European Diary, 1977-1981 Part 4

SUNDAY, 8 MAY. London and East Hendred.

Downing Street at 10.30. We spent the morning on two main subjects: first, North/South, which Giscard was asked to introduce and did very well. I intervened about fourth and then several times subsequently. We then went on to MTNs, which I think Carter introduced but said little about, and which therefore in effect I introduced with the second speech. The discussions were both quite good without being sensationally so. Probably, I regret to say, Giscard performed the best, looked the most 'statesmanlike' figure, all done in a very head-of-state way. Callaghan was a pretty good chairman, adopting the att.i.tude of a bluff common-sense man, although once on the Special Action Fund he made a major tactical error and put the British in a very difficult position for some time, from which Denis Healey half extracted him. f.u.kuda of j.a.pan spoke surprisingly effectively through the linguistic barrier, and the others listened to him attentively. Andreotti did not make much impact.

Trudeau did a sort of strip-tease. He had been wearing a velvet suit on the Friday evening, but on this occasion he was wearing a slightly trendy pin-stripe, of which he proceeded to divest himself during the morning. First his coat came off, then his waistcoat, then his tie was loosened. Somewhere in the course of the proceedings, the yellow rose which he wears most of the time was put into a gla.s.s of water in front of him. He occasionally intervened, not powerfully but pertinently. Schmidt talked powerfully, confidently, in English as he usually does, but rather too much and in a sense rather too much of a gramophone record. A great number of the phrases and arguments we had heard at Rome came out a second time. Carter did not speak much and adopted a modest, anxious-to-learn att.i.tude, which was quite effective. What is difficult to evaluate is how much this effectiveness was due to his being President of the United States, with a national income of rather over 40 per cent of the total of those seated round the table. If he had been a new Prime Minister of Canada, or of Italy, would he have been regarded as a rather marginal contributor? Probably.

Lunch at Carlton Gardens with the Foreign Ministers, which was solely occupied with a drafting session on the communique. David Owen (who was not very effective throughout the whole Summit, acting too much as Callaghan's office boy) was less good at the English redrafting than I had expected, so that Vance and I did most of it. We then had another two and a half hours on the communique in full Downing Street session.

Then to the press conference in the Banqueting House. I sat at the end of the front row without, as was subsequently widely reported, a microphone, although I was not aware of this. I knew that I was not going to be allowed to speak, as the elaborate compromise which had been worked out was that I should sit in the front row (I had declined to sit anywhere else, saying that I was either the head of a delegation or nothing) but had been forced to accept the mute role. The press conference was interminable. After Callaghan as chairman had spoken, the others were supposed to make statements of two or three minutes; in fact most of them spoke for more like twelve or fifteen minutes, and as there had to be subsequent translation, the whole thing lasted until 7.45. The best statements were made by f.u.kuda and by Carter.

This over, I went to the Stafford Hotel where I did three or four television interviews and held my own press conference in which I tried to strike a balanced and fairly up-beat note, although I am not sure how much this came through. Drove down to East Hendred for the night.

My thoughts at the end of the Summit were (1) immense relief at it being over, (2) almost equal relief at having got rid of the beastly allergy, (3) embarra.s.sment at the extreme and constant awkwardness of the position, (4) a mounting resentment against Callaghan, and a greater but slightly diminis.h.i.+ng resentment against Giscard, and (5) a hope that on the Sunday at any rate I had played a tolerably useful part.

MONDAY, 9 MAY. London.

Lunch with David Steel113 in an attempt to stiffen him in his pressure on the Government about direct elections. He was agreeable, but certainly needed this stiffening. Speech to a European Movement dinnera discreet fund-raising affairat the Reform Club, which was attended by about sixty or seventy people, and was a remarkable roll call of the great and the good, insofar as they exist, of British business.

TUESDAY, 10 MAY. London and Strasbourg.

Breakfast with David Owen at Carlton Gardens for the Foreign Ministers of the Little Five, nominally in order to debrief them on the Summit. Some discussion after two opening statements by David and me, in which K. B. Andersen asked the only interesting question, which was whether I thought that the arrangements in London had been compatible with the Rome compromise. I said 'No', but I nevertheless thought it had been worthwhile that we were there.

Left Carlton Gardens at 9.30 and was in the hotel in Strasbourg only two hours and five minutes later. Answered questions in the Parliament after lunch. Gave a dinner for Colombo114 as President of the Parliament. An enjoyable discussion during which my morale improved, partly because I suddenly realized that I had made a French breakthrough. During my first three months in Brussels I thought it had definitely retrogressed, and even after that had not improved, but it has now jerked forward and I suddenly felt much more fluent and had no difficulty in leading the whole two-hour discussion in French.

WEDNESDAY, 11 MAY. Strasbourg and Bonn.

