1936 On the Continent

and throughout the Old Kingdom (pre-War Roumania). The Bucovina and the Dobrudja, the territory between the Bulgarian border and the Black Sea, also have their local specialities.
    On the whole it may be said that the food in Roumania is bound to tickle the palate of the English and American traveller, and no unpleasant surprises need be feared.
    As we have said, Roumania is the country for the adventurous tourist who enjoys the thrill of new discoveries.
    We may add that the English tourist may easily make his visit to Roumania pay. Wonderful laces and embroideries, wooden statuettes, ceramics of quaint design can be picked up in any town, and in practically any village, at low prices, while if the tourist cares to visit one of the many artists’ colonies in Transylvania he may purchase really good pictures by talented artists for a few shillings. One of these colonies is at Baia Mare, near the town of Satu Mare.
Sport
    Football matches are held every Sunday in every town in Roumania, and the teams are sometimes quite good, even according to English standards.
    There is also a tennis club in every town, to which the English visitor will be welcomed with open arms.
    Fishing may be indulged in in all parts of Roumania, as there are many hundreds of rivers and lakes, great and small, where fish of various species abound. No special licence or permit is required.
    The most exciting Roumanian sport is undoubtedly bear hunting in the Carpathians. The local method is for the hunter to go out armed with nothing but a hunting knife and pit his strength and skill against the bear. The actual struggle looks remarkably like a boxing match, except that there is no referee and the combatants do not shake hands before the commencement of the match. However, the foreign visitor is not expected to follow the example of the local hunters and he may arm himself with a rifle.
    Deer stalking is another sport for which there are ample opportunities in Roumania.
    In the winter your assistance in hunting the wolf will be greatly appreciated.
Perpetual Hospitality
    There are no clubs or associations in connection with hunting, but you can easily find out, in any Roumanian town, the name of the local celebrity who organises hunting parties. It will probably be a big landowner owning a few thousand acres of forest land, in addition to thousands of acres of farm land. If you approach him he will not only include you in his next hunting expedition, but will also try to keep you as a perpetual guest at his mansion.

U.S.S.R
by
HUBERT GRIFFITH
    TABLE OF CONTENTS

U.S.S.R
The Russian Adventure
    E IGHT or nine years ago, to go to the U.S.S.R., the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—to be called hereinafter by the simpler word “Russia”—was an adventure of the utmost difficulty.
    There must have been many of the more adventurousminded people in England who, after the end of the War and up to 1928, would have liked to have taken their holidays there, or at least made a short trip there, “to have a look for themselves.”
    Everything that we heard about Russia in those days came to us through a mist of distortion and rumour. Lenin, whom most people in England heard of for the first time in 1917, was thought to be a passing adventurer who would probably fall from power in a few months. (I have myself heard this opinion from one of the most distinguished of English generals of the time.) Then it appeared that after a few more years Lenin was still there, at the head of his Soviet Government.
    Later, again, his place was taken by Stalin, a figure equally mysterious to us. He too seemed, at the end of more years, to be equally firmly seated in the saddle. Through all this time almost all the newspapers of almost all other countries of the world were prophesying the immediate downfall of the new form of government in Russia. They prophesied it, on an average, once in three months with regularity. As late as 1933 the editor of a great London newspaper uttered these notable words personally to me: “In a month’s time from now Russia will be on her knees to the rest of Europe. …”
    But what must have struck the ordinary man in the street (as opposed to great editors and great generals) as so funny—was that Russia, like a threatened man, seemed to be living long. The downfall was predicted from day to day. But the New Experiment in Russia seemed to be continuing in spite of all that was rumoured about it—and even, as far as unprejudiced