UNPOPULAR OPINION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 29 August 1942, Page 1

UNPOPULAR OPINION

LADY ASTOR’S OUTBURST

"TIRED OF TALK OF RUSSIA” London, Aug. 3. ' The incorrigible desire of Lady Aator, American-born Conservative M.P., to sparkle may have loosened her tongue on Saturday regarding Russia in a way which insults the vast majority of Britons, but her association with the “Cliveden set” has caused pointed attention to be directed to her remarks. [Lady Astor was the leader of the pre war "Cliveden set,” named after her country house, which showed proGerman sympathies and looked on Hitler as the bulwark against Communism “I am grateful to the Russians, but they are fighting, not for us, but for themselves,” Lady Astor said at a United Nations’ demonstration on Satur- , day. "After the Battle of Britain,” she Added, “it was America who came to 'wjr aid. The Russians were then allied ith Germany. To hear people talk, | you would ihink that the Russians c ime to us n our dire need. Nothing of the kind. It was America, and j don’t you forget it.’’] “NOT UNTIMELY" Lady Astor followed up her remarks by declaring in an interview that she did not think her remarks were untimely. i “Russia, Russia. Russia, that is all we read in the newspapers or hear broadcast,” she said. ‘Americans resent very much that they hear nothing 1 execeptf about Russia in England. I am ( tired of hearing it.” j In a speech at Oldham she pursued I the theme, saying that, much as she aaI mired the Chinese and Russian#, they were “not yet really what w'e are. Free people could never live under a dic- , tatorship, and people could not be free unless they were self governed.” I The Oldham meeting was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Information. NEWSPAPER REBUKE Under the heading. “Cliveden and Stalingrad,” the “Daily Herald” (Labour) attacks Lady Astor. t “We are indebted to you for one of ! the war’s most brilliant unhelpful pubj lie utterances,” the new spaper says, j “You are not entitled to complain if you are accused of calculated hostility j to an Ally. ‘The Anglo-Russian Treaty makes nonsense of your statement that the ' Russians are fighting for themselves, or your statement makes nonsense of the Treaty. “Your words insult the British states men who concluded the Anglo-Russian Treaty. Public opinion will not find any difficulty in choosing between its leaders’ conduct and Lady Astor’s clowning. “If you doubt the sincerity of Russia’s undertakings, you might at least choose a more suitable moment for expressing them than when Russia is fac- ' | ing mortal peril. You might almost as | fairly advocate the disinterment of the , Unknown Warrior because nobody can , be sure whether he died for his family - or his country. “Britain's policies are no longer influenced from Cliveden, the Thamea- • side home where you once assembled • the Cliveden set and its friends. Splte- | ful gibes will not reduce in our eyes the . momentous importance to all civilisa . tion of the Don and Volga battles, but - your words, if they carry no influence, ' will nevertheless be bitterly resented”