Eartha Kitt Explains

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31584, 23 January 1968, Page 11

Eartha Kitt Explains

(N.Z. Press Assn—Copyright) BOSTON, January 22. The singer, Eartha Kitt, said today she had no intention of criticising the United States in remarks she made at a White House luncheon last week.

“It seems that what I said at the White House was taken as a criticism of my country,” she said. “This was not my intention,” she said in an interview broadcast today by a Boston radio station. Asked whether her forthright statement to Mrs Lyn-

don Johnson and guests at the gathering was a breach of etiquette, the singer replied: "I don’t know why. I am very surprised. I raised my hand and was called on to explain my views. That’s what I did. “I am not a blaek woman speaking for black people, but an American speaking for all Americans,” Miss Kitt Mid. Asked about her views on the Vietnam war, she said, “I have no answer as to whether we should be there or not. My reason for being at the White House was to give my views on juvenile delinquency in America. “Many people are concerned about the Vietnam war. As a mother, I stop and

think of the reasons why wars begin. If we're not giving proper reasons for wars, then we stand the chance of our children becoming delinquent,” Miss Kitt said. She said she believed that high taxes were a cause ot poverty and delinquency. "We’re all paying such high taxes we’re not able to hire people to work. If we were allowed to keep more of what we earn, we would be able to alleviate a lot of poverty. “Ten or 15 or 20 years ago, there were more people able to hire more people to work for them. If people were allowed to have two, three or four helpers in the house, it would alleviate a lot of unemployment,” Miss Kitt said.