LADY ASTOR

Evening Star, Issue 20510, 14 June 1930, Page 20

LADY ASTOR

UNOFFICIAL DIPLOMAT WORK FOR ENGLAND It may be, said of Lady Astor that she makes many Americans feel that they know England the better for knowing her, and certainly she induces in many English men and wpmen the flattering belief that to them, at least, America has revealed herself (writes Kathleen Woodward, in the New York ‘Times’). It is a fact, however, that even more than at the American Embassy in Princes’ Gate, even more than at Dartmouth House, headquarters of the English-speaking Union, you will discover at No. 4 St. James’s square, a centre where differences between America and England rapidly disappear under the segis of a hostess who unites great gifts of fortune with personal charm. That this should happen not many doors from the house in St. James’s square where George 111. was born, lends a touch of piquancy to the situation. Lady Astor is one of the most conspicuously successful hostesses in contemporary English life; and her triumphs are by no means accounted for by the material opportunities she undoubtedly has for exercising her hospitality. Nor does her wealth and position explain why she is equally acceptable to the American and the English ; rathei it is because she has done what few of her compatriots have done in the past—transplanted herself without in the least changing her characteristics. She is by no means the only woman of American birth in the British peerage; but she is unique in having transcended the prejudices of both nations. On the one hand she has escaped the odium that attaches in America to those who have cast aside their American traditions; and on the other hand she has succeeded in making herself a factor in English life without surrendering the least of. her birthright. The force of traditions, usages, point of view and surroundings have not vitiated her nationality, and left hei something that is ■ not even English.

REMARKABLE SIGHT. There is a tribute to the personality of Lady Astor in the fact that lor the many who associate her name witn political life and public works there are relatively few who realise how tortune has placed her on an eminence above that Oj most women, and, American though she is, has finked her an the grand manner with English history and English backgrounds. From many points of view a gathering at No. 4 St. James’s square, presents one of the most remarkable spectacles in the world, for Lady Astor sees beyond the differences ■ that operate to keep most people apart to the vital reasons why they should be drawn together; and so you will always find a goodly leavening of tho great untitled and _ unknown—with whom she has become identified in her public and philanthropic adventures—among the statesmen and scientists, men of learning., social reformers, prelates, and dignitaries of the church, tho peers, princes, and courtiers who compose her assemblies. Tho composition of her gatherings is not more remarkable than the ease and versatility with which she presides over them;. and with an utter absence of that self-consciousness which imprisons most people in their own identity. She is brimful of energy, which may be both cause and effect of her perennial youth. Slim, sparkling, vivacious, animated —observe her flitting from group to group of her guests, talking with an ever-ready tongue to tho statesman on politics, to the foreign visitor on the international situation, to a scientist on relativity, to a reverend prelate on the latest position of the Prayer 800. 1 ' controversy, while with the social reformer she is versed in all the ramifications of eugenics—or birth control. Her politics are Conservative, but she has innumerable friends in the Socialist Party, with whose aims, she is whole-heartedly in . sympathy, though differing in her opinion as to how those aims aro to be realised. Observing her, you wonder if there could have been a moment in her life when she was at a loss for what to say. . TIRELESS ENERGY. The source of her tireless energy, contrasting so strangely with her slight figure, seems inexplicable. Over a hurried supper of eggs and bacon, after a day in hei Plymouth constituency that should have exhausted; women (and there were at least four entertainments to appear at after sup-

per), I once asked her how she sus-' tained her superhuman activities—and why? “God,” she said, and laughed at me, and no doubt it did seem to her funny that any one should not know the source of her strength. There followed a simple account of a personal experience which “ changed the whole course of my life and gave me a belief in God that I could never lose.'* ...” You cannot begin to understand the outlook of a woman like Lady Astor until you realise that she is animated by a faith that is devout, literal, child-like, and eminently practical. She is terribly in earnest for all her laughter and seeming perkiness. Ritual says nothing to her; metaphysics and theology are beyond her; God is to her a direct source *of personal help. And though her faith is allied to a very original turn of mind its existence should not bo, lost sight of in her displays of wit, audacity, plain sneaking, and that; perpetual liveliness which brightens the dull, inspires the faint-hearted, knd sometimes even quickens the dead} Ambassadors come from Washington and Ambassadors go, but, unversed in diplomacy, a stranger to expediency, Lady Astor rema|ns the permanent unofficial ambassador to the British Isles from the United States of America.