Very good early Commission meeting, 8.3011.00. We dealt with several issues of difficulty and substance, such as the internal fis.h.i.+ng regime, Brunner's weak proposals for mixed teams between the Vienna Agency and Euratom,115 on which we turned him down. Then into the Chamber ready to make my statement on the Summit, which lasted ten minutes and went quite smoothly. Then by car and train to Bonn for the fifth of my inaugural visits, arriving just after 9 p.m.

For the first time this year it was almost a summer evening. Drove about forty miles to Schloss Gymnich, the German Government hospitality chateau. Huge rooms, bedroom, sitting room. The chateau itself very agreeable and the outlook from the windows attractive, but furnished so as to create a special mixture of modernity and inconvenience.

THURSDAY, 12 MAY. Bonn.

An early start to a long and over-busy day. By helicopter to breakfast with Genscher in the Auswartiges Amt at 8.00. I had a fairly good talk with him, partly on a number of detailed issues which he wished to raise, partly on post-Summit views, partly on the inst.i.tutional consequences of enlargement raised by me, and the dangers of a split on the issue between the small existing members of the Community and the big ones, and the importance of the Germans as having a key role to play resisting this. Genscher is an odd man. Despite our malentendu over German Commissioners in early November, I found him thoroughly agreeable, perfectly easy, and yet difficult to get alongside, despite the lubricating pleasures of his huge breakfast.

At 9.00 to the Bundestag to be ceremonially introduced by the President. This meant standing up in the gallery and being quite loudly applauded by the two hundred or so members present. Then listened to Schmidt's statement on the Summit which lasted over forty minutes, much more of an argumentative speech than is the British habit on these occasions. It contained one important pa.s.sage from the Commission point of view, referring to his satisfaction that I had been present and hoping that this provided a good basis on which to build for the future. This was enthusiastically received. Then I listened to about half of Franz Josef Strauss's116 rather good debating speech, before leaving for a meeting with Friderichs,117 Minister for Economic Affairs. Then back to the Auswartiges Amt for a meeting with Dohnanyi and a lot of officials. Then to the Chancellery for a half-hour with Schmidt alone. We had agreed in London that this was not to be a serious business talk, but it was quite interesting to hear that (1) he was firmly resolved to be the host for the next Summit which he thought might take place in January or February 1978, (2) he regarded free trade and therefore progress in the MTNs as being almost the single most crucial German national interest, and (3) his slight defeatism about the prospect of making real reforms in the CAP, despite his desire to do so.

Then we walked across to the old Chancellery for a luncheon of about sixty people. After lunch Schmidt made a long, rambling but quite interesting speech. He had thrown away his text at my invitation before we left his office, saying it looked much too long, and then proceeded to speak for at least twice as long as the text would have taken. However, amongst the things he said was that he and Giscard had decided that it was very desirable that I should become President of the Commission because they wanted a politician of standing who might have become Prime Minister of his own country, and that he himself had complete faith in my ability to do a very good job in this capacity. My only trouble, he said, was that I had wanted to have twelve other potential Prime Ministers supporting me in the Commission, a very rash wish. He would never do that in his own Government. It made things very uncomfortable. It was much better to be surrounded by people who could never be Prime Ministers. It was a friendly but not very European speech, in which he said that Germany did not want to be in the front row. In reply, I said that Germany was inevitably in the front row, the question was in which direction they pushed. But the whole occasion pa.s.sed off thoroughly pleasantly.

In the afternoon I saw first Frau Schlei, the rather arch Minister of Development, and then w.i.l.l.y Brandt, accompanied by Horst Ehmke, in the SPD headquarters. w.i.l.l.y was extremely friendly, very hospitably relaxed and treated me as an old friend, as indeed I treated him. We mostly talked about his projected chairmans.h.i.+p of the committee on the Third World. In putting this together he is doing exactly what Schmidt had described me as wanting to -a.s.sembling a group of Prime Ministers or equivalents. He thought he had got Kissinger, he preferred Heath rather than Home from England, Mendes-France from France might be very good but was a little old, Palme from Sweden would come along, etc.

Then at 5.15, flagging distinctly by this stage, an hour with Hans Apel, at the Ministry of Finance, followed by a meeting with Matthofer, Minister for Research and Technology, in which he broadly invited me to find some way in which the British could a.s.semble a majority to vote down the Germans and get the JET project for Culham as opposed to the Garching site. It is remarkable the mess that has been made of this. In the car from there Crispin gave me the extraordinary news that Peter Jay118 had been appointed Amba.s.sador to Was.h.i.+ngton. Dinner in the Steigenberger Hotel, presided over by Anna-Maria Renger, ex-President of the Bundestag, and a very nice woman. Back at Schloss Gymnich by about 11.15, exhausted by ten meetings on the run.

FRIDAY, 13 MAY. Bonn and East Hendred.

