Soviet Woman, 30 April 1965: 'Till We Meet Again' (delegasi KOWANI di Uni Soviet)

=== [PDF page 1] === We were happy to welcome our Indonesian friends at our edi torial office. They told us about their trip in our country and left the following message in "Soviet Woman's” Guest Book: "Dear Friends, “ Greetings to the staff of ‘ Soviet Woman’ magazine from the members of the Congress of Indonesian Women delegation who value highly your understanding of the Indonesian- women's struggle. May your magazine flourish I May the ties of our brother hood grow stronger.” They met in Moscow, at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses— Hurustlati Subandrio, President of KOW ANI (the Congress of Indonesian Women) (centre), Sldi Moehammad, Chairman of WAN I, and Makhferat Karimova, Deputy Chairman of the Coun cil of Ministers of the Tajik S S R (right). By N I N A VORONINA T IL L W E M E E T There were five of them— Basariah Simorangkir, Sidi Moehammad, Ani Boesiri, Ratjih Natawidjaja, Miml Soeparml—five well-known figures in the women's movement in Indonesia who had made the long trip to the Soviet Union in the severest month of the Russian winter. They were the first representatives of the various women's organizations affiliated to KOW ANI, the Congress of Indonesian Women, to come here. Also in Moscow for a few days at that time was Mrs. Hurustiati Subandrio, President of KOW ANI, and Deputy Minister of Health. I had the pleasure of accompanying our guests on their travels round our country—to Moscow, Riga, Leningrad, Dushanbe. These were the places they themselves had expressed a desire to visit. And when they met Makhferat Karimova, Deputy Chair man of the Council of Ministers of Tajikistan, at a concert given by leading artists of the Tajik Republic In the Moscow Palace of Congresses, they received her personal Invitation to visit the Republic. "I'll expect to see you in Dushanbe in two weeks' time," Makhferat Karimova told them. So there they were in Dushanbe. Once again they met Makhferat Karimova, who has long been known to Indonesian women. Quite recently she headed a delegation of Soviet women to the KOWANI Con gress in Indonesia. The days were so packed for the Indonesian vis itors that they commented: "W e can't keep up with your pacel" In only a few days they met students from the Tajik State University, looked round the clinics at the Medical Institute, visited the Firdousi National Library, the Textile Mills and the Lenin Boarding School, They also said they would like to visit a village, and were taken by car to the "Com 18 Here are Ani Boesiri, from the organization of wives of armymen, and Basariah Simorangkir, a member of the Presidium of KOW ANI and member of the leadership of the Christian women's organization, in Leningrad. munism" Collective Farm, where they were imme diately invited to have tea. The '.'tea-drinking" took more than three hours. Ratjih Natawidjaja, who was sitting next to me, whispered during an interval between the national soup "shurpo" and some won derful pilaffe: "For a moment I thought I was in my own home. We've so many customs and habits in common.” Almost before she'd finished her remark, the hospitable hostess drew Ratjih aside. And she, Sidi Moehammad and Ani Boesiri made a circle and performed Tajik as well as their own national dances. At a dinner given for the guests on their last evening in Dushanbe, Basariah Simorangkir told the assembled company: "No words are adequate to thank you for your hospitality. But you can be assured that if any of you come to Indonesia, the doors of any Indonesian home will be open to you. We are leaving Dushanbe greatly in your debt. Come to Indonesia and we shall be able to show you that our women, too, can be hospitable, warm-hearted and welcoming hostesses." And Sidi Moehammad summed up her impressions as follows: "W e have seen the tremendous fruits of the Revolution accomplished by the people under Lenin's leadership. They are visible everywhere. The people live very well. They are happy, and confident of their future." They said the same thing to the people of Riga: "W e have spent three days in your city. We have seen a lot and learnt a lot, and the main thing is that we have again been convinced of the Soviet people's friendly feelings for the people of Indo nesia. If you come to our country you will find many, many examples of our friendship and coopera tion. You will see the beautiful stadium in Djakarta, A G A IN the new highway to Kalimantan, the dam on the island of Sumatra, the oceanographic institute under construction on the Ambon Islan d... As a sign of our deep gratitude to you we wanted to bring with us a piece of our perpetually shining hot sun, but this is an extremely difficult thing to do, and we have brought instead our warm hearts." When the guests arrived in Leningrad they wanted to have a look at its history, even though it could only be a brief look. And at the Museum of the city's history they saw exhibits telling about those days of struggle in ^1917 and the time of the blockade in World War II. 'They also saw how Leningraders live today, visited the Red Banner Tricot Mill, the Wedding Palace and the Gorky Palace of Cul ture. They had many interesting meetings in Moscow. They were received by Nina Popova, Chairman of the Soviet Women's Committee, I. V. Spiridonov, Chairman of the Soviet of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, M. A. Prokofiev, Deputy Minister for Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, and Y. Prosvetova, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow City Soviet. For three weeks we accompanied our friends round the country and tried to make their stay here as fruitful and interesting as possible. W e are sure that this visit will mean a further strengthening of cooperation and friendly relations between the wom en of Indonesia and the Soviet Union, between the peoples of our countries. It is now many days since we took leave of you, dear guests from Indonesia. But we are sure that our acquaintanceship, our friendship, w ill continue to grow stronger. Till we meet again, dear friendsl