Eleanor Roosevelt – My Day (1942)

243

October 9, 1942

New York – (Thursday)
In addition to the two books of which I told you yesterday, I want to mention a novel called The Stranger by Lillian Bos Ross. A friend of hers, who is also a friend of mine, sent it to me. With it was a note from the author, from which I want to quote a few lines:

We Americans inherit stout boot straps, can pull ourselves up to victory. I was a homesteader’s child, seventeen trail miles from the nearest log school. I didn’t get to school, but I never gave up the idea that someday I would write books. This first book is my personal victory, and in troubled times, any victory is good.

The story is laid in the very early California days and deals with the people who made good in the mountainous country of the Big Sur along that coast. It is coarse in spots, sometimes the attitude of the man towards his woman is almost unbelievable. Nevertheless, as a novel and as a character study, it holds your interest and carries a thread of inspiration all through it, which should be good for us in these days.

My trip back across the continent was pleasant. An attractive woman sat in the seat next to me. She told me her boys were both off to the war and she had begun concert singing again. Some years ago, she thought her voice was lost, but now it has suddenly come back and she is taking lessons and hopes to have a recital in New York City before long. I could not help thinking what a blessing it was that Providence had given her this work to do, just as her boys were leaving her.

As I think over my short trip, the thing which stays with me is the quality of courage of the men who can fight an enemy and then fight weeks of illness and weakness afterwards, and still smile.

Secondly, I was impressed by the sudden recognition of the importance of women. I hardly saw a man who did not speak to me about the need for women at work in production. I still feel that women owe, first of all, a duty to their families. If they can so arrange their lives as to add an eight-hour job in a factory, then they should, and we should take our hats off to them.

In large part, it will have to be younger women who do this. Their children will be in the very young and adolescent groups, a serious responsibility for the communities. Community services for them must be organized so that the women will not be overworked and the children will be cared for. But, more of this tomorrow.

244

October 10, 1942

New York – (Friday)
If women work, communities must consider the young children. They can be cared for in day nurseries and nursery schools, but these must be organized and a trained person must be in charge at all times. They will probably have to run 24 hours a day, since women will be on varying shifts.

This will mean providing places where children can sleep comfortably if they cannot be left at home. There must be a housekeeper’s service, such as that organized by WPA, which mothers can call upon when there are sick children at home and the mothers have to go to work.

Transportation to and from schools for older children must be planned, and recreation for all ages is vital. Schools will have to become the homes of the community during the hours when the mothers are away from home.

We have already, as was pointed out in New York City by Justice Justine Polier’s interesting articles, a rising juvenile delinquency problem in many places. This problem can best be met by the organization of recreation for out of school hours, and it should be planned for young people who work on a part time or full time basis, as well as for students.

These young people have more money than they have ever had before and unless they are trained to use that money wisely, to invest some of it for their own future needs, as well as for the good of the country, we shall find young people indulging in very harmful activities.

There is, in addition, a health problem to be considered. Careful supervision of the children, young people and the women at work is necessary. This can be no longer left to the individual families, but must be organized on a community basis.

If a woman puts in a full day’s work, what is left of her energy must be given to her family in personal contact and not in drudgery. Therefore, family restaurants will have to be organized as they have been abroad. Here good food may be obtained for entire families at the same price as they would pay for food at home.

If we wish to preserve the family gathering around a home table once a day, the woman must be able to order the food she wishes for the evening meal, all packed in containers ready to put on the table. Community laundries also seem essential.

Here is an outline of the community problems. Every community will vary, but these seem to me the essential services to be considered now.

245

October 12, 1942

Washington – (Sunday)
Yesterday afternoon I attended the dedication of a new servicemen’s center here in Washington. The building was obtained and remodeled in the short period of 28 days. The donor achieved this miracle of rapid work by cooperation with labor and by using ingenuity in the use of non-essential materials. They have created a delightful atmosphere.

Mr. Walter S. Mack Jr., who entered the last war as a second class seaman, has provided for the men in this war the things he knows from experience are desirable. There is a place where the men may wash up and shave, a place to receive telephone messages and check belongings, a lounge room, desks, stationery, plenty of magazines and a canteen.

The place is run under the auspices of the War Hospitality Committee. Last evening I was told that the rooms were crowded, and I am sure the canteen will have the same success enjoyed by the one in New York City.

A very charming British woman, Chief Controller Knox, and her aide, Chief Commander Gowers, arrived from Canada yesterday to spend two nights with us at the White House. I gave a tea to which the Cabinet wives and members of our own women’s military services, headed by Mrs. Hobby of the WAACs and Miss McAfee of the WAVES were invited.

This was the first time I had had an opportunity to see any considerable number of our new ladies in uniform gathered together. I was impressed with their smartness and the earnestness with which they were going about their work.

Last evening afforded us an opportunity to talk to Chief Controller Knox, who told us something of her corps and how they have met each new demand placed upon them by the British armed services. Besides the necessary military training and work which they do, a very wide educational program is carried on with the object of preparing women for their obligations in the after-war period.

If any of our people over here are afraid that participation in military work will make our women less feminine, I wish they could have an opportunity to talk to these British women. They are just as feminine as possible and the rules under which they work show an appreciation of the differences which must always exist between men and women.