10 o'clock meeting in the Bundestag with Kohl, accompanied by Narjes. Kohl, as had been my impression when I had previously met him in July 1976 in London, is a considerable man. Schmidt does not think so, but he is wrong. We exchanged views on a number of issues and found a close ident.i.ty of European view with, I hope, a considerable continuing Christian Democratic commitment to the Community. In the latter part of the interview Kohl expounded why this was particularly important for Germany in view of their divided position, their historical rootlessness, all done in a mixture of practical and philosophical terms which was effective. Then to the Commission office for a pointless but not testing debriefing of the amba.s.sadors of the Nine, and then a long press conference.

Lunch at the Redout presided over by Dohnanyi. Then to the Villa Hammerstein, the presidential residence, for a meeting with Walter Scheel.119 This was impaired by the Germans having far too many people present, sitting round like crows on a branch. I had taken only Crispin, but they had at least twelve in the room. I find a large, silent audience of this sort particularly inhibiting, especially as I wished to raise points of substance with the Federal President. Scheel, however, is a nice man who has grown a lot and I think is now a major figure. He has some unrealistic ideas about the reform of the Council of Ministers, but he is generally firmly on the right side.

Plane to London, and East Hendred by just after 8.00, very glad to be back after a fairly exhausting three weeks, morale a good deal up in the last two to three days.

MONDAY, 16 MAY. East Hendred and Brussels.

Back to Brussels by noon. I gave lunch to the Council of British s.h.i.+pping, which was all right apart from the fact that my left-hand neighbour, who was otherwise an engaging companion, choked on a piece of meat and nearly died during lunch. However, he revived afterwards under the care of the service medicale.

THURSDAY, 19 MAY. Brussels, London and Dublin.

To London for Peter Kirk's memorial service at St Margaret's. Then with Jennifer to Dublin for our official visit. Met by Garret Fitzgerald and conducted in with, as usual in Ireland these days, a heavy security guard, endless police cars, motorbikes, screaming sirens, etc. To the Hibernian Hotel, just off St Stephen's Green. A Prime Minister's (or Taoiseach's) dinner at Iveagh House, with a big turn-up of most Irish notables, including about half the Government, the leader of the Opposition (Lynch), and various other figures. I liked Cosgrave at dinner; although a quiet and reticent man, he was nice to talk to, as was his wife, and made a good, prepared, pro-European speech after dinner, to which I responded.

FRIDAY, 20 MAY. Dublin and London.

Thirty-minute visit to the Commission office, a rather splendid Georgian house in Merrion Square, then to the Taoiseach's office for an hour's conversation alone with him, apart from Crispin and one on his side, in which I mainly gave him a debriefing on the Summit. Again impressed by him; he listens well, is serious and takes in what is said. Following that, a large governmental meeting at Iveagh House, presided over by Garret Fitzgerald, with six other ministers. These meetings with groups of ministers are quite a strain as I have to conduct all the talk on our side and we range over a lot of subjects, whereas they have a revolving cast. After that, to a nominally but not very working lunch in the other part of Iveagh House, with Garret Fitzgerald presiding over a table of about twenty.

Then out to Phoenix Park to call on the President-Patrick Hillery, a previous Vice-President of the Commission-at the old Vice-Regal Lodge, now called ras an Uachtarin. A beautiful afternoon with sparkling, very clear Dublin light, and I was much reminded of Dilke's description of a drive from there on the occasion of his only visit to Ireland at almost exactly the same time of year, ninety-two years before, when he had been struck by the view to the Wicklow mountains and the number of people riding out on 'cars' to the strawberry gardens but all of them refusing even to acknowledge the Viceroy (Spencer, I suppose). Hillery and I spent half the time walking in the gardens. Then back to the Dail for a call on Jack Lynch.120 It was the beginning of the election campaign. He was friendly and modest but gave me the impression that he had very little chance.121 After that a press conference and to the airport, again under screaming escort, for the 5.55 for London. A beautiful flight on the way back until we got to about Henley-on-Thames. A spectacular early summer evening, particularly over Monmouths.h.i.+re and Herefords.h.i.+re.

SAt.u.r.dAY, 21 MAY. London and Leeds Castle.

With Crispin to Leeds Castle for the Foreign Ministers' 'Schloss Gymnich'-type meeting, which Tony Crosland had been particularly keen to arrange there, thinking that it would be a striking and agreeable place. So indeed it was. A remarkable house, or rather castle, of which I had never before had more than a distant glimpse, very well furnished and with a most unusual arrangement of views. However, the weekend was not a total success. People had come slightly too far at too great an inconvenience, despite the helicopters which had been a.s.sembled to transport them from various airports, and David Owen, with his many qualities, is not a naturally gracious host; he is not keen enough on surroundings or food or drink to enjoy providing them for others.

