Foreign News: Astorisqu

Virginia-born Lady Astor sometimes enlivens London dinner parties with semi-serious tirades against American pin-up girls: “Bare legs! It’s disgusting! Our Army ought to be ashamed of itself!”* Last week a batch of grubby British “art” magazines set her off in public. Armed with a stack of them, she rose in the House of Commons and touched off one of those exchanges which a British wit has called “Asterisks”:

Lady Astor: The Government should not grant dwindling paper stock to “art study” magazines. The men who scan nude prints are mostly “not art students.” How much paper do such publications absorb?

Supply Minister Sir Andrew Duncan (with frosty dignity): I am sure that the Noble Lady will understand that it is not feasible to keep statistics in sufficient detail to give her the knowledge that she asks.

Lady Astor: Will you look at some of these publications (cries of ‘No, No!’) and will you bear one thing in mind—whether they are good for winning the war or whether they are detrimental?

Laborite John Dugdale: Will the Minister see that some of these publications are laid upon the table of the House for inspections?

Bawdy laughter from the House. Ladylike silence from Lady Astor.

* To Nancy Astor, the U.S. Army is still “Our Army.”