Though the percentage of the married women in the corps is very low, still if a husband obtains leave, his wife is also given leave. Consideration is given to family and other personal reasons for obtaining leave without the delay of unwinding the usual red tape.

246

October 13, 1942

Washington – (Monday)
Yesterday afternoon, I gave a small tea for Mrs. Edward J. Flynn, the wife of the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who was spending a few days here with her husband. I only asked a very few of her own friends, some of the women working in executive government positions and the wives of government officials.

It was an interesting group and we very much enjoyed the opportunity of seeing each other and talking together. In these days, when there is so much less purely social activity, it is strange how much one values opportunities of this kind to see a few people one thinks about, but rarely sees.

Last night I had a very pleasant, small birthday dinner. One can only hope as the years go on that they add wisdom. The great obligation of older people is to gain in the understanding of the world in which they live and to maintain a freedom from all types of fears to which youth is an easy prey.

Really to serve well, age should free one from false values. It should make it easy to cling to the essentials and to make one more aware of the joys of life, because the time is shorter and there is more urgency to live abundantly.

Lady Simon is coming to lunch with me today. She and her husband have been among the real adventurers in the housing field and she has been over here lecturing. I am most anxious to learn of her impressions in this country.

At the present moment, I am deeply concerned by the fact that here, in Washington, and in every other city where war industries have brought a great influx of people, that there are being created slums of a new kind. People are living under appalling conditions, not because they have no money, but because there are simply no decent accommodations for them. In practically every West Coast city which I visited, these congested conditions existed. There were pictures in the Seattle, Washington, paper which showed distressing conditions.

Mr. Carl Sandburg pointed out in a recent article that slums create a problem for the community, and that the community pays a high price for allowing them to exist. This is one of our war problems of which we are not aware at the present time. I am glad of the opportunity to talk to Lady Simon to find out what greater experience has taught Great Britain.

247

October 14, 1942

New York – (Tuesday)
I received a letter written by an older woman to a young friend, a student studying philosophy who has entered the Armed Forces. It so well expresses what many of us would like to say to young people today, but have not said so well, that I am giving an essential part of it to you here:

Dear…
I want to be one of the first of your friends to write to you. I am one of the citizens of this world who really believe in the debt all of us owe to our young men who have gone into the Service of Democracy. These two words when linked have a great meaning. As dreadful as this war is, this war does link those words, Service and Democracy, and in so doing creates a service of such grandeur that we who recognize it, cannot be overwhelmed with the sorrow which war usually evokes.

I know that the period before this war was one of bafflement for most of our young men. It was an era of great material development, in which was not included any way for the development of the spiritual needs of humanity. Those of our youth who were highly intellectual, among whom I count you, worked out a philosophy for themselves as best they could with the help of the older philosophers.

But I do not believe these satisfied the younger philosophers, for somehow the machine age, in its harsh cold splendor, was not serving humanity, (as we now know, but it was leading it to war), and youth felt this and could not be satisfied. The machine was too big – too hideously unwieldy – no minority could handle it, to turn it into humanitarian paths. So, there was no way to serve, no way to be served by it.

But to use it to save democracy – that is a vast service, provided we can see (as we do when we look at it thoughtfully) that automatically democracy will be increased enormously all over the world as a result of this vast struggle in its name. In its name – we must not forget this propaganda value. A more enlightened democracy, with modern machines in its service, is something we can believe in as the inevitable aftermath of this most terrible of all wars.

So you see, we who stay at home and think of it feel an increasing gratitude toward the legions of our warriors in this war of such far-reaching emancipation. It is this gratitude which I want to make real to you – for it is a wider, deeper thing than my lifelong affection for this beautiful little boy who walked at my side through the green paths of Hampstead Heath in England, and who later tugged so valiantly as a college youth to establish a social-political group to study and plan a way to meet the problems he saw ahead (those problems which no man nor small group could solve, and which have landed the world in war).

There are still cynical people – selfish, thoughtless, even malignant. But before this thing is over, even these will have learned many lessons, and one of these lessons will be that they had no right to ask the youth of this world to fight, to offer life itself, for anything less than a world emancipated from their selfishness, thoughtlessness and meanness.

248

October 15, 1942

Washington – (Wednesday)
I went up to New York City on Monday afternoon to attend a meeting and to see one or two people. My evening was a joy because Martha Gellhorn Hemingway, just returned from the Caribbean, was in New York City and came to dinner with me.

She was full of vivid impressions and interesting, as always, about what she had seen. The pleasure of seeing a friend whom you love after a long separation is particularly satisfactory now, when all of life seems precarious and the urgency for moments of happiness greater than ever.

Yesterday morning, I took the 9:00 train to Saybrook, Connecticut, where Miss Esther Lape met me. As in all small places, news travels fast and I was given a very warm welcome by a gentleman at the station. When Miss Lape brought me back in the afternoon to take the train which goes straight through to Washington, she evidently knew where I was going and on what train.

It is always a joy to see Miss Lape and Miss Read. In addition, the country in beautiful autumn colors was alluring. The air was soft and the gentle breeze seemed to whisper:

Stay with me now for soon I shall forget my gentleness and bring you boisterous winter winds.

