European Diary, 1977-1981 Part 9

Lunch for the five or six British journalists, which was all right from a conversation point of view, not I thought as interesting as the one they had given me a few months ago, but worth having and no great knots or difficulties, but no great theme either. However, they expressed a desire to go on with the series. Jennifer to Brussels in the early evening.

SAt.u.r.dAY, 14 JANUARY. Brussels.

Drove to Henri Simonet's house in the country at Gooik, on a dismal day, for what turned out to be a rather grand Belgian luncheon party with the Boels6 and various other notabilities, about twelve people altogether. The house itself was rather elegantly done but it is a curious place to have a country house as it is only about ten miles from their Brussels house and rather on the same side of the city. It is a little like having one house in the Hampstead Garden Suburb and another in Barnet. However, the lunch was excellent, and the conversation rather good too.

TUESDAY, 17 JANUARY. Brussels and Luxembourg.

Foreign Affairs Council at 10.00. Three hours there before leaving by train for Luxembourg. I spoke to the Parliament almost immediately after arrival on economic and monetary union; a speech of about half an hour, followed by what I thought was going to be a substantial debate but in fact, owing to the mysterious working of the Parliament, turned out only to last one and a half hours and to involve no very serious contributions from the floor. Therefore the response was a bit disappointing. Ortoli, however, intervening at the time we had eventually agreed, spoke well and warmly. A drink with the Socialist Group, which was intended to be for Hayward and Underhill from Transport House, but they were hopelessly fog-bound, proceeding from Brussels in a coach, apparently, and did not turn up.

WEDNESDAY, 18 JANUARY. Luxembourg and Khartoum.

Commission from 9.00 until 10.00, with no great difficulties, sat in the Parliament until 11.30; met a deputation of Spanish MPs and then off to the airport to leave by an avion taxi which had come down from Brussels containing Jennifer for a flight to Munich to pick up the Lufthansa plane to Khartoum. Munich was sunny but covered in snow and we took off late. An easy flight via Cairo, arriving at Khartoum at 11.30, with filthy food. The temperature both in Cairo and Khartoum was almost perfect, absolutely clear sky. Drove to Government Guest House No. 1, which was slightly reminiscent of, although less luxurious than, Lee Kuan Yew's guest house in Singapore.

THURSDAY, 19 JANUARY. Khartoum.

Flew for about thirty-five minutes soon after 9 o'clock to visit the Gezira irrigation and general development scheme in the triangle between the Blue and the White Niles. Walked around this for too long and then flew back for a luncheon with the Vice-President and Foreign Minister on a Nile boat. Nice temperature, perhaps nearly 80 but no humidity and quite pleasant provided one was not actually in the sun. Altogether rather a good river trip, surrounded partly by diplomats and partly by a variety of other Sudanese ministers, as well as the host.

At 5 o'clock to the opening of the International Fair. This was a fairly chaotic occasion. No speech from President Nimeiri,7 as a result of which indeed neither I nor Jennifer was at this stage quite clear which he was, but various manifestations of bands, processions on camels, etc. Then suddenly a wild rush and movement from the dais in the square where this was all taking place, through to the European Pavilion where the next phase was about to occur. We managed with some difficulty to get our way through the crowd and to arrive more or less intact for me to make my speech there. I spoke for about twenty minutes to again a rather chaotic gathering of a few hundred people, with Nimeiri and all the Government listening quite carefully, and the speech appeared to go all right.

FRIDAY, 20 JANUARY. Khartoum.

A long morning meeting with various ministers: a mixture of discussion about fairly hard bilateral subjects with a broader perspective on the renegotiation of Lome8 and the progress of North/South dialogue. Then visited the Commission delegation and planted a tree; then a brief tourist visit to the Presidential Palace which is an attractive Blue Nile-side building, built originally, I suppose, in about the late 1870s, a good deal changed, but still with a certain atmosphere of Gordon, and retaining the horseshoe staircase on one side of which he was killed.

Then to Khartoum North on the other side of the Blue Nile for a lunch given by the German Amba.s.sador as the acting President of the Community amba.s.sadors (no Danish Amba.s.sador in Khartoum). He proved an extremely intelligent man. Back to the Fair, where I had to give a long reception in our pavilion. Then to a late supper party at the residence of Watterson, Commission representative, British, forestry expert, ex-Sudan Civil Service.

SAt.u.r.dAY, 21 JANUARY. Khartoum and Luxor.

Meeting with Nimeiri in the Presidential Palace from 9.00 to 10.15. I rather liked him. Slightly ponderous, conversation a little slow to get going, but quite sensible; seemed reasonably sure of himself, but at the same time not full of pomposity, ideas of grandeur or deity; very anti-Communist, indeed rather seeing 'reds under the bed' and feeling himself surrounded on every side except the Egyptian one. Perhaps the most surprising indication of feeling surrounded was his view that Kenya was becoming very penetrated and might easily go over when Kenyatta went. Nevertheless he thought it desirable that Kenyatta should go as soon as possible, because this was the only possibility of pulling the country together again at all as it was now deteriorating very rapidly under his corrupt regime. Nimeiri was quite sensible about Sudanese development possibilities, neither too utopian nor too grandiose.