However, all the Nine Foreign Ministers turned up and the discussion, desultory over lunch and then for about three and a quarter hours after lunch on enlargement, was worthwhile. Towards the end we had an awkward pa.s.sage about the representation of the Community at the Belgrade follow-up meetings to the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. We nearly got a very satisfactory agreement and then it was torn apart. It nominally turned on what the pancarte in front of our delegation should say, but the real issue was the independent position of the Commission as opposed to its subordination to member state governments. We had thought the French would be the most difficult but in fact the most trouble came from the Danes followed by the British. Despite the splendour of my room, I slept badly.

SUNDAY, 22 MAY. Leeds Castle and London.

Morning session of about the same quality as the previous afternoon. Then Geoffrey Lloyd and Peter Wilson122 for a drink at about noon-some ministers were going by that time-in their capacity as trustees for the Leeds Castle Foundation, and then a lunch at which about half the Foreign Ministers were present, just before which I had a better conversation with David (Owen) than any since he has become Foreign Secretary. London at 3.30.

WEDNESDAY, 25 MAY. Brussels.

Six and a half hours of Commission meetings, the afternoon almost entirely taken up with the first major bite at the budget. Tugendhat definitely performing well; also an extremely skilful performance by Davignon, who managed to get away with a certain amount of murder in his field by (1) arguing his individual case well and effectively, and (2) being helpful to everybody else, particularly me, on all other issues. Budget discussions in the Commission are remarkably reminiscent of a public expenditure exercise in the British Cabinet.

THURSDAY, 26 MAY. Brussels.

Commission from 9.30 to 1.05, by the end of which, after ten hours on two days, we had completed the budget. There was difficulty during the morning, but only about overseas representation, a rather silly issue, in which Cheysson and Haferkamp (through his representative; he, typically, was not present) were both over-demanding. We settled the Regional Fund fairly quickly at 750 million units of account, and then had a difficult issue on the Social Fund at the end, where we weren't prepared to allow very much increase in the credit voted, although owing to the speed-up of payments there would be a very considerable increase in operations on the ground. Vredeling, discontented and unhappy, voted sullenly against, but did not actually throw a tremendous scene, and clearly was in no resignation mood. Ortoli intervened rather helpfully and persuasively at the end, urging him to accept the decision and make the best he could of it, which I think he is doing.

Then to lunch with the Trilateral Commission123 who were having an all-day meeting in Brussels with sessions with various Commissioners. I spoke and answered questions for an hour.

Back to the Berlaymont to see Giolitti, who was very pleased with the outcome in the morning and has really got much better and crisper and came with two very sensible further points about national quotas within the Fund and the proportion which should be quota-free. Rue de Praetere dinner party for Brunners, Ersblls (Danish Permanent Representative), Ronald Mcintosh124 and Tickells. Mrs Brunner, who is General Speidel's daughter, was very interesting at dinner. I also had a good talk with Ersbll afterwards, whom I like, and found very sensible on a broad range of European issues.

FRIDAY, 27 MAY. Brussels and Suss.e.x.

Plane to Gatwick and drove with Jennifer to the Bonham Carters125 at Ripe.

Before dinner I drove with Leslie and Jennifer up to Firle Beacon on a most memorable evening,126 not outstandingly clear in the far distance, but with the countryside a gleaming green, and a perfect light over Newhaven Harbour and in the other direction up the valley of the Ouse towards Lewes and the Weald.

SUNDAY, 29 MAY. Suss.e.x and Paris.

Weather still perfect and I felt a good deal less exhausted than for the past ten days. Early morning expedition to Lewes for the newspapers and back over Glyndebourne. Tennis with the Annans127 who came to lunch. Spent the afternoon in the garden before departing at 7.00 for Paris and the CIEC North/South Conference. I was met by Michael Jenkins and drove to the Ritz Hotel.

MONDAY, 30 MAY. Paris.

Drove on a perfect morning through the empty streets of Paris-it being a public holiday-with an unnecessary motorcycle escort to the conference in the old Hotel Majestic (British peace treaty negotiating HQ in 1919, Gestapo HQ from 1940, now the Palais Kleber).

First a meeting with Cyrus Vance, who had not moved much on most of the issues of substance-the Common Fund, Special Action,128 Official Development Aid, etc., though he was I think anxious to be reasonably forthcoming within the limitations of the American Treasury view. But he had done a sudden switch on the question of a possible continuation of CIEC. In response, apparently, to some suggestion of the Saudis (who would give in return consultation on oil prices) Vance was prepared to contemplate this and to say so in his opening speech.

This led immediately, just before the opening of the conference itself, to a-rather tetchy row between him and David Owen, who was strongly opposed to the idea. David was apparently in a generally bad temper, so the Foreign Office officials said, although this did not show itself in his relations with me during the week. However, it was silly of him to have this rather unnecessary row with Vance for I managed immediately afterwards (and fairly easily) to get the most objected-to pa.s.sage out of Vance's speech. It is also a pity he has got on such generally bad terms with the Foreign Office.