The China Aid Council, which has joined with the American Committee for Chinese War Orphans, has just sent me a little booklet about the children of China. Long years of war mean thousands of war orphans and child refugees. The cost of living has gone up very much in China. Even though they are under Madame Chiang’s protection and in schools organized by Madame Sun Yat-sen, her sister, it is difficult to raise enough money for decent shelter, food and clothing. In many places, we are being asked to go without meat two days a week. The children of China go without it for days on end.

The first effort is to make these children healthy for the future. Many of them will have to undergo long periods of medical treatment and will have to build up with nutritious food. Their education is not neglected, so they ought to become good citizens of the world of the future, if we are able to help in their present support. One particularly difficult problem is the children of the northwest guerrilla territories, where constant warfare goes on.

249

October 16, 1942

Washington – (Thursday)
Yesterday morning I had a press conference, then a few people came to lunch. In the afternoon, the Chinese Ambassador and Madame Wei came to see me for the first time. I asked them as much as I could about the conditions of the children in China. They have not been home for eight months and in that time, of course, where a country has been at war so long, there must be very great changes.

In the evening, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hawkins, from Nevada, were with us. I invited Dean James Landis and Mr. Philip Bastedo, from the Office of Civilian Defense. Three young Vassar girls also came to dine.

These girls tried a very interesting experiment on leaving college. They made up their minds that all their friends were trying to go to work in Washington, so instead of doing that, they picked out a community which they did not know at all, to see if they could do some work to arouse it to its own responsibility in this war.

They went to Clarion, Iowa, and established a day school for children during the summer months. The place was not big and so they soon made friends and came to know almost everyone there. They received advice from the state college and, after a few weeks, started an overall plan for civilian participation in the war effort.

Now they are back, and most anxious to see their pattern tried in other places and to work on it themselves as their contribution to the war effort. It seems to me that they have been enterprising and far-seeing, because in planning to use this organization for the present, they are laying the foundation for postwar activities on an intelligent basis.

The other day I talked at length with the head of the programs in New Hampshire for handicapped people. It is ahead of most states, because New Hampshire has already been thinking on how it can adjust its instruction to fit these people to do work of value in this war period. It is perfectly obvious that all handicapped people cannot find an occupation along war lines, but with ingenuity it is extraordinary what can be done.

I was impressed by seeing a man on crutches working in the Chrysler plant in Detroit. I have been told that Mr. Henry Ford in his plants, finds a percentage of occupations in which he can use the blind and the deaf, as well as crippled people. I suppose that the Government will plan, as they did in the last war, to teach every wounded man who cannot go back into service, some trade suited to his particular handicap.

Unless our industrialists awaken to the realization that they have to study their industry to find the right places for these people and to cooperate with those teaching them, we shall have a great many unemployed in the future.

250

October 17, 1942

Washington – (Friday)
Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of seeing Mrs. George L. Carpenter, wife of the head of the International Salvation Army. She has a most beautiful, calm and peaceful face. When someone present asked her if she had seen the film Mrs. Miniver, she smiled in the gentlest way and said she rarely had time for anything except her work.

I suggested that the Salvation Army’s work had been pretty strenuous and that, even though she and her husband could not travel to all the countries they usually covered, there must still be a great deal to do and a little relaxation now and then must be necessary. Again she smiled and said:

We love nature, we take a walk, or we read a book. A weekend in the country is as much vacation as we ever need. It is true that we are cut off from many places we ordinarily visit, but we have been in Switzerland and now I am travelling over here.

I feel that Mrs. Carpenter has probably nearly won whatever battles over ourselves we are put in this world to win. Therefore, she neither needs nor cares about things which seem most important to the rest of us, who are just ordinary mortals.

Mrs. Joseph C. Grew, wife of our ex-Ambassador to Japan, and her daughter, Mrs. Cecil Lyon, also came in to see me. Mrs. Grew told me she was only just beginning to recover from the strain that they had been through before returning to this country.

I had expected to go to New York City last night on the night train, and to go out to see my cousin, Mrs. Henry Parish, today. However, a curious thing, which they tell me is lumbago, or something similar, attacked a spot in my back and I decided I had better get over it quickly and stay at home. I’ve spent today doing mail and dictating those “messages” which people are always asking me to write.

I always wonder when I find a day like this, which I did not expect to have free, what would have happened if I had not been at home. As far as I can see, one never has any more free time than on a day filled with the usual occupations.

I have just heard of an interesting piece of work which is being carried on by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, called “The Overseas Canteen Service.” The organization has been granted cargo space on convoy vessels. They buy and ship in bond, and the goods they send are distributed free to the boys overseas. Their shipments go to the Army, Navy and Marine Corps.

251

October 19, 1942

Washington – (Sunday)
Saturday afternoon I went to make a recording which is to be part of one of the Treasury programs. It will be an interesting program with messages from various women in different parts of the world. Most of them, however, were not available to speak for themselves.

I like to make recordings and hear the results played back, because I discover things I do incorrectly. In the first place, I learn exactly where I take a breath when I shouldn’t. In the second place, I have a curiously artificial way of speaking, which annoys me terribly when I hear it afterwards. Still, I cannot find out exactly what I do that is wrong.

