Eleanor Roosevelt's London Diary

88. London Diary

6 February 1946

Your letter of the 29th came yesterday after your letter of the 1st by a whole day, but it was very welcome as it told me so many things I wanted to know.¹

I will write my column each day from Germany and this Sunday I am writing three extra, short, home ones to cover journey home. If I am in Ireland, I'll file from there.²

There is delay here. We may not get done till Sunday or Monday. That delays Germany. I will cable when I leave for Germany and when I leave Ireland for US. You will then have to keep in touch with air lines for news. When you know when I get in make a hair appointment and a dentist appointment for the next day.

I will make no engagements except Washington on way to Phoenix if I go down for day, with the Women's Press club if Bess Furman wants me for lunch or dinner.³ No other engagements until I get back from the west.

I am sorry I couldn't get a letter off yesterday so here is the diary for Tuesday and Wednesday. Column 8:30. Delegates meeting 9:30, reported on refugee troubles⁴ and left for 10 a.m. committee meeting leaving Sen. Townsend with the boys in the delegation meeting which he loves. He joined me about 11.⁵ Committee meeting was one long wrangle. Finally at one I asked for a vote, the Russians who always play for delay asked for a sub committee to try to get a resolution we could agree on. It is hopeless as there are fundamental disagreements but Peter Fraser is fair to the utmost.⁶ He asked if I would withdraw my motion and then appointed a committee. I was a half hour late for lunch with the Anthony Edens⁷ in the House of Commons. At 2:30 I opened a doll show. At 3:10 we sat down in the sub-committee at Church House and we got up at 6 having agreed on 25 lines! Then I went to the ceremony of the Women's Appeal which I hope got some play in the U.S.⁸ Was home at 7 and dined with the Grenfells⁹ at 8. At 10:45 when I was back and working, the advisers came down to show me a compromise paragraph they hope we might get agreement on. I finished the mail at 12:30 and was too weary to write.

At 8 a.m. we started on the column while I ate breakfast. No delegates meeting because the boys couldn't agree up to 11 last night in the Security Council¹⁰ and so they couldn't have a meeting at 9:30 thank goodness!

At ten we went to work in the sub committee again and at 12:45 the Russians and Yugoslavs on one side, the British, Netherlands and U.S. had agreed to disagree on all new points brought up! Lunch with Miss Bernadine for women delegates and some others.¹¹ Plenary session at 3, election of judges and I was not needed.¹² Left at four. Lady Cripps and her International Youth Group came just six in the group.¹³ Gave me a memorial resolution to FDR and we talked till 5:10.

Dictated tomorrow's column till 5:30, was called for and went to staff meeting of UNRRA office in London. Talk and question till 7.¹⁴ Dressed, dined at 8 with Winant who has had bad flu and was up for first time.¹⁵ We had a nice time alone and I left at 9:45 and have now finished mail and am going to bed.

Tomorrow we are trying to meet with an even smaller group before the sub committee meets but I think we cannot agree. I will tell any of you who are interested what I have learned in these meetings. It is a liberal education in backgrounds and personalities but one thing stands out. Since the Civil War we have had no political or religious refugees fleeing our country and we forget to take it into account.¹⁶ No European or South American forgets it for a minute. Next it seems to take years of stability to make you look beyond your own situation and consider that there are human rights that operate for those who think in a way that you think wrong!

My voice is back and fine!

TDi AERP, FDRL

1. In her letter of January 29 (one of those that she dated), Tommy sent news of Truman appointments and rumored appointments, as well as reports on ER's son Elliott's comings and goings, ER's Val-Kill staff, and her dog Fala. She also reported that she and the new secretary she had hired "get about thirty to fifty letters a day. I won't have much for you to look at—just the things in which I think you are interested—such as a letter from Charles Taft asking for your frank for a club at Yale. I gave Hick all the publications which have come in, so she will have them digested for you" (Malvina Thompson to ER, 29 January 1946, JRP, FDRL).

2. After visiting Germany, ER stopped in Ireland on her way back to New York to visit her aunt and uncle, Maude and David Gray (MD, 15, 16, 19, and 21 February, 1946).

3. On March 14, before going to Phoenix and the West Coast, ER spoke before the Women's Joint Congressional Committee in Washington, but not at the National Women's Press Club (see Document 99). Bess Furman (1894–1969), Washington correspondent for the New York Times, covered ER's press conferences, travels, and other activities as an AP reporter during the White House years (NAWMP).

4. At the meeting of the US delegation, ER reported on the ongoing debate in Committee Three about how to resolve the refugee situation in Europe ("Delegation Meeting," 5 February 1946, USGA/Ia/Del Min/Exec/12 (Chr), RG84, NARA II). See header Document 86.

