MME. KOLLANTAY---WOMAN DIPLOMAT
Follette, Belle Case La
Mme. Kollantay---Woman Diplomat Soviet Russia's Minister to Mexico Has Charming Personality By BELLE CASE LA FOLLETTE WHEN in 1923 we visited Russia, I heard much of Mtoie. Kollantay, who was...
...She speaks English with the accent of an English gentlewoman...
...Men and women alike with whom I talked spoke with pride and admiration of this notably cultured and accomplished woman who was the first in the world to attain such high rank in the diplomatic service...
...All mothers understand other mothers...
...My conception of diplomacy is that it should work for understanding between nations...
...Women do possess understanding...
...There is consolation in knowing that in spUe of the incredibly narrow and prejudiced spirit which controlled the action of our State Department in refusing Mmc...
...It was with much pleasure I learned that Mme...
...In every woman there is a mother...
...All the countries in the world are readjusting their commercial relations...
...The task of a diplomat should be to find that basis for understanding...
...relationships...
...We women look beyond our Governments...
...After ten days in Mexico, she has advanced to the point where she can read the newspapers, and she has achieved this progress while confined to her room, prostrated by the altitude of Mexico City...
...Kollantay had been appointed Minister to Mexico and I was greatly shocked and humiliated when our State Department refused to allow her to pass through the United States to Mexico on her way to fill her diplomatic mission...
...The staff correspondent of the New York World writing from Mexico City recently gives an unusually interesting picture of the "grande dame who has come to Mexico, as Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary of the Soviet Union of Russia...
...Kollantay as having explained her attitude toward her work thus: "There is assuredly a place in post-war diplomacy for the qualities with which women are endowed...
...Kollantay passage through the United States, her character, purpose and talents have been accorded appreciation by the press, such as the New York World interview, from which I have quoted, affords...
...Who better than mothers have sympathy and tact and the intuition which make for understanding...
...An occasional pause for an English word, a slurring of the letter "t," an unended phrase—for the rest, she speaks English fluently and naturally...
...Her voice is quiet and well-modulated, and she enunciates with precision...
...She dresses with distinction...
...There is a vast field of endeavor for her...
...Her features are well moulded, her expression reserved, she has fine eyes and she speaks with fascinating gestures...
...In this, it is my profound conviction, woman is peculiarly well qualified to be useful...
...All women are opposed to wars.'' * * * "Before the war," she continued, "diplomacy concerned itself chiefly with political questions, and with territorial aspirations...
...She is a well-poised, gracious woman approaching middle age, sophisticated, at ease with herself and the rest of the world, unaggressively sure of herself—in short, a cosmopolitan...
...Kollantay, who was then representing the Soviet government as Minister to Norway...
...We look to the mothers and children of the other nations, and we understand how they feel...
...She also speaks French, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian and German, and she plans to master Spanish by the summer of next year...
...And the New York World correspondent quotes Mine...
...It is God's gift to them...
...I am opposed to wars, naturally...
...She can work for world peace...
...Now economic questions underlie Internationa...
...In these postwar days, a diplomat must understand economics...
...What can woman do for diplomacy...
...Kollantay," says the New York World correspondent, "is a woman of charming social graces, cultured in speech and a savant in thought...
...Diplomacy is in need of the mother viewpoint," she said...
...Her figure is modishly slender, she is of medium height and moves with grace and dignity...
...Diplomacy should be human...
...Who better than mothers have understanding...
...Her gowns become her and she in turn becomes them...
...This has l>een largely changed...
...She learned English in childhood from an English governess...
Vol. 19 • March 1927 • No. 3