Yesterday, I think, I found that one of my troubles is pitching my voice too high at the start, and talking too slowly. Problems like this always interest me and each time I try to speak a little differently, in the hope that eventually it will all turn out better than it has before.

We have had the pleasure of having some children as guests over the weekend. I took the little boy to see the recording, since this generation understands far more about machines than any generation ever did.

On my return to the White House, I had a few people come in to tea. Among them was Mr. Kingsley Martin, who is one of the people who has long been active in the British labor movement. I was much interested in the opportunity to talk with him, since he has been over here some time studying conditions in this country.

Last evening, we had a party which we planned primarily for the children – an early supper and a movie, the title of which sounded as though they would enjoy it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the type of song and dance affair which I imagined was produced and sent very largely to other countries before the war. It depicts life in this country as it was never lived by any people I know.

My diplomatic friends tell me that this is one of the things which have helped to create strange impressions of life in the United States of America. Such stories never have had much basis in reality and will have less and less as the war goes on. Everyday life has changed for people all over the world. It has changed for us in that everything we buy for our families and homes costs more but I doubt if we have yet felt the complete extent of the change which will take place as the years of war continue.

252

October 20, 1942

New York – (Monday)
Yesterday we took the children, who are guests at the White House, to the top of the Washington Monument and to the Zoo. We had guests at lunch and at supper and then I took the night train to New York City, for I had a number of things to do today, which I had meant to do last Friday.

I have just had a letter from a British woman, who tells me she thinks in some ways they managed their employment of women rather badly at first. They did not make it clear that women with young children should stay in their homes as long as possible, since they were more important there until all other manpower needed for general services was exhausted.

This woman warned me that it had meant a rather indiscriminate rushing into different war services, when communities were inadequately organized to take care of home needs.

Of course, the alternative is to employ older women first, married women without children, and people who are handicapped in various ways but who are useable for special activities. Really to do a good job of placing people, not only in the places where they should be, but in the order in which they should enter new services, it seems to me that we shall find it necessary to register all women.

They will have to fill out rather complete questionnaires, so that it will be possible to recognize their skills and capacities, to know their backgrounds and experience and the present conditions in which they and their families live.

I was told some time ago it would be quite unwise to register women, because, if that were done, they would immediately expect to obtain jobs when they were not available. I think it could be made quite clear that this was being done entirely for efficiency in the future, not because any particular woman may obtain a job tomorrow.

I still receive letters from older men and women, some of whom are actually in need of jobs and do not seem to be able to find them. Others are simply tremendously anxious to make a contribution to the country’s welfare at this time and cannot find a place where they can be really useful.

In either case, it seems to me that registration and then coordination of the information, so that different parts of the country would be made cognizant of supply and demand, would mean a great deal at the present time.

253

October 21, 1942

New York – (Tuesday)
I had a very pleasant trip to Orange, New Jersey, yesterday, but both going out and coming back I almost missed getting off the train! On such short journeys, if I am interested in a book, I am very apt to forget how many stations I passed.

Last evening, I was very sorry not to be able to go to the meeting sponsored by the Youth Division of the Russian War Relief, at which the young Russians, who came over here as delegates to the International Student Assembly, were tendered a final farewell. They came down to my apartment when the meeting was over, however, to say goodbye, and sat around for a few minutes drinking coffee and eating coffee cake.

In his speech, the head of the Moscow Youth Organization, Nikolai Krasavchenko, says that their trip has given them a better understanding of the youth of this country. They are going back with a sense of gratitude for the real friendliness which has been shown them on all sides.

They have travelled with Dutch, Chinese, British and American young people, and they have come to realize that the objectives of the United Nations, now and in the future, are very much the same. We approach them in different ways and each nation fights and plans in its own way.

Out of their associations these young people have acquired the knowledge of this similarity of objectives in different countries that we all have something to learn from each other and all have something of value to contribute to the achievement of a better world.

One of the freedoms which we hold dear in this country is the right to criticize our own government. I noticed in the newspaper this morning that a very high-placed gentleman in the Republican Party made some slightly critical comments on the manner in which this war is being conducted. It reminded me of a little story in an editorial by Clarence Woodbury.

He starts out to tell what the various people in his air raid warden sector say in answer to the question of “What are we fighting for?” One of the men, a tavern keeper whose business has gone down since motorists have become scarce, grumbled:

There are some people in Washington who ought to have their heads examined.

One of the men at the bar took him up on that. He told Joe he ought to be reported to the FBI for making such an unpatriotic remark.

The argument was getting hot, when Ed Burns, who was listening, came to Joe’s defense. Ed said:

Let’s leave the witch hunting to the Nazis. We’ve got a right to cuss out the government, thank God, as long as we are loyal to it.

254

October 22, 1942

New York – (Wednesday)
The artists are exhibiting again all around Washington Square, and they couldn’t have more favorable conditions. I haven’t any more space to hang even the smallest print or picture, but I can never resist wandering around and looking at them. If I didn’t have several put away, ready to send as gifts to my friends, I am afraid I could not help buying one or two scenes which caught my eye yesterday.

For some time, I have had a collection of black and white pictures of Scottie dogs done by some well-known artists. Pictures of this personable Scotch canine decorate one wall of my White House sitting room.