The conference began with formal statements: Guiringaud for the host country, then Waldheim of the UN, then the two co-chairmen (MacEachen of Canada for the Group of Eight, or G8, and Perez-Guerrero of Venezuela for the Group of Nineteen, or G19). Then, rather to our surprise, we discovered that the two chairmen wished to go further in the morning, and so David Owen and I both spoke on behalf of the Community; rather flat speeches both of them I thought. Then I walked the one and a half miles or so to near the Rond Point for a slightly pointless lunch given by the Canadians. Then we had a strategy meeting of G8, in which MacEachen outlined his scheme for dividing into four Commissions for detailed negotiating, with about three representatives of our side facing about five of G19 across each table, and a rule that only heads of delegations should do the actual negotiating. This was a dangerous procedure so far as anyone's ability to keep overall control of the conference was concerned. However, it was a good and interesting experience to have to do for once the detailed negotiating which is normally done by officials. The Community was to be on three out of four groups, which meant that David Owen had to take one, I another and Cheysson the third. I did the so-called 'Development' one, including Special Action, Indebtedness and Official Development Aid.

Then I saw the new Indian Foreign Minister for about half an hour. He talked little, but K. B. Lall, their extremely experienced Amba.s.sador to the Community, talked a good deal and gave us fairly clear information that G19 were in a reasonably moderate mood and anxious for a tolerable outcome of the conference.

TUESDAY, 31 MAY. Paris.

An early meeting of the G8 representatives on my negotiating group. It soon became clear that they were pretty useless. There was the Canadian Minister of Mines and Industry, Gillespie, who looked and indeed was a nice man, in appearance a curious cross between Giscard and Senator McGovern, but who appeared to know little about the subjects, and was fairly slow at picking them up. The third representative, the Swedish Foreign Minister, Mrs Karin Soder, was terrified. There had been a suggestion that she should be the moderator of the group, but she had backed away from this with enormous energy, and it was quite clear that I had to do it.

Lunch at the British Emba.s.sy, where there seemed to be some uneasy ambiguity as to whether Nicko or David Owen was host to about eight Foreign Ministers. Then back to the Kleber for a five-hour negotiating session of my group. My princ.i.p.al interlocutor was Bouteflika, the Foreign Minister of Algeria, clever, reputedly difficult, but in my view quite engaging to deal with on a basis of reasonably good-tempered verbal sparring. There was also the Finance Minister of the Cameroons who negotiated a bit about agricultural aid, briefly, effectively and helpfully, and also a Pakistani gentleman who was a slight caricature of a Pakistani, began all statements with a very loud 'Sir', and was also fortunately a tremendous literary sn.o.b, who claimed to have read all my books, and kept on saying he would not engage in stylistic arguments with such a distinguished author, etc. The negotiations were enjoyable and went rather well, but were exhausting as n.o.body else spoke from our side.

Then instead of going to Guiringaud's dinner at the Quai d'Orsay-I had had enough official meals and felt under no obligation to accept a French invitation-Michael and I gave dinner to the Hendersons in the very pretty ambience of the Grand Vefour looking out over the garden of the Palais Royal. Nicko told me that at a dinner the week before, Giscard had sent for him to pa.s.s on a message that he hoped that I had not taken personal offence over his behaviour in London. It was not his whim, it was French official policy, and what he had done was not much, if any, worse than Callaghan or Schmidt. This message neither greatly surprised nor excited me. On the whole I prefer that Giscard should take this view rather than the opposite one, but a half-apology in private after offence in public is, I fear, rather typical of him.

Back to the Kleber at 11.00. Gillespie was deeply involved in trying to negotiate the industrialization and transfer of technology pa.s.sages and was without question making a good old c.o.c.k-up of it, although it was a fairly complicated and unrewarding subject. I therefore stayed until we adjourned at 1 o'clock.

WEDNESDAY, 1 JUNE. Paris and Brussels.

I had hoped to go to Brussels in the morning, but this became impossible. Gillespie had gone home to Canada after his not very good performance the night before and the Swedish lady was still incapable of speech. As the hours went on some progress, notably on the pa.s.sage about Official Development Aid which, with great difficulty, we managed to get agreed. The Americans, by late in the afternoon, were getting into what I thought was a rather ill-judged confrontation mood and Ryan, their princ.i.p.al operating man in my Commission (although mysteriously both Senator Javits and ex-Governor Gilligan of Ohio spent most of the time sitting in). Ryan kept coming up to me and saying, 'Tell them if they won't accept this, the whole thing's off. We are withdrawing everything else we have agreed.' But I was certainly not prepared to go back on agreements which, apart from anything else, had been so laboriously hammered out, and firmly declined to go along with him.

