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

      

NEW YORK, Tuesday—The joint statement issued by our President and British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill was a very careful statement. But I think it is an encouraging one to all of us who hope for more concentration on how peaceful settlements are to be achieved and less concern about any retaliatory use of the H-bomb.

I am quite sure that, if we set our minds to devising ways to achieve the ends we desire through peaceful means, we will outwit the Soviets at their own game. At the moment, however, I sometimes think they do better than we by making it appear that they are more concerned with peace than we are.

I see that Sen. Pat McCarran of Nevada is afraid we will be too much under the influence of the British. I certainly do not want our leaders to be too much under any outside influence but, in the present case, I am anxious to see us work with the British to achieve peaceful solutions in Asia and in Europe.

I liked the news picture of Bernard Baruch and Sir Winston talking to each other. I am sure that everyone in this country wishes a good return trip to England for this elder statesman who, in spite of his age, crosses the Atlantic by air when he thinks the need is great.

On reading with care what transpired in the United Nations Security Council in regard to the fighting in Guatemala, I am inclined to think that the position taken by the United States was not very carefully thought through. It would imply that, if there are regional organizations of nations in various parts of the world, all controversial questions could be referred to those organizations and thus the United Nations would cease to be a forum of importance.

This seems to me a very unique position, since the Security Council was established to take up questions which reach a point where they seem to endanger the peace of the world. And when it does just that, it is of vast importance to all the nations to have this forum and the collective world opinion that it represents.

Sometimes I think national representatives, like individuals, are inclined to take the position that seems to give the easiest solution to a situation at the moment, without thinking of the precedent which their decision might create and which might do great harm in the long run.

They tell me that the United Nations headquarters this week is overrun with teachers, who are here for the annual convention of the National Education Association. I can think of nothing better than to have the teachers of the country fully familiar with U.N. activities and really enthusiastic over its achievements. I think much of the indifference toward the U.N. that we sometimes find in our country is due to the fact that people in general do not actually know that the U.N. is a force constantly at work to help us keep peace in the world.

E.R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1954, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, June 30, 1954

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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