When in Seattle, I found that my granddaughter was very fond of one of these pictures which hangs in her own room. I asked her if she would like my collection and discovered I had made a most welcome suggestion. I know now of some Christmas and birthday presents that can accompany War Savings Stamps during these war years without entailing any added expenditures.

I am trying to finish what little shopping has to be done this year for the holiday season and winter months. At the same time I manage to see a good many people who have been writing me for appointments “when I next come to New York.” These “next times” are often so crowded, that I frequently find months go by before I get around to making the promised engagements.

Some of you may have read the article on the work that is being done in Geneva, Switzerland, for the refugee children. In groups of ten thousand they are taken in every three months fed and housed and saved from permanent ill health and then returned to occupied France, Belgium, Greece or Yugoslavia. Sometimes they go to individual families, sometimes they live in hostels.

In addition to housing and feeding, many of these children have to be clothed and given medical attention. More important than anything else, whether they are in homes or hostels, is the fact that they are with people who love them and want to help them. For this work, the rest of the world owes the Swiss people a debt of gratitude, for these saved children will be of infinite value in rebuilding Europe in the future.

It is true that some of the German children, cared for in Norway after the last war, have repaid their kind hosts with treachery, but that should not deter us or make us blame the kindly act. It should confirm our determination not to allow again the conditions which have given us a second world war.

255

October 23, 1942

New York – (Thursday)
A letter from a lawyer in Cincinnati, Ohio, tells me that they are planning to convert the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, into a social center. There certainly never was an individual who more truly tried to change one of the evils of society. According to President Lincoln, Harriet Beecher Stowe was credited with awakening the conscience of many people in this country. It seems a fitting thing that her fellow citizens should preserve her home as a center for community activities.

Mr. Herbert Agar’s book, A Time For Greatness, has been out now for several days and I hope that many people will read it and find it stimulating.

It is not a book with which you will agree in every instance, but I warrant that no one will be indifferent in reading it. I enjoyed the sentence:

A society of saints could dispense with government altogether.

That is quite true. The very weaknesses of human nature are what make it so important that we keep a constantly watchful eye on our government, and that in turn our government watches us with equal care.

In Mr. Agar’s chapter on the press, he mentions the fact that the press must be free in order to watch the politicians. I have an idea that the press should be free in order to watch all the groups who attain power. Power may be wielded for the benefit of human beings when wise men control it. The check of a really free press is valuable not only over politicians, but over capital and labor as well.

I like the verse:

Is there not a pardon for the brave
And broad release above
Who lost their heads for liberty
Or lost their hearts for love?

In the history of every country men have lost their heads for liberty and their hearts for love, and without such men we would have no civilization today.

There are many suggestions in Herbert Agar’s book which you should consider carefully, but I am not going to spoil it for you by any further discussion. I am sure you will discuss it with your friends.

I wonder if you read not long ago, Mr. Hans Habe’s article comparing the different armies he has known. He has been to many of our camps and lectured to so many of our soldiers that he knows them well. He is particularly impressed by the democracy which permits our men to ask questions with an entire lack of restraint even when the officers are present.

256

October 24, 1942

London, England – (Friday)
The last few days have been so filled with a variety of experiences that it is difficult to tell you about them. In the first place, I should explain that I find myself this evening in England because, a short time ago, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth realized that we in the United States were just beginning to go through some of the experiences which the British people have undergone during the last several years. Her Majesty felt that it might be valuable for me to see with my own eyes the work of the women in Great Britain, and so she wrote and asked whether I would care to come here.

I was assured that I would be given full freedom to see everything in the way I felt would be most useful to me. I realized at once that this also would give me an opportunity to see our armed forces, which have been sent to this country in such great numbers. I hope very much that what I see may mean something to the mothers, wives and sweethearts of our men who are now stationed here.

I hope, too, that the opportunity afforded to see the work which the women are doing in Great Britain may also be of use no only for our women at home, but also to the children. Since it is family life which changes when women go to work, children have a share of the sacrifice which is made, and their interests deserve consideration.

Now you have the background and the reason for this visit. There was some delay in my departure. The trip, across what has now become a very small pond indeed, was as comfortable and as delightful as possible.

No one knew I was actually arriving, in spite of newspaper rumors. Since Miss Thompson and I traveled under very unimaginative names and our bags looked like everyone else’s, there was no easy method of identifying us. But, as I stepped out of the plane, I heard someone say:

Why, there is Mrs. Roosevelt!

The countryside looks as green and as calm as ever, but every now and then in the city you come upon a heap of ruins and someone casually says, “A bomb fell there.” Our ambassador, Mr. Winant, met me at the airport and on the train trip sketched for me the things which had been planned for the next few days. I shall, of course, do the more formal things that must be done first. The King and Queen met me at the station, together with a number of officials, both British and American. We were then whisked away from the station very quickly.

At tea I felt as though I had dropped off a number of years and was sitting again in England around the tea table of my school days with some friends in very homelike environment. In a short time I am going to search for my one and only evening dress. Forty-four pounds of luggage does not give much room for clothes, but I am assured that dinner tonight will be very informal.