As a result we managed by about 8 o'clock to complete the work, leaving a number of things disagreed, but with substantial accomplishment nonetheless. The rest of the conference was still grinding on, but I decided there was nothing more I could do and therefore rushed down to the Gare du Nord and just caught the 8.30 TEE. A nice journey across northern France on a perfect June evening.

THURSDAY, 2 JUNE. Brussels.

Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia at 11.45, first for a short private talk, then for a formal Commission meeting, and then for lunch at Val d.u.c.h.esse. Kaunda is a nice, honest and quite interesting man, certainly the best of the African heads of state that I have so far entertained at the Commission, although he harangued us unnecessarily aggressively about Rhodesia.

Dinner with Luns, the NATO Secretary-General, who was in his usual large canine mood. I was struck by how incomparably grander a house the Secretary-General of NATO has than the President of the Commission could possibly afford out of his allegedly so large salary. (The difference of course is that the NATO house is provided and staffed officially.) A male dinner: Haferkamp who arrived late and said practically nothing; Davignon who talked a good deal very sensibly; Andre de Staercke (famous Belgian ex-diplomat), whom I had not seen since Grimaud, behind St Tropez, in 1966; Pansa Cedronio, the Italian deputy Secretary-General; and Killick, the British Amba.s.sador to NATO. Killick talked a good deal too much in his usual RASC colonel manner and ended up with a spirited defence of South Africa. Stevy Davignon carved him up over this, but at least the fact that he (Killick) did it showed a certain b.l.o.o.d.y-minded independence.

FRIDAY, 3 JUNE. Brussels, Bonn and East Hendred.

Motored to Bonn to deliver the first in a series of German Marshall Fund Lectures to mark the thirtieth anniversary of Marshall's Harvard speech. An audience of about two hundred, a lot of amba.s.sadors, a lot of Americans who had come over, Carstens,129 Dohnanyi and a moderately distinguished German gathering. I talked about enlargement and North/South relations. Plane from Dusseldorf to England.

MONDAY, 6 JUNE. East Hendred.

To the Berlins'130 at Headington for a rather grand but highly enjoyable lunch party. Apart from the Berlins and us, the Beaumarchais', the Asa Briggs',131 Arnold Goodman132 and Ann Fleming133, Michael and Pam Hartwell,134 Nin Ryan135 and Joe Alsop.

WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE. Brussels.

Commission all day, but now working quite well and no immense difficulties. The main subject in the morning was Gundelach's attempt to impose Monetary Compensatory Amounts (MCAs) upon durum wheat (essential for pasta) which provoked a lot of Italian opposition, both Giolitti and Natali speaking with great pa.s.sion. It was the first time Gundelach had failed to carry the Commission with him when he had been deploying an issue with full force directly within his own field. Following this his extremely ingenious solution for the British pig problem went through, as Asquith would have said 'on oiled castors' with merely a little grumble from Vredeling and one or two others, mainly because the Commission could not possibly turn Gundelach down on two agricultural issues running.

Anthony Lewis136 of the New York Times and Crispin and Hayden to an enjoyable lunch, rue de Praetere. After the Commission I saw Davignon for a general round-up, although his preoccupation was his complaints about the laziness of Haferkamp, fully justified but not for the moment at any rate leading to anything very much. Haferkamp is, I fear, without doubt a disappointment and I may have made a mistake in giving him the big external job, although I still do not see a better realistic alternative. Gundelach or Davignon would of course have been individually better, but this would have left the Germans without a major portfolio.

THURSDAY, 9 JUNE. Brussels and Copenhagen.

Philippe Le Maitre of Le Monde for half an hour to see if I could delicately improve relations with him and therefore Le Monde's reporting of the Commission, with which we could most certainly do.

To Copenhagen, where we were met on the tarmac by K. B. Andersen, the Foreign Minister, and pouring rain. Drove to the Hotel d'Angleterre, a nice turn-of-the-century hotel, where I had rather magnificent rooms, though no luggage until after midnight owing to a c.o.c.k-up, and did a little work there before going to the Prime Minister's dinner of about fifty. I sat between him (Anker Jorgensen) and K. B. Andersen. Jorgensen neither speaks nor understands English perfectly by any means; he is however an agreeable man with a great deal of sense, pro-Community, and with a strong position in the country; and as one gets to know him better it is not difficult to see why. Speeches, in English, about a quarter of an hour each; fortunately I managed to think up a Hamlet quotation to match his prepared one, but was quite unable to match his Hans Christian Andersen one.

FRIDAY, 10 JUNE. Copenhagen and East Hendred.

A three-mile walk confirmed my view that Copenhagen is both agreeable and handsome. Then a short talk with Jorgensen alone, during which I told him of the plans for the Bonn Summit in the early months of 1978, i.e. during the Danish presidency, but added that I thought it likely that this would in fact have to be postponed because of the imminence of the French elections. I suggested that Jorgensen did not raise the issue of double Community representation, i.e. his possible presence as President of the European Council, as well as mine, for a few months, and he seemed to agree.

