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

      

HYDE PARK—It was of deep interest to me to note that Great Britain is changing its age-old rules in the House of Lords, and that the Queen has named a number of women as peers to sit in this august body.

I was especially pleased to see that the Dowager Marchioness of Reading was among the first women named. She has done excellent service for her country. A believer in voluntary service, she organized the Women's Voluntary Services of Great Britain before World War II. The record of those war years has no finer pages than the achievements of these women, and without the leadership of Stella Reading this could never have been accomplished.

Even more remarkable is the fact that she has been able to carry over into peacetime this spirit of service, so that the nation's women have been anxious to do as much in the less interesting but most important period that followed the war. They have been entrusted by the government with many important projects and have carried them out as trained professionals, proving that volunteers can be as faithful and dependable, and can accomplish as good work, as trained professionals.

I have been wondering how you can characterize the type of radio broadcast recently made by Nasser to the people of the countries around Iraq. To an outsider it seems like incitement to murder, and that has never been considered a peaceful way to settle difficulties between or within nations.

I see that the United States would like to include all aspects of the Middle East question in the summit talks, and I hope that at some point there may be a discussion about the possibility, wherever there is trouble within a nation, of establishing the right to a supervised election under the United Nations, with the people using a secret ballot. This is the only way I can see of granting the people any kind of assurance that they can vote freely and without fear of retaliation. Woodrow Wilson called revolution a "sacred right of the people," but it may well be that the time has come to try and eliminate violence on every level.

Sometimes, of course, there may be no other way open even when there is a genuine feeling among the majority of the people that they must change their government. Then, if it cannot be done peacefully, we must allow for the "sacred right of revolution." But I hope with all my heart that peaceful ways can be found to meet an ever increasing number of situations.

Last week I went to see the movie, "Gigi," which stars Maurice Chevalier. He is a charming artist and in this play he certainly gives a delightful performance. In addition, the scenes of Paris are beautiful. The period portrayed was one in which men's and women's clothes and styles were considerably more interesting than they are today. On the other hand, they were far less comfortable. If styles have any effect on character, these styles may have had an effect on the habits and customs of the day.

E.R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1958, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
Geographic
  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, July 29, 1958

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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