257

October 26, 1942

London, England –
After dinner last evening we were shown a very fine film, In Which We Serve, which I hope will soon be released in the United States. It is acted and produced by Noël Coward and is the life story of a ship in the Royal Navy. In great part it is the story of Lord Louis Mountbatten’s own ship. For a people whose life is so tied up with the Navy, it must have exceptional poignancy and seen here, surrounded by people who are so conscious of the truth of every detail and must be so emotionally responsive to the suffering, it was an extraordinary experience. I wondered how some of those present could bear to sit through it and I was grateful for Gen. Smuts’ strong and quiet presence beside me. He has changed little in the years since we last met. He must have been through many situations which have tried and developed his strength and he is a steadying personality.

Somehow it was strange to meet our son, Elliott, for the first time in many weeks in a roomful of dinner guests, and it was not until after the dinner and the movie lay behind us and the King and Queen had retired that we settled down to a talk together. Elliott is deeply impressed by much that he has seen and experienced here. He hopes that I will have an opportunity to see his unit and many of the other things which have impressed him.

Miss Thompson and I had a quiet breakfast this morning before the open fire in my sitting room. Then we read the papers which have fewer pages over here, and are therefore not quiet so voluminous to go through, but still give one all the essential news.

I have also made the discovery that my little portable radio works extremely well in this part of the world, and so at 8 o’clock and at 9 o’clock I listened to the news. At a quarter before 11, we left to attend a press conference at the United States Embassy, and I must say it was a formidable gathering that I faced soon after 11 o’clock. It reminded me far more of the President’s press conference at home than my small gatherings of ladies. In it were represented members of the Empire press, the British press and the United States press. I was asked a number of questions about my plans which are still nebulous in detail except for two or three days in advance, but with a very clearly defined objective since I know quite well what I really want to see.

It is probably better not to make hard and fast rules too many days in advance since it would be a mistake to disappoint any group which had made plans for a reception.

The most amusing question was asked me by one of our own press people in uniform. He wanted to know whether we were likely to pass a Prohibition Law again in the United States. He did not say it, but I felt the implications that perhaps the boys would resent something of the kind happening while they were away from home.

We returned to find a good deal of mail. Everyone is being more than kind, offering to show me their particular piece of work and to help me in any way that they can to see the things which I want to see. I think Miss Thompson is going to have a hard time keeping up with the various invitations but I know that everyone will understand my great desire to do as much as possible and to make this visit useful both here and in the United States.

258

October 27, 1942

London, England –
The King and Queen very kindly gave a lunch on Saturday for the heads of the various women’s services to which they also invited Mrs. Oveta Hobby, the Director of our Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.

I was glad to find that there were a number of women present who were not complete strangers to me. Mrs. Arthur Grenfell, the head of the YWCA, had come to see me in Washington. The Dowager Duchess of Reading, who heads the women’s voluntary services, spent weeks in the United States before she started her work over here. Now, of course, we have much to learn from her, but I think we may feel that at the beginning our country contributed something to the development of her ideas.

Mrs. Mary Agnes Hamilton of the Ministry of Planning had spent a day with us in Hyde Park years ago when my husband was Governor of New York State and it was very pleasant to renew that acquaintanceship.

After lunch their Majesties took me to visit St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was my first view of the destruction which has levelled whole blocks of houses. It is remarkable that St. Paul’s itself still stands in spite of considerable damage. Its fire fighters have spent night after night, sleeping in the Crypt and ready to spring to their posts should they be needed.

I had seen pictures of the fire which had swept the financial district, known as “The City” after one of the blitzes, but I was in no way prepared for such a great area of destruction. When buildings such as the fine old Guildhall, and many beautiful old churches are destroyed, they are a loss to the whole world, I think. So much skill and artistic ability, not to speak of historic interest have simply been swept away and the whole world is poorer. But even more poignant is the destruction that we viewed a little bit later in Stepney. Here a crowded population lived over small shops and in rows of two-story houses. Today there is only one-third of the old population left and each empty building speaks of a personal tragedy. They showed me one of the big shelters which at one time housed as many as 12,000 people and where even now about 300 old people come to sleep every night. They feel cared for and less lonely and their own houses are no longer very secure.

It seemed to me as I walked through the brick compartments of that shelter that I learned something about fear, and the resistance to total destruction which exists in all human beings. How could people be herded together like this, night after night without some epidemic being the result and yet it was done and the spirits of kindness and cheerfulness pervaded, and those who had lost so much still managed to smile.

We visited the city fire control center where the Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Laurie, and the senior regional commissioner, Sir E. Gowers, who is in charge of the safety of the city, greeted and welcomed us. Many of the other city officials demonstrated how the system functions which they have built up to protect as far as possible, the life and property of this city.

Later at the Guildhall we saw a small detachment of the civil defense personnel looking very efficient in their uniforms and many of them wearing decorations for conspicuous courage. A short stop for tea at the Mansion House with the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, and then on our return, a visit from our Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Henry Morgenthau Jr.

259

October 28, 1942

London, England – (Tuesday)
Sunday morning in London, I visited the American Red Cross Washington Club for our enlisted personnel. They must find this a pleasant place, for it was crowded. A group of servicemen, stationed in or near London, serve as a kind of advisory house committee. The big lounge room down stairs had a boy playing the piano and many boys sitting around talking, lounging, reading the papers. Some boys looked lonely but most of them looked happy and interested in their surroundings. Boys were in the snack bar; boys were upstairs in the library; boys were checking in or out of their rooms and downstairs games of various kinds were going on in a room with a mural painted by an Army artist, enlivening one wall.

