"I Want to Turn My Influence and My Position as 'Nehru's Daughter' to Account," Says Mrs. Indira Nehru Gandhi

"It is easier for me to count up the matters that do not concern me and the fields in which I do not work than to count up those that occupy my time and in which I labor in earnest. In the political field I work on the Working Committee of the National Congress Party, besides being a member of its executive committee and of the executive committee for the revival of village handicrafts — the one presided over by Mrs. Kala Devi, who visited you recently — along with being a member of the higher council for social affairs; and I head the Academy of Music and work on the committee concerned with the program of our annual national festival of the arts, and we have worked to revive the various folk dances and to bring out our national artistic heritage."

Then she went on to say: "I want to turn my influence and my position as 'Nehru's daughter' to account, to the farthest limit, for the service of my country and my countrymen; for everyone, in my present situation, stands fully ready to grant my requests and carry out my wishes — and all of them spring from the needs of the sons of my homeland."

This is the answer given by Mrs. Indira Gandhi, daughter of the great Nehru, to the question we put to her on the afternoon of Saturday, July 21 last, at a private gathering which the Indian Legation in Beirut chose to arrange for the distinguished guest with a group of Lebanese women "of great hearts," in the words of the chargé d'affaires — women who have rendered their country notable services, each in her own field. It is an answer whose source is a way of thinking and a cast of mind which I wished with all my heart the responsible men and women of my country would adopt, turning their influence and their positions to account for its advancement in every respect — economic, cultural, artistic, social, political — and embracing Mrs. Indira's doctrine that one must work in all these fields, appreciating the importance of each, so that the renaissance may come whole and all-embracing.

We did not for a moment forget to bring up "Palestine." Mrs. Wadia Khartabil presented Mrs. Gandhi with a book on the Palestine question, and Dr. Nejla Abu Izzeddin gave her her own book, The Arab World; she received them with thanks and promised that she would read them, so that it might be possible for her to work for our causes with understanding and conviction.

Mrs. Gandhi, as she said to Dr. "Edma Abouchdid" — who had asked her opinion of the beauty of Lebanon she had seen on this flying visit of hers — takes a special pleasure in coming to know the people of every country she visits, exceeding her desire to know the landmarks of those countries. And here, once again, you find me wishing that this contagion would pass to our women's organizations, so that they never fail to take the trouble of coming to know the women personalities who visit us, and of receiving them when they pass through our Lebanon, for the benefit and the mutual advantage there is in that.

Indira, daughter of Nehru — the disciple of the immortal Gandhi — Gandhi who taught his followers, as Nehru said in a speech he delivered at the "Saint-Georges" at noon of that same day, to judge everything from the standpoint of the people, the people of India, who number 360 million. The daughter of Nehru has answered these teachings, mustered her powers, and enlisted her gifts to raise the level of these peoples, side by side with her father and his comrades, women and men; nor could the hardship of the task lower their resolve or halt and hamper their march. And this is a third lesson which I address especially to the rulers of my country.