If, as seems probable, Field-Marshal Montgomery is taken by his
hosts to visit the Red Army Museum in Moscow I expect he will find the exhibits both more various and more impressive than they were when I looked in there in the early '30's. In those-days the Red Army had comparatively few campaigns to its credit, and of these most had been waged against Russians on Russian soil. The trophies were arranged in alcoves in a long room. Of the Civil War relics I remember chiefly some objects which looked like frail and wizened gloves: as well they might, for they were the skin flayed (allegedly) from the hands of Red prisoners cap- tured by the Whites. But there was one alcove devoted to a foreign campaign, albeit one of great obscurity. This had taken place in (I think) 1929, when a small Russian force entered North- Western Manchuria to intervene in one of the half-hearted civil wars which the warlords of those days arranged from time to time, much as we arrange Test Matches, only with less acrimony. This campaign was sparsely commemorated by a few Chinese banners, rifles,.lances and swords. To eke out this modest display a number of photo- graphs had been hung on the walls. Among them I noticed one of an English crowd. The crowd was a dense one, and in the background, over their heads, could be seen placards and slogans and men gesticu- lating in the manner of orators. Puzzled, I asked what was the con- nection between this animated scene and the Red Army's triumphs in Manchuria. " That picture," said the attendant, " shows the British proletariat demonstrating their sympathy for the intervention of the Soviet forces in North-West Manchuria." Looking more closely at the picture, I saw that the attendant was in error. The picture showed the bookmakers' ring at Epsom.
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