1936 On the Continent

that his only remaining link with Western European civilisation is the inscription “Paris-Berlin-Riga” on the sleeping-car. He thinks that now that he is nearing the barbaric Sarmatian plains he must say farewell to comfort and civilisation for a long time.
    However, ere long he is bound to realise his error, for as soon as he reaches the frontier station at Meiten he will find that the customs and immigration officials are able to talk to the travellers in Western languages and have excellent manners. Also, the imposing station building will convince him that he is entering a civilised country, and he will be strengthened in this conviction as the train penetrates the lowlands of the Latvian province of Zemgale. Here the attractive farmsteads and the well-tended fields and woods reflect a high standard ofagricultural civilisation. This impression is confirmed by the public buildings and schools which the traveller will see here and there, set in lovely parks or orchards, and by the dense motor traffic passing and repassing along the well-kept road that runs parallel with the railway track.
    It is not my purpose in this brief essay to enlarge on the political and economic condition of Latvia; all I propose to do is to call your attention to a country and a people that may justly claim your interest.
Lovely Scenery
    In regard to landscape and scenery Latvia offers a great deal of variety. Particularly lovely is the province of Largale, “the province of a thousand lakes,” where blue lakes set among wooded hills will be found at every turn. Some of these lakes are of considerable extent. Scenery of idyllic beauty will be found in the provinces of Vidzeme and Kurzeme. There is, in particular, the Valley of the Gauja, from Sigulda to Cesis, known as “little Switzerland,” though there are no tall mountains here, but only the cliffs on the banks of the Gauja and a few modest hills. But the cliffs and hills are densely covered with pine and fir, while the heights are crowned with the ruins of castles round which many battles were fought in the course of the centuries.
    The Letts are ethnologically closely related to the Lithuanians and also to the now extinct Old Prussians. Up till eighty years ago they were in close cultural and economic dependence on the Germans, who at that time constituted the governing class in the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire. But to-day the Lett peasant is a free yeoman. There is also a well-to-do middle class, while Latvia’s cultural independence is represented by a number of eminent scholars and artists of European reputation. In 1918, when its hour of destiny struck, the Lettish people took their fate into their own hands, creating out of the chaos left by the world war a well-ordered State, which is now completely consolidated both politically and economically. Naturally, before the present autoritarian system of government under the Prime Minister, Dr. K. Ulmanis, was arrived at, the new State, in commonwith other countries, passed through a period of ultrademocratic development with all its well-known errors.
    Riga, the capital of Latvia, in its old part bears the impress of the old coastal commerical cities. The narrow, zigzag streets and the architecture of the buildings that have survived from former centuries, as well as the churches and the public buildings, such as the beautiful offices of the Black Head Company (a medieval commerical club with a patron saint) and other buildings with imposing portals, are evidence not only of the age of the city but also of its prosperity. In the old part of Riga the visitor will be interested in the thirteenth-century Dome, the church of St. Peter with its wooden steeple, which is one of the tallest in Europe, the remnants of the ancient fortifications, and the medieval castle which is now the residence of the President of the Republic. This ancient core of the city is surrounded by the pride of Riga, the “green belt” that completely separates the old part from the entirely modern suburbs. It is here that the colossal obelisk commemorating the liberation of Latvia stands, an expression of Latvian art and patriotism.
    Some parts of the city are built on garden city lines, as for instance the Mezapark, an extensive group of villas situated near a lovely lake. The factories and working-class districts form a wide circle round the city.
Hotels
    Riga has a large number of comfortable hotels. There are also excellent restaurants and