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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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be a war, and he said by early fall of '39 and if I was going to Europe I must be home by the middle of July because the war might start by the first of August, as soon as the harvests were in.

Now, I believed this, so instead of staying in Europe longer, I decided to come home about the middle of July. He telephoned me once or twice in Europe, which was a great effort for him, I realized later, but it seemed like nothing to me because I had many friends who telephoned to Europe and it didn't seem to be any big thing. But he sent me marvelous flowers and seemed to be somewhat interested in me.

I went to Paris for a few days and sailed for home on the 15th of July.

Q:

Did the English people seem to be fearful of a war breaking out?

Lasker:

I couldn't say that they were fearful. Most of them weren't really aware but my hostess, Audrey Bouverie, really had a premonition of it, a sense of it, and felt that we couldn't tell when it would happen but if it were about to happen, then we should enjoy our lives as they were then as much as we could. She went through the war and it took an enormous amount out of her; many of her friends were killed.

When Ireturned to New York, Albert Lasker was in New York as a witness on the stand in connection with the American Tobacco Company case, which is described in John Gunther's book.





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