Following this there were two large meetings (both in length and size of attendance), the first with the Prime Minister in the chair, and the second under the Foreign Minister. We covered agriculture, with particular reference to MCAs, economic and monetary union, the Snake,137 Tripart.i.te Conference, direct elections and the remote but delicate issue of Greenland's relations with the Community. The veteran (but not old) Per Haekkerup spoke remarkably well on a whole range of issues.

Then we drove about twenty miles to Fredensborg for the royal lunch with Queen Margrethe. Fredensborg is a large, quite impressive early eighteenth-century palace, with a park on one side, a small town very close to its gates on the other, slightly in this way like a very miniature Versailles. Lunch for about two dozen: the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister -1 drove out with Anker Jrgensen and drove back with K. B. Andersen-plus a few other politicians, also the Prince of Denmark (the Queen's young French Consort who was in the emba.s.sy in London) and Queen Ingrid. They had very decently asked to lunch all the people of my party, including my secretary.

I sat between the two Queens and got on fairly well with both of them. A perfect though remarkably different English from each of them; Queen Margrethe's more 'educated', no doubt the result of Girton, and Queen Ingrid's more in a traditional upper-cla.s.s English female mould. Rather curiously there was no politics, not even in the broadest European sense, at lunch, and the conversation was purely social throughout, which was not wholly to the taste of the Danish politicians and a contrast with my visits with Queen Juliana, the King of the Belgians, or the Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

By the end of lunch there had been a remarkable change in the weather. A hazy sun had come out and it had become immensely hot and humid. My crowded press conference at the Community office in Copenhagen was one of the most drenching Turkish baths I had ever been in. Then another talk of nearly an hour and a half with K. B. Andersen. There was one point on which we could not get agreement. We wanted the Danes to hold up their ratification of the Baltic Convention in order that the Community should try and be a party to it. The Germans, who are also a party, are willing to do this, but not the Danes. I found it difficult to know whether my Commission brief was excessively legalistic or not. However, we managed to avoid this degenerating into a nasty argument, and finished up and parted with expressions of goodwill at about 6.30.

This Danish expedition was one of the best of the opening official visits to the capitals; both the two major ministers and several others were well worth talking to; difficulties were not glossed over, and high consideration for the Commission was shown by both the Danish State and the Danish Government.

SUNDAY, 12 JUNE. East Hendred and London.

To Oxford to lunch in Univ. with Arnold Goodman. Only Arnold and the now very old Goodharts138-the former Master of Univ. They were thoroughly agreeable but a bit out of touch with reality. At one stage Arthur Goodhart asked me if I had ever been to America, which left me slightly breathless. Arnold presided benignly, talking rather well on a number of subjects. One of his advantages is that he is largely audience-insensitive; he talks almost as well whether he has got a sympathetic, comprehending audience or not. Spent another sodden afternoon sitting in front of the East Hendred fire. Drove to Isleworth and dined with the Gilmours,139 plus Anthony Lewis', Beaumarchais', Rees-Moggs,140 Robert Blakes141 and Carringtons.142 Enjoyable and interesting dinner.

MONDAY, 13 JUNE. London and Brussels.

Rue de Praetere dinner for the Gough Whitlams (former Labour Prime Minister of Australia). A surprisingly agreeable dinner after a slightly sticky start. Whitlam is most engaging and so is the mammoth Mrs Whitlam. The conversation became general halfway through dinner and he began to talk with extraordinary knowledge and interest about the genealogy of European nineteenth-century royal houses. He is a great expert on who exactly was every Hapsburg relation of the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. No detailed discussion about current issues, but brief exchanges of view, with Mrs Whitlam mainly, on Fraser143 whom she was against -not surprisingly-and Peac.o.c.k144, to whom she was much more favourable.

TUESDAY, 14 JUNE. Strasbourg.

Dinner for the bureau of the Socialist Group with an unsatisfactory conversation led by Fellermaier; they are not an inspiring group and most of the conversation was about some incredibly detailed, pointless, trivial matters of relations.h.i.+p between the Commission and the Parliament. The only man who tried to raise the level a bit, and up to a point succeeded, was John Prescott145 WEDNESDAY, 15 JUNE. Strasbourg.

Horrible morning as so often this summer. Lunch for a group of Labour stalwarts and possible candidates brought by Jim Cattermole.146 This was a surprisingly successful occasion. They were lively and good, temporarily raised my spirits and, as David Marquand said afterwards, made one realize what a lot of nice people there still are in the Labour Party.

THURSDAY, 16 JUNE. Strasbourg and Brussels.

