CATT, Carrie Chapman GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Astor, (Lady) Nancy 4, St James' Square, London, S.W.I. 15th December, 1936. Dear Mrs. Catt, I read your most interesting letter of November 16th with very much pleasure. It was good of you to write, and one of the things I regret most during my visit to America was that we did not manage to meet. I did so want to have a talk with you and, unfortunately, the times I can spare to leave home are none too frequent. Our talks have always been so helpful and, with all that is happening in the world, it seems more than ever necessary to try to exchange ideas and to clear our minds, Your explanation about the Catholics and the Press was what I wanted to know. I think I understand now much better than I did. Now about the Jewish question in Palestine. It is an extraordinarily difficult one, as you know, and fraught with pitfalls. We are tied by the Mandate and the Balfour Declaration. I do not know whether this Royal Commission will really achieve very much, but it may serve to provide a breathing -2- x I fear that the Arabs are [?] [?] tiresome. [?] [?] sure I would [?] [?] I gave up [?]! Do [?] [?] [?][?] [?][?][?] [?][?] space in which the passions of the contending sides will have time to cool. The magnitude of the Jewish Immigration has been so intensive during the last few years owing to Jewish prosecution in Germany and elsewhere that it has very genuinely alarmed the Arab population who see themselves being gradually pushed out of the land of their Fathers. A great many of them have been persuaded to sell their land to the Jews and now bitterly regret the fact that they are left landless. It is a question over which one can very easily take sides, and the protagonists of both races can each make out a very good case. As with all such problems, a solution, if it is ever achieved, will have to be that of compromise, and I think there is a good deal to be said for the suggestion that possibly segregated areas may lead to less faction. What both races want is security of tenure and it will have to rest wi th the Mandatory Power to apportion the country in a manner which will most nearly respect the commit- ments entered into with both sides. Whether we -3- shall be successful remains to be seen, but of one thing I am certain, and that is that the Administration will have to be carried out on very different lines in the future to the previous years. I shall not forget your very kind invitation to arrange a Luncheon some time when I am over. I really should like to have a talk with the people you have in mind. When that will be it is difficult to say, for the work of Parliament becomes more and more strenuous. We have lived through a very terrible time during the last fortnight. My husband and I landed from the Queen Mary last Monday week to find the country in the throes of the Constitutional crisis. As ever in such emergencies, the calm and self-restraint which was shown by Press and public alike was very wonderful. As events moved to their close it became more and more obvious that the only way out would be abdication, and in the new King and Queen we have an ideal pair, who will carry on magnificently the traditions of Constitutional Monarchy. There is far greater hope in the country now, and a general -4- desire to get back to work. My husband joins me in best wishes for the New Year. May you be spared long to guide the Women's Movement in America. We need you badly. [?] [?] Nancy Astor The British people [?] [?] [?] Three [?] [?] They are delirious to have a King who puts duty first _________ [?] they do [?] [?] [?] feel so [?] [?] Mrs. C. Chapman Catt, 120, Paine Avenue, New Rochelle, New York. July 27, 1933. Viscount and Vicountess Astor, 4 St. James Square, S.W.1, London, England. Dear Friends: I have received the invitation to the marriage of your daughter and it astonishes me that you have a daughter old enough to set up a family of her own. It is amazing. You know, my dear Lady Astor, you look as young as you ever did. I have just been to Chicago to attend a Congress of Women in connection with the Exposition. I had attended the same kind of congress forty years ago in connection with the Exposition of 1893. The most interesting thing I saw, or felt, was the utter difference in the attitude of women. They now feel their independence and assert their own thinking. It was very impressive to one who had seen the two gatherings. There were only four women there who had been present forty years ago and these were like myself, - old ladies. For your young daughter, I wish as useful a life as her mother has given to the world, as brave a leadership as her father has extended to our two nations, and for her precious parents, I hope life will continue for many, many years. Blessings on you and yours. Very sincerely, CCC:HW. Viscount and Viscountess Astor request the pleasure of Mrs. Chapman Catt's Company at the marriage of their daughter Phyllis to Lord Willoughby de Eresby, at St. Nickolas, Taplow, on Thursday, July 27th at 2.30 p.m. and afterwards at Cliveden. R.S.V.P. 4 St. James' Square, S.W.I. Please bring this invitation with you. May 31, 1934. My dear Lady Astor: This will present to you Mrs. C. Reinold Noyes, formerly of Minneapolis. She is bringing a message to you from the National League of Women Voters and I hope you will feel able to accept the invitation she will extend. Mrs. Noyes has been one of our most useful and energetic suffrage workers and has carried on steadily in the National League of Women Voters since we were enfranchised. My dear Lady Astor, let me tell you that the newspapers never let you do anything out of the ordinary without recording it and I never fail to read the record. My admiration and affection for you is unchanged. Very sincerely. Lady Nancy Astor, 4, St. James' Square, London, S.W.1., England. April 15, 1936. Lady Nancy Astor, 4, St. James' Square, London, S. W. 1, London, England. Dear Lady Astor: A day or so ago a man telephoned me, but I could not understand him very well. I understood him to say he had a letter from you and was very anxious to see me. We arranged a date and although it was a very rainy day, he came. He had no letter from you. He said he was a Hungarian, had lived in Paris, and had come from London. He said he had been in Germany, but could not stay there, although he said he was an Aryan. He had a card announcing his name as Prof. A. de Sandor and the word Paris was in the corner. He spent a great deal of time, telling me how kind you had been to him and how many pictures you had bought of him. He aid he had done very well, also, with the friends to whom you had sent him. He then announced he was a pacifist, you were a pacifist, and that I am, also, a pacifist, so I was expected to do as well by him as you had. When I told him I could not buy the etchings which he offered me, because whatever money I had, I was obliged to spend in other directions, he became very emotional and told me that when he entered this country he had had to put up as a sort of bond pretty much of the money he had brought with him and he said he had only thirty cents in his pockets. He said he had a wife who was sick with fever and that he and his family had had nothing to eat for two days, that he, himself, had had to go to the doctor on account of a foot twice a week and that each visit cost him $10. The more he talked, the more I thought he was a fake and I write to ask whether you have any knowledge of this man and if you bought pictures of him. He said he had oil pictures, but his speciality was etchings. I let him go away without doing anything for him, because I felt he was a swindler. He has been on my conscience since. My dear Lady Astor, I am just as proud of you as though I were your mother and I am so glad you are continuing in Parliament. It is a marvelous thing when a whole family can help to rule a nation as yours does. Blessings on you! Very sincerely, CCC:HW. Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.