and looking younger than his 45 years, Prof Rhodes turned on a really attractive (but on reflection, superficial) address to 200 or more at Lower Hutt (where this writer heard him).

The audience was held interested for round two hours of a recital of human and vivid descriptions of what Prof Rhodes and his wife saw in Russia. At the end of the talk the chairman (Mr. Ferguson of the Wellington District Peace Council) exhorted his audience to sign up for the Stockholm Appeal to ban the atom bomb, and also asked for funds. Winston Rhodes was introduced as Professor, which is the usual courtesy title like Colonel for Lieutenant-Colonel. Later in his speech he referred to the universal modesty and frankness of all important people he met in Russia, contrasting them with the self-importance of many distinguished figures he spoke to in other countries. Without intending discourtesy towards the speaker, this writer thought the "Professor" a good deal overdone by the Chairman, who detailed how a Professor got a small salary, did not make any money out of an unpopular subject like Russia, etc., and suggests that a little aside from Winston Rhodes that he was, after all, an Associate Professor, would have helped his plea for modesty in others, besides making his salary smaller still.

An impartial account of what he saw was promised; the visional defect heads this article. Professor Rhodes prime reason for visiting Russia was to study the conditions and problems of writers. Because of currency restrictions, travellers from England found it hard to travel to Russia on the £50 then allowed, so the only practical way to get to Russia was to wangle an invitation from a body there which would provide a free tour. The Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries gave Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes a 3-weeks' trip (with an interpreter-guide), but it was not a conducted tour. They said what they wanted to see, and they saw it. But on occasions the Russians encouraged them to see the best. Going out to a collective farm, they asked: "Is there none nearer?" There was, but the one further out was better, and why not see a good one? Rather naive, it seemed.

Among the human pictures was that of their arrival, weary, lonely and uncertain, in Brest-Litovsk. "Brest-Litovsk, as some of you will remember, is a town famous in History." This little escape from the lecture-room phrase-book tickled the fancy of this writer, looking at the not-very remembering faces of the audience. (Snob.)

[unclear: Crecies] and tractor-factories apparently alternate across the Russian lanscape. (Remember the Take-It-From-Here" gag about thousands of flaming Christmas puddings in England? "In Russia we do not have Christmas, we have thousands of flaming tractors.")

The Stalingrad tractor factory had overfulfilled the Plan, and had a Creche and a Palace of Rest and Culture, three storeys high, for recreation. This apparently makes the proposed Student Union Building look poor—perhaps the title is worth copying. One questioner wanted to know, with workers living in shacks and dugouts, how such a luxury building could be justified. Prof Rhodes gave a very fair and reasonable answer—that a place like this was the only sort of let-out which made life bearable, compared with New Zealand where we had several rooms for family life.

Another question of dissatisfaction with housing brought a contradictory reply—that new housing progressed so fast that there was no grumbling. Bearing in mind the small annual increment of housing compared with the existing stock of houses, it seemed unreal to say that new housing was so widespread that each was satisfied with his lot.

"Who's Who" lists Professor Rhodes as an opponent of conscription. He had emphasised the freedom of criticism in Russia, and was asked, bearing his background in mind, what conversations and criticisms did he have about conscription in Russia? The question, familier to VUC in the WFDY controversy, was apparently not new to Winston Rhodes. He explained his attitude to conscription (which arose from an Australian background and which was not questioned) and the Russian attitude (which was to take conscription for two years for granted) and that really the question just didn't arise! This intellectual cartwheel at least tells us that Prof Rhodes, while opposing conscription in New Zealand, does not oppose it in Russia, and did not try to convert them. Nevertheless, he urged his audience to sign the Stockholm Appeal (20,000 signatures in N.Z. versus 115,000,000 in the U.S.S.R.) because it was most important that People (distinct from governments) should do their bit for peace. in the midst of 2-year conscription. Prof Rhodes found everyone wanting peace, and a marked absence of war hysteria which contrasted with the West.

This article does not attempt to cover a lot of human interest of the talk—it is an attempt to analyse his story, and to try to find out why visitors to Russia express such divergent views.

Peace—it's wonderful.

—A.W.C.