The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

[This column has emendations. View original version]

      

NEW YORK—The sudden announcement from Hungary that the December 16 date of the Secretary General's visit to that country would not be convenient was a very insulting way of treating the United Nations.

It is true that when there is no permanent police force set up in the U.N., a member nation wishing to defy a decision of that organization can do so with little fear of reprisals. I have letters, for instance, from people demanding to know why the U.N. does not take immediate police action against Hungary.

The answer is that Hungary is a sovereign member state and that the regular government of Hungary, which was asking for aid from the U.N. and the world, was ousted by a puppet government.

We forget that Soviet troops have been in Hungary ever since World War II. They are the ones who overthrew the government the Hungarian people wanted and set up the puppet government, but the puppets at once invited the Soviets to take action to restore order.

That is how the Soviet Union is able to say this is a domestic question in which it is acting at the request of the government of Hungary.

The free nations of the world have no desire to go to war, either with the Soviet Government or with Hungary, but they wish to protect the people of Hungary from murder and further hardships.

Letters to me say that resolutions and debating in the U.N. are of little value. I do not think this is true, because if the world can be brought to feel that it is proper to apply sanctions—even to the point of bringing the combined economic and moral might of the world to bear in the present situation in Hungary—I think both the Hungarians and the Soviet Union will begin to see the light and to comply with world public opinion.

Little has been said about the plight of the Jews in every country ruled by terror, but it now becomes evident that this again is a time when the Jewish people are in greater danger than the nationals of the country in which they find themselves.

This is true in Hungary and it is true in Egypt. One of the most compelling reasons for the existence of Israel is the fact that it is the only sure haven for the Jewish people. In troubled times, when they are the first to suffer, it is essential for them to have their own country of refuge.

An interesting publication has just come to me. It is "The Ladies' Home Journal Treasury," edited by John Mason Brown and the editors of the Ladies Home Journal.

It contains material, chosen from 73 years of the Journal's existence, and includes the best stories, articles and poems. I am sure it will be a joy to have in anyone's library.

There is another book called "Give Us This Day," by Sidney Stewart, which I think everyone will find of deep interest and well worth reading.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1956, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • New York (N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, December 7, 1956

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ISNI ]
  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]

Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

XML master last modified on June 9, 2017.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
TMs, AERP, FDRL