A WOMAN WHO KEPT SECRETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 127, 31 May 1937, Page 12

A WOMAN WHO KEPT SECRETS.

Politicians Well-known Private Secretary.

It is generally the male, thinking himself the superior creature, who proclaims that no woman can keep a secret, when most peop'r know from experience that the world's prime gossips are men. There is a woman in London, writes a correspondent in the "Sydney Morning Herald," who has been keeping secrets for 15 years —not just ordinary little personal secrets, but secrets of State, and of international importance. She is Miss Kose Rosenberg, who has been private secretary to Mr. Ramsay MacDonald ever since he really counted in politics. Her good-bye to Whitehall will be said at the end of May, when Mr. Ramsay MaeDonald (now Lord President of the Council) leaves office. Probably no woman holding an official position has been so much "in the know" in a big sense as Miss Rosenberg. She was behind the scenes at 10, Downing Street, and in the Prime Minister's confidence during the formation of th« first Socialist Government in 1924. She watched from the inside the Socialist party's first hesitant approach to power and responsibility, and the occasional private clashes of Socialist personalities during an historic period. She occupied a similar position during the four following years, when Mr. MaeDonald was Leader of the Opposition, returning to 10, Downing Street when he became Prime Minister in the second Socialist Government in 1929. Miss Rosenberg remained at the political "holy of holies" after her chief became head of the National Government in 1931, until he resigned the Premiership in 1935 and became Lord President of the Council, when she moved with him into the Privy Council offices in Whitehall.

A Mine of Secrets. During this period she has seen and heard all, or nearly all. Certainly enough to strain her sense of discretion to its limit. And she has never been known to say anything on any subject that mattered to anybody except those entitled to consult her good judgment and unusual experience. As to divulging a secret, even a tiny one, such a possibility has never entered her, or anybody else's head. She is a mine of secrets, and even the American journalists and "snoopers" failed to" "explode" her when she .went to the United States with Mr. Mac Donald in 1929 to keep a record of his official discussions. Miss Rosenberg is to leave Whitehall because she is not a civil servant, but one of those competent persons who are "temporarily" introduced because of their peculiar merits. In private life, her interests are bound up with music, reading and meeting people. It is quite probable, however, that one so practical as she will not be content with social amenities. None of her numerous friends—and some of them are very powerful—would be surprised if she were invited to fill another position in which discretion and the art of keeping a quiet tongue were the essential qualffications.