My Two CountriesAstor, Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess
General
My Two Countries
Astor, Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess
Reconstruction (1914-1939); Women -- Political activity
Let us give all less fortunate countries a chance. Let us be tender to
all who suffer. Let our help go out to them in their need. The world
needs the Anglo-Saxon ideals now. Don’t be afraid of joining a league
of peace. Be afraid _not_ to join. The greater love is winning all the
way down the line. The religions of the world are being judged by their
fruits. The religion which makes men love all mankind; the religion
where God is love, whose followers are loving, is the religion which
will draw all men into it. Hate of any man or of any nation is a poison
which kills. Women mistrust all who hate, all who preach or teach hate.
In the name of God, who is Love, let us remember that by our fruits
shall we be judged. Let us see that they are the fruits of the spirit,
which are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, and patience.
VI[F]
“_Women are young at politics but they are old at suffering._”
Nothing I can put into words can ever make you Canadians realise what
it means to me--a returned war veteran--to get back to Canada. I am
a peculiar person, and yet I am a fortunate one. The Good Book says
“the greater the love, the greater the life,” and I have many loves.
Being born a Virginian, I began by loving Virginia first. You Canadians
should also love Virginia. She gave you some of your common laws, and
Virginia led the way to America being governed by the best laws that
any country has ever, so far, invented--the common laws of England.
When people think--and voters should think--they will see that every
citizen born and living on this great continent of America owes more
than they know to the men who fought for freedom in England long before
America was ever thought of at all. The British fought their first
battle against autocracy in 1214. King John learnt then what the poor
old Kaiser had to learn in 1918. Let the whole world remember that the
men who first fought for modern democracy, fought at Runnymede.
There is nothing in being a Member of Parliament in any country; we
politicians know that. But there is something very satisfactory in
being the first woman to represent a constituency of the fighting men
of Devon--my second love.
My third love is Canada. I do not love Canada for her hills or plains,
or vast resources, or snowy peaks, or anything which you read of in
guide books. I love Canada because of her fifty thousand men who gave
their bodies as a loving sacrifice for their hills and plains and
homes. The only thing worth loving is unselfishness. The only thing
which mars life is selfishness. It was at Plymouth I first saw them
land, your Canadian sons, and it was there that I realised that heroes
away from home take a lot of watching.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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