The other thing about the Soviet ig that there is no] certainty about your seats or sleeping berths for any Soviet} official just comes along and takes any berth he fancies. Quite 'a Tot of people who came up with me ey the boat and booked their berths for this date two months ago were told they could not have them as they were required for officials, and they have bren put four in second class compartment and not {ne penny of their 1st class has been refunded.. The train is an old Wagons Lits one, but it is dirtier than any Chinese train I have ever seen. The lavatories are dirty and horrible, and no towels, toilet paper er.'soap provided. There was no restaurant car on the train when it left Manchuli, and if it had not been for the parcel of food Mrs. provided we should have had no breakfast or tiffin yesterday, How-i bout 6 dinner and very good @ufs sur lo plat for breakfast this morning. The food is quite well cooked, but there are only two little Russians in greasy old stuff suits to serve about 50 people. They. neither of them speak a word of anything except Russian and as the menu is printed Russian characters; it is impossible to read it and one just has to take what one is given.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.