We went into the cafeteria where a number of them had gathered, and as I walked by, one of the boys asked “How’s Poughkeepsie?” and it turned out that was his home. There were a good many boys from the south – Texas, Georgia and Louisiana, and for them the weather must indeed be trying, for over here people do not keep their houses as warm as we do at home and this year, they are even a little more careful than usual. It rains a good deal here, and if you have never worn wool socks and warm clothes before, you are going to need them in these autumn days. One boy asked me if I had seen a girl whom he knew, since her marriage; another group told me they were boys who wanted to have a photograph taken with me, and told me they would soon be in their own USA uniforms, though they had been flying for months with the British.

Afterwards we drove to Chequers – that beautiful old house given by Lord Leigh to the British Government for the use of the Prime Ministers of Great Britain. Here we found an interesting group at lunch – the head of the RAF, Air Chf. Mshl. Sir Charles Portal and Lady Portal; the Foreign Minister, Sir Anthony Eden and Lady Eden; young Robert Hopkins, up for a day in London from his American Army unit; Miss Mary Churchill, the Prime Minister and Mrs. Churchill’s youngest daughter, who is twenty years old and has worked her way up from the ranks to Sergeant and is now a cadet officer in training. She went back to camp in the evening, and her sister, Sarah, who is an officer in the WAAFs, doing a particularly skilled job, arrived at eight-thirty in the evening and had to be back on duty at 9:30 in the morning. Lord Cherwell joined the group for supper.

In the afternoon, Mrs. Churchill, Miss Brooks and Lady Portal took us to see a maternity hospital which they have organized for junior officers’ wives, in a house lent them by Lady Barron. They can take twenty-two girls at a time and I must say it was a pleasant, happy atmosphere and the babies were the loveliest I have ever seen – healthy, placid, and beautifully cared for. Those young mothers live through anxious times with husbands missing, or off in some distant part of the world, and most of them are going through their own ordeal for the first time, yet every one of them could smile and show her baby with pride. There is a little convalescent home nearby also where they go for further training in child care and for the final rest period before returning to their homes.

This morning we started out on a full day to see some of the women’s work with the military forces, but I shall have to tell you about that tomorrow.

260

October 29, 1942

London, England – (Monday)
At 9:30, we left Chequers and Mrs. Churchill accompanied us. We were joined at our first stop by Mrs. Hobby, Lt. Bandel and Mrs. L. V. Whateley, Senior Controller, Auxiliary Territorial Service. This was a training center of the Auxiliary Territorial Air Force. After I had had the general scheme of work explained to me, we went out to see the personnel. Next to each type of plane stood a group of girls who had learned to fly them for the ferry command. I was interested to find that several of them had USA on their shoulders. They are the girls brought over by Jacqueline Cochran have now become a part of this service. From the planes we passed along to various service trucks, all of them driven by women, and then into the workshops where women were working alone, or with men, on the machines.

We were all offered tea before starting off again to see the recruit training station of the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

Here we watched a physical training class, saw the recreation and canteen rooms; the officers’ mess, the sergeants’ mess and recreation room; the building used as a chapel and a small clinic and hospital where minor ailments are cared for and finally the sleeping quarters. There is an “ablution unit” which contains bathtubs, showers, washbasins and toilets, a room where the girls may wash and iron their clothes and where dryers are provided. Everything was adequate but extremely simple, both in construction and in furnishings. One of the things which impressed me most was the training of the cooks. Perhaps you remember the old saying that an army marches on its stomach. An old-time chef who is now a sergeant in the army is the head of this training. The girls spend two weeks preparing and cooking food in small portions and then eating it themselves! They have two weeks training in use of left overs which are made into tempting snacks for the evening buffet supper. Finally, they cook for two weeks out of doors on the makeshift stoves which they build themselves, using a few bricks and variegated tin cans. They may be called upon to prepare meals in blitzed areas, in rain or shine, in quiet or with bombs dropping around them. They must be ready for anything. About one thousand girls are trained in this center at a time.

From the recruiting center we went to a secondary training station where girls who have finished their basic training and who wish to enter the transport service, are taught to drive every type of army conveyance. They learn to change the enormous tires without too much exertion and to detect the usual ailments which assail motor cars and to remedy them.

After returning to London, I went into the American Red Cross Nurses’ Club run by Mrs. Anthony Biddle and her committee. It is a delightful place and a refuge also for junior officers coming to London. The Red Cross officials assure me, however, that a club for junior officers will soon be opened.

Elliott was at the with Ambassador Winant when I got back. We could only have a few minutes talk as we barely had time to get ready to dine with the Ambassador who had asked a number of Americans so they could tell me something about their work here. It was very nice to see some old friends, among others, Mr. William Phillips.

I started again yesterday morning at 9:30 to see some of the civilian defense work with the Minister of Home Security. At fire-control headquarters we saw various demonstrations in which both men and women took part, showing the training given for firefighting and some of the actual work performed. It is uniform now throughout the United Kingdom, so that when people go from one place to another, the methods used are standard.

