HYDE PARK, N.Y—The news from the Middle East certainly is very discomforting and I doubt whether our President's plea to Egypt and Israel will have a great deal of influence. But it is good to know that at last the Administration is stirred to some action concerning the Middle East.

Both Egypt and Israel have pledged the United Nations that they will take no warlike action, but it seems somewhat warlike when an Egyptian jet plane flies so far over the Negev Desert that it is shot down on Israel's territory. Of course, one might say that it is normal to fly over a friendly area. But it certainly is not normal to fly over a country where the tension is as great as it is between Egypt and Israel and the result, almost inevitably, must be a battle.

I wish some of the present anxiety could have developed several years ago. I think then we would have had more of a chance of real accomplishment. But now I have a dreadful feeling that very little will be done unless Dr. Dag Hammarskjold proves a miracle conciliator and finally finds the formula which can start negotiations.

A clear-cut statement by Great Britain and the United States on their positions certainly would help in this Near East situation, and one can't help hoping that it will be forthcoming from both countries.

I think one of the most disturbing things that has happened in a long time is that curious episode of Anthony Eden's letter to the President which evidently was lost in the State Department.

I can remember a similar episode occurring once with my husband. It never occurred again!

I would think the President would make it completely clear that when a message is addressed to him by the Prime Minister of another country—or to the Secretary of State by the Prime Minister of another country—he wishes to see that message without delay.

A book about myself, with a great number of illustrations, has just been sent to me. It is entitled "The Story of Eleanor Roosevelt," and is written by Jeanette Eaton for young people.

I think Miss Eaton has done a very successful story for teenagers. She certainly has found photographs that I did not know existed. I think she must have combed the archives in the library of Hyde Park and everywhere else, for they begin with my earliest days and come down to very recent ones.

I had completely forgotten the photograph of me when I was five years old which the library seems to have preserved. And the thing that amuses me most about it is the absurd clothes that we wore as children.

I have thought some of this year's hats are ridiculous, but as I look at some of the hats I wore in previous years, I realize they were just as ridiculous. And even the way we did our hair then seems absurd at the present time.

Men have an easier time. Styles, in hair or in clothes, don't change so much for them!