THE EMBASSIES IN WARSAW

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5296, 8 January 1947, Page 3

THE EMBASSIES IN WARSAW

MODEST AMERICANS RUSSIANS OCCUPY SUMPTUOUS APARTMENTS Warsaw War-ruined Poland has a housing problem worse than that in the United States, but Americans here appear to have far less in living aecommodation and working spaee than the diplomats and service staifs of the embassies and ccnsulates of Russia, Great Britain and France. Probably the most beautifully furnished Embassy in all Europe to-day is that of the Russians in Warsaw. The smallest and probably the niost handicapped for space is that of the United States. The Russians work and live in a grayish, ceme'nt-'blocked five-story apartment building with broad connecting wings containing from 30 to 40 apartments of two to five rooms each. Inside these apartments and the Embassy reception rooxn, there is a splurge of deep red rugs and carpets, expensive crystal chandeliers, valuable paintings, handsome desks, comfortable chairs and beds.

The Soviet Ambassador, Wiktor Z. Lebiedieff, and his entire staff live and work there. His Embassy and that of the United States are projba'bly the two busiest out of 18 nations now accredited to the provisional Warsaw regime. The Russians were first to get Embassy quarters in Warsaw, and no time was lost in reconstructing the war-damaged apartment. The American Ambassador, Arthur Bliss Lane, maintains an office in the Hotel Polonia, where most of the American staff also lives, although the steady influx of personnel has f'orced some out to country districts and into living in what resembles an American wartime "Quonset hut'1 or barrack-like structure. Embassy offices are scattered in a building at what is known as 17 Emilia Plater, not far from the Polonia and in Piusa XI Street. They also serve for some consular activities. Mr. Lane's quarters consist of one living -room about the size of ti at in an average American home, one bedroom, a bath and two little rooms used by his secretary and others of the Embassy staff. The Ambassador has long tried to get quarters for the Embassy in cne large building, and a home for himself and Mrs. Lane, but things move slowly in Warsaw. Most of the Embassy staff in the Polonia live in rooms without bathing facilities. The Polonia, in its 1 eyday, apparently never was a firstclass hotel and it doesn't have much to offer after being patched up following a lcng Gestapo occupation and receiving a few shell holes. The Polonia recently blossomed into a general cookhouse. Americans are doing a lot of eating out of cans and prepaiing their own food. The official and only safely obtainable rate of exchange is 100 Polish zlotys to the dollar and it costs about 1,000 (10 dollars), for a meal in a Warsaw restaurant. The British Ambassador, Victor Cavendish-Bentinck, has his own re•cAnstructed, handsomely furnished villa iii^one cf Warsaw's semiruined streets. His entire Embassy staff is moving to the large, rambling building once occupied by the Rumanian Legation, not far from President Bierut's Belvedere Palace. The Frdpch Ambassador, Roger Garreau, and most of his staff are comi'ortably established in a large building in the suburban Sakakepa area. The Yugoslav Ambassadoi', Bozc- Ljumovic, also maintains offices there. Praetically all other legations or embassies are temporarily quartered in the Polonia, although the Italian Ambassador, "Eugenio Reale, and the Swedish Minister, Claes Westring, have found quarters elsewhere. Many factors enter into this picture of contrast in diplomatic housing in Poland. Poles often ask, "Why can't the richest nation in the world allow its diplomatic and consular staffs enough money to get quartdrs hefitting American prestige."