261

October 30, 1942

London, England –
On Tuesday, the London County Council invited me to lunch. Sir Anthony Eden, the Foreign Minister, proposed my health in a charming speech after we had drunk the health of the King and the President. Miss Thompson and I both enjoyed the traditional little introduction given the chairman, and each speaker by the toastmaster who rapped on the table and called the meeting to order.

The afternoon was spent visiting a Fighter Command, of the RAF where the WAAFs share in many important duties. Miss K. J. Trefusis-Forbes, who heads the organization, accompanied us, and Mrs. Hobby and Lt. Bandel joined us on this trip.

In the evening we dined with the Prime Minister and had the pleasure of seeing Lady Denman, head of the women’s land army whose work I hope to see; Dame Rachel Crowdy whom I have known ever since the last war; Lady Limerick of the British Red Cross, and a number of other people with important government responsibilities.

The days are full, but every day I am more deeply impressed by the work of the British women and the extraordinary training programs which have been set up for both men and women, and which makes their service so valuable in both military and civilian work.

Yesterday morning Lady Reading called for me at nine forty-five, and we went at once to the headquarters of the Women’s Voluntary Services headquarters. They distribute much clothing which they receive from the United States. The greater part comes from the American Red Cross, though the Bundles for Britain and the British War Relief furnish a certain amount. Canada and Australia also send contributions and to my surprise, I heard that in spite of the needs of their own people which must be great, Canada has been able to increase her contributions in the last few months. The Lord Mayor’s fund also contributes a large fund for clothing for blitzed areas. Mrs. Bingham who has come over to inspect for the “Bundles for Britain” and Mrs. Churchill met me at the WVS headquarters this morning. I was extremely interested in the whole system. The country is divided into several regions and on the docks as the cases arrive, they are distributed to these regions. London has the central office for this region and sends out from here to all of the smaller distribution centers in the area. Second-hand things may be given away without coupons and are frequently sent first to sewing parties where they are remade, cleaned and mended before being given out.

There is also a service which picks up the clothes of the American officers which need mending and returns them in complete order, so the wives, mothers and sweethearts at home, may know that the officers in London, at least, may make use of this service and I have seen something similar in other places where mending is done for the enlisted men.

We lunched with the lady members of Parliament and I enjoyed it very much and wished that our women members of Congress could have been with me.

In between the day was filled by a succession of visitors, all of them extremely interesting. At a quarter to six my cousin, Mrs. Cyril Martineau and her daughter, Jean, with two or three others accompanied us to the play Flare Path. It was beautifully cast and acted and I am glad it is to go to the United States because it is a true and moving picture of the RAF. It is written by a man who is a gunner in that organization and the girl, Adrianne Allen, who takes the principal part, has acted in a number of plays in the United States and I am sorry she is not to act it over there.

262

October 31, 1942

London, England –
We were to have left yesterday morning by air at nine o’clock, but at the last minute it was decided to leave at ten by car. We were visiting our own air forces and we got along very well travelling through the quaint little villages of England until we came somewhere near our destination. Then we were lost. The people of England have always liked privacy and their houses have always been hidden at the end of long avenues, or behind high walls and for that reason, I suppose everything else in Great Britain seeks privacy. One’s destination therefore is hard to find! We picked up a young RAF boy finally who knew his way about.

At the first stop, I was allowed to go inside one of our big planes and I know now why every man belonging to the air force should be thin! I climbed into the pilot’s seat, but not until I wondered once or twice whether I would ever be able to move forward or backward again. It was worth doing, however, for it gave me a feeling that I would know and be able to picture to myself what each boy did in one of these planes.

Then we drove to another American air group and here I had an opportunity to shake hands with all the officers, and chat with some of them for a few minutes. One of the boys had been at Groton School with one of our sons, he told me, and only last week he had written a long letter to the Rector. How many letters must go back from this war, as they did in the last, to the Reverend Endicott Peabody, who was the headmaster of Groton School for so many years. He still takes enough interest in all of his boys to send them postcards on their birthdays.

I went into the chapel too, to say a few words to some of the men. One boy directly in front of me looked at me with both bored and antagonistic eyes. I imagine he wondered why he had been asked to turn out to look at and listen to an old woman! They are a wonderful group of young men, these boys in the air force and one is very proud of them.

I wish I could take to every woman at home a message from the particular man she is thinking about. I can tell her, however, that a great deal of thought is being given to the health and well-being of these men in our fighting forces. In spite of the fact that so many of them have colds at first, the health record is excellent they tell me, better even than in the United States.

We went on to still another section where Elliott’s group was lined up and I walked down the line meeting the officers and speaking to some of the men. There are boys from Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, California and Wisconsin in Elliott’s outfit. I imagine in every outfit there will be boys from nearly every state in the Union which will increase our knowledge of each other, even as living side by side with our Allies will increase our knowledge of the world.

There was an RAF group nearby in the village, so all of us, including the members of the press who had been trying to follow us all day, were invited to have a cup of tea before we started on our way back. The press gathered around me here, because they had seen comparatively little of us during the day and we had a few minutes chat. Reaching home about seven we had a quiet dinner and evening and this morning we leave by train for another long tour.