Jennifer rang to say that Ladbroke Square had been sold within two hours of being put on the market. Mixed feelings, both because it is one thing putting a house on the market and another to realize that (after twenty-three years) it has gone; and also because its going so quickly makes one think we sold it too cheap.147 FRIDAY, 17 JUNE. Brussels and Bernkastel.

A meeting, followed by lunch, with Malcolm Fraser, the Prime Minister of Australia. He is a rather surly fellow who looks a mixture of the self-confident and the suspicious. What in fact he most reminds me of is a fast bowler on an off day, tall, quite strong, but looking as though throughout a hot afternoon he had been taking very long runs to the wicket and bouncing them down short without getting any result; s.h.i.+rt out, trousers slightly coming down. He was anxious to be awkward and I had to respond once or twice. He came out with a ludicrous theory that we had all been beastly to the j.a.panese and that, as a result of his talks with f.u.kuda, he thought that j.a.pan, unless allowed much better access to markets than at present-surely a work of supererogation-would go back to its policies of the thirties, i.e. reversal of alliances, no support for the Western world, possibly moving into the Soviet sphere. I, and I think everybody else, had interpreted f.u.kuda's remarks-particularly about the thirties-in London in a totally different sense.

We then moved to lunch and I found Fraser slightly more agreeable. It emerged, most extraordinarily, that although I had begun by saying, 'I don't think we have ever met,' and his agreeing, except to say, 'Maybe we shook hands,' it then transpired in the course of lunch, fortunately coming to us both almost simultaneously, that I had in fact been to his house in the country in western Victoria in 1965 when I had been there on my visit as Minister of Aviation. I was driven over for a drink before lunch on the Sunday. Fortunately, as the occasion had been equally non-memorable for both of us, there was no great embarra.s.sment about this. We then moved into a fairly rough discussion round the table which ran until 4 o'clock. An awkward, aggressive man, who does not put his best face forward. His att.i.tudes obviously caused considerable embarra.s.sment both to Peac.o.c.k, his Foreign Minister, a much smoother man, and to his Amba.s.sador (Sir James Plimsoll and not smooth), but perhaps amba.s.sadors always dislike abrasiveness.

Motored to Bernkastel to join Jennifer and the Annans, who had gone that morning. After dinner at the Hotel zum Post we went to a cafe where impromptu singing broke out, and I wondered how different it had all been forty-three years before when Noel had first been there. He thought not immensely, apart from more people now-it was a German holiday weekend. The Annans have an extraordinary attachment to Germany, rather surprising in Gaby's case as she was brought up as a small child in grand Jewish circles in Berlin and left sometime in the 1930s. Noel likes the lederhosen aspect, and had indeed been on a walking tour there in 1934.

SAt.u.r.dAY, 18 JUNE. Bernkastel.

To the Prums at Wehlen at 11.00. He is both a substantial wine grower and a substantial wine merchant: a young man, who is a doctor of something or other, aged about forty, living with his mother. He gave us an extraordinarily good selection of Mosel wines to drink throughout the day, ranging from a 1921, through one of the wartime years, to the great 1949, and a whole variety of more recent ones. It taught me a lot about Mosel. It is remarkably unintoxicating because the alcoholic content, which I had long suspected, turned out on investigation to be not more than about 7 per cent. The Prums live in an oppressive Wilhelmine house, built about 1902, of dark red, sombre appearance-all our wine tasting was done in a very heavy salon and the lunch, rather good, was in a hermetically sealed dining room. His mother, an opera-loving widow, was present at lunch but at nothing else. Then he drove us up to a hill on top of one of his Wehlen vineyards, where we had yet more tasting.

SUNDAY, 19 JUNE. Bernkastel and Brussels.

Motored to Trier (good cathedral and Marx's birthplace) which we looked round briefly and agreeably; and then on into northern Luxembourg where we had a picnic just on the edge of the rain. In the evening we had a dinner party rue de Praetere for the Annans, with the Tindemans amongst others. After dinner I arranged with Tindemans that he would be glad to attempt a JET mediatory job. He would endeavour to see both Schmidt and Callaghan during the early part of the following week.

MONDAY, 20 JUNE. Brussels.

Received and had a short talk with Seretse Khama,148 President of Botswana, before taking him in for a pro forma Commission meeting. I had previously suggested that our Wednesday dinner for him ought, if his wife were in Brussels, to be a mixed one, contrary to our normal pattern, but this had been resisted by the Protocol Department on the ground that it had not been done for other African heads of state; and I had not persisted, partly because Ruth Khama is an Englishwoman. On the way down in the lift, however, I said to Seretse that I understood his wife was in Brussels and I was sorry that the dinner was not a mixed one. 'Oh, don't worry in the least,' he replied, 'she is used to being treated like that in Arab countries.' The point was sufficiently well made that I insisted that we changed our arrangements immediately, particularly as Jennifer was in Brussels that week.