1 By "Stroy"
Qualitatively and quantitatively, Shanghai is today second down the list of the centres of Russian emigration the world over. As regards the general welfare of its Russian community, Shanghai, where most Russians are employed in other than manual labour, even takes the first place away from Paris. But in one respect the Paris colony has the pull over the local one—the best brains and the flower of talent is still there. This has been proved again by the failure of the local community to exploit the medium of broadcasting as it was exploited in Paris, where on the first day of the New Year the voice of the famous journalist Lev Lubimov gave all France a picture of the life of Russian emigration during 1938. The broadcast was, of course, made in was French; in Shanghai it would have to be made in English.
So comprehensive was its information that it was listened to with interest not only by Frenchmen but by Russians themselves. Without going into politics, it can be said that Russians in emigration are proud of their country's past and believe in its future. They are before all else Russians, and in that thought find justification for their hard life in emigration. And in their overwhelming majority they place confidence in their ultimate return to their homeland.
"What rôle, then does Russian emigration play in the history of the country that gave birth to it? Again leaving out politics, it can be said that because the remnants of the White Army, when they left Russia, took with them the flower of Russian cultural circles, Russian culture today wields a considerable influence in France, in the whole of Europe—and in Shanghai. If there are 100,- 000 (Russians who have not adopted foreign citizenship living in Paris, is there are no less than 200,000 living in the Far East.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.