5. Senator Townsend (R-DE) served on Committee Three with ER. See n23 Document 76.

6. Committee Three remained deadlocked on drafting a resolution on establishing a new international agency to deal with European refugees. After Fraser appointed a subcommittee to try to resolve the issue, ER reported to the US delegation that "she was still struggling in a subcommittee to draft a resolution on refugees to which all could agree. A subcommittee had met for six hours and drafted 25 lines. The previous day they had met for three hours and had only agreed to disagree. She said that the United States would make one more effort in the subcommittee without Mr. Fraser because he was unpopular with the Russians and Yugoslavs for his attitude on this question" ("Delegation Meeting," 6 February 1946 (USGA/Ia/Del Min/Exec/13 [Chr]), 10, RG84, NARA II). For Peter Fraser, see n8 Document 79.

7. Anthony Eden (1897–1977) and his first wife Beatrice. Now a member of the opposition in Parliament, Eden served as British foreign secretary under Churchill during World War II.

8. ER wrote in My Day:

The women working in the United Nations Organization met the other day to sign an appeal addressed to the women of every country in the world and to their Governments as well. We think it is very important, and so I am quoting from it here:

    "This first Assembly of the United Nations marks the second attempt of the peoples of the world to live peaceably in a democratic world community. This new chance for peace was won through the joint efforts of men and women working for common ideals of human freedom at a time when the need for united effort broke down barriers of race, creed and sex. In view of the variety of tasks which women performed so notably and valiantly during the war, we are gratified that 18 women del-egates and advisers are representatives from 11 of the member states taking part in the beginning of this new phase of international effort. We hope their participation in the work of the United Nations Organization may grow and may increase in insight and skill. To this end, we call on the Governments of the world to encourage women everywhere to take a more conscious part in national and international affairs, and on women to come forward and share in the work of peace and reconstruction as they did in the war and resistance. We recognize that women in various parts of the world are at different stages of participation in the life of their communities, that some of them are prevented by law from assuming the full rights of citizenship, and that they may therefore see their immediate problems somewhat differently. Finding ourselves in agreement on these points, we wish as a group to advise the women of all our countries of our strong belief that an important opportunity and responsibility confronts the women of the United Nations:—

1—To recognize the progress women made during the war and to participate actively in an effort to improve their standard of life in their countries, and participate in the work of reconstruction so that there will be qualified women ready to accept responsibility when new opportunities arise.

2—To train their children, boys and girls alike, to understand world problems and the need for international cooperation …

3—Not to permit themselves to be misled by anti-democratic movements now or in the future.

4—To recognize that the goal of full participation in the life and responsibilities of their countries and of the world community is a common objective toward which the women of the world should assist one another" (MD, 8 February 1946).

9. Possibly Vera Grenfell, lady-in-waiting to Princess Alice of Great Britain, whom ER met in Washington in the spring of 1945 (MD, 24 March 1945).

10. The Security Council remained deadlocked because the Soviet Union refused to agree to a motion clearing Great Britain of charges made by the Soviet Union that British behavior in Greece had threatened international peace ("Deadlock in Security Council," TL, 6 February 1946, 4).

11. Probably Minerva Bernardino (1907–1998), a delegate from the Dominican Republic. One of the few other women delegates at the first meeting of the General Assembly, Bernardino pressed the issue of women's rights at the United Nations and led the effort to establish the UN Commission on the Status of Women (Barbara Crossette, "Minerva Bernadino, 91, Dominican Feminist," NYT, 4 September 1998, A20).

12. On February 6, the General Assembly and the Security Council elected fifteen judges to the World Court (Sydney Gruson, "15 Judges Elected for World Court," NYT, 7 February 1946, 8).

13. Possibly Lady Isobel Cripps (1891–1979) who headed the British United Aid to China Fund (DNB).

14. ER reported in My Day:

I had an interesting meeting with the London staff of UNRRA the other day. Most of the staff are British, but there is a sprinkling of other nationalities. I talked for a little while and then they asked me questions, largely about the work of the UNO. UNRRA, of course, has had very wide experience in working with various nationalities, and I was interested to find that they had many of the same difficulties that we Assembly delegates have because of different languages and the different points of view that result from varying backgrounds. At the end of our meeting, one of the Russian members told me that he was impressed by my remark that working together was the very best medium for gaining mutual understanding (MD, 9 February 1946).

15. John Winant.

16. ER makes the same observation at the opening of her speech on the refugee question in the General Assembly on February 12. See the second to last paragraph of ER's response to Vyshinsky, Document 91.

Recapping the UN's First Session

Four days before the scheduled end of the first session of the General Assembly, ER helped readers of My Day "evaluate some of its real accomplishments."¹