VISCOUNTESS ASTOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 10, 12 January 1929, Page 16

VISCOUNTESS ASTOR.

The first woman to break into Parliamentary life in England, Lady Astor, has remained all through one of the bravest champions of the women's cause in the English House of Commons. As an outstanding American she is constantly being interviewed and an American writer gives a clear picture of the surroundings of the famous Member of Parliament.

"I had gone rather timorously," he writes, "to her great house in a fashionable London Square a few hours after she had returned from her visit to America. Her door had been opened by a liveried footman who regarded me with polite suspicion. He scrutinised my card and then handed it to a solemn butler who was standing a few paces behind him. This worthy inspected me with even more polite suspicion and, having pased judgment in his own sagacious way, ushered me into the morning room, an apartment so large and magnificent that I felt quite bewildered. The ivory-panelled walls attained an immense height before they reached the Adam ceiling; against one corner of the room a great Egyptian urn contained a beech sapling whose leaves had turned a brilliant red. This centre of colour, augmented by several large vases filled with chrysanthemums of many varieties, gave an effect of warmth which I should never have thought possible in a room of such proportions. I was so enchanted with the whole aspect of the room, the rich blue hangings, the Queen Anne furniture, that I was taken by surprise when Lady Astor hurried into the room.

I asked her if she had found America very much changed, states the writer, since her last visit; had she found it as inspiring and as youthful as ever. "Do you know," she said, "America is becoming made conscious of its tradition, and a very splendid tradition it is.

"I feel tliat I belong both to England and America, and perhaps that is why I see even more than most people how similar the ideals of the two countries

are. England is really a democracy, more so than same countries that call themselves republics. The Anglo-Saxon is primarily a free thinker, and this characteristic brings the people of England and America constantly closer together. Do you realise," she said, her eyes lighting up, "that the French women do not even want the vote?"

"Certainly Lady Astor, as much if not more- than anyone, has the right to be shocked that woman's suffrage is not universal. Her work is a splendid example of what a woman can do in the political world, and it is only natural that she should resent the la'ws which prevent women in other countries from having the opportunities of British and American women.

"The energy and force of the woman astounded me," he continues, "when I thought of all she must have accomplished in this one day. The business of getting off an ocean liner, and the excitement of seeing one's relatives and friends after a long journey, are tiring to the ordinary mortal. But Lady Astor had done these things only as a preliminary to her day's work. And she still had time to see me and answer my questions.

She waved a friendly hand to me as I descended the broad staircase. At the corner I turned and looked up to where she still stood smiling. I thought she looked eager and expectant, and I wondered for whom she was waiting A door slammed and a moment later all excited young man came bounding up the stairs, two at a time.

"Mother." he called out delightedly when he saw Lady Astor standing radiant at the top of the stairs.