Then drove to Omdurman, crossing the White Nile for the first time for an hour-long press conference. Then to the airport for a great ceremonial goodbye from the Vice-President, various ministers, all the amba.s.sadors, etc. Eventually set off, after too long a wait, in a tiny new Cessna plane (which we had privately hired) for the four-hour flight to Luxor, a long time to be in a small plane unable to move; and a horrible long time it would have been had the weather been disagreeable. However, it was perfect all the way. The plane flew at 7/8000 feet and as a result we had a magnificent impression of the Nile Valley; occasionally going about a hundred miles away from the river, cutting across bends, but basically it was a flight down the Nile, first over the scrubland on the East bank, then across the river near Atbara and into real desert for the first time, then over Abu Simbel, Lake Na.s.ser, and down to Luxor in the evening light between 4.30 and 4.45. We drove into Luxor and installed ourselves in the Winter Palace Hotel, which is extremely agreeable, quite good rooms, beautiful view over the Nile and out beyond towards the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens on one side and on the other a view over the old garden, rather reminiscent of that at the Marmounia Hotel in Marrakesh.

At 6.15 a son et lumiere performance at Karnak, which was good to begin with but got both cold and boring towards the end with over-colourful text and over-sonorous voices. Dinner at the hotel with a few local dignitaries, the deputy Governor, Mayor, Chief of Police etc., plus our two pilots who were both Sudanese, extremely black and dervish-like, but who seemed excellent pilots and turned out to be absolutely charming men who spoke more than anybody else at dinner and gave us a much more vivid impression of what life in Khartoum was like than anything we had gained on the spot.

SUNDAY, 22 JANUARY. Luxor.

Morning expedition to the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. Omelette lunch in the hotel garden, followed by a swim in the cool pool. Then a visit to the Luxor Museum. Dinner in the hotel, as on the previous evening, was, alas, very bad: typical English 1930s seaside hotel food which lingers on in ex-colonial places from Singapore to Cyprus. The Egyptian wine-Chateau Ptolemy it was called-was also pretty nasty with a particularly disagreeable bouquet which suggested there was a good deal of the mud of the delta in it. (Nanteuil told me that he had found Chateau Lafite in the Winter Palace on one of his honeymoons. He must have drunk it all.) However, the hotel produced very good dry martinis. These small difficulties apart, Luxor is a most wonderful place. At this time of the year there is perfect, apparently totally reliable weather, no humidity, temperature down to about 40 at night, up to about 75 in the day, not much wind, wonderful views and absolutely top-cla.s.s sight-seeing. Agreeableness does not necessarily go with such sight-seeing, and the combination here was quite exceptional. It is a place and a hotel to which I would much like to go back.

MONDAY, 23 JANUARY. Luxor and Cairo.

Karnak again early for nearly two hours. Then a quick and cold swim, lunch in the hotel garden, followed by ping pong, my beating Laura by two games to one which was a great shock to her and a great pleasure to me. 5 o'clock plane to Cairo. A protocol reception, plus amba.s.sadors, etc., at the airport, even though the Egyptian part of the visit was semi-private, and then to the Sheraton Hotel and a fine high view. An immediate request to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and see the State Minister. I was a bit reluctant to be so summoned but eventually thought that I had better go and hear what he had to say. Boutros-Ghali, who is a highly intelligent man, had been present at the talks in Jerusalem and Ismailia9 and gave me a good run-down, clearly from the Egyptian point of view-but there is a great deal to be said for the Egyptian point of view-of the position as he saw it. Then to a Foreign Ministry dinner at the Tahir (old Mohammed Ali) Club, where Farouk used to spend a lot of his time.

Then a midnight drive to the pyramids and the sphinx, which were surprisingly near, under magnificent moonlight. Cairo is an enormous city and a great metropolis, falling apart with the immensity of its problems, but there is no doubt about its dominant metropolitan position in the Middle East. If the rich Arab states were sensible they would put a great deal of money into it, housing, sewerage, underground railway, telephone systems, etc., which would be a very good thing for the area and for the world as a whole.

TUESDAY, 24 JANUARY. Cairo and Brussels.

8.30 Sabena plane to Athens and Brussels. Half-way across the Mediterranean we ran into rain and storm, which persisted all across Europe. Brussels just after 2 o'clock. An afternoon visit from George Thomson.

THURSDAY, 26 JANUARY. Brussels.

Sigrist, the German Permanent Representative, to see me at 11.30 with a letter from Helmut Schmidt announcing that it was his intention to invite everybody to a Western Economic Summit in Bonn in about mid-July, no precise dates. We were slightly discriminated against in the sense that the letter he gave me was a copy of the letter sent to the heads of government, rather than a direct letter to me, but still this is a vast improvement on the May position; there is obviously no doubt about our presence for a large part of this Summit.

A COREPER lunch in the Charlemagne building at 1.15. COREPER in my view no better than it usually is; bitty, lacking any leaders.h.i.+p, and I feel it a slight waste of time to see them so often.

FRIDAY, 27 JANUARY. Brussels.

I received Karamanlis,10 the Greek Prime Minister, at 11.30 downstairs, and brought him up, first for a talk a deux, then for an hour's meeting with the Commission and then for a lunch going on until about 3 o'clock. I liked him, found he had none of Papaligouras's neuroses and was much better to deal with. We moved just far enough in giving a political impetus to the negotiations, with a commitment to break the back of them by the end of 1978, to leave him moderately satisfied. Quite an impressive man.

SAt.u.r.dAY, 28 JANUARY. Brussels.

A bad day. The cough and cold which had started near the Pyramids on Monday night had become acute. A meeting with Us.h.i.+ba and his j.a.panese team between 11 and 12 o'clock, after which we adjourned for him to have more detailed talks with Haferkamp. The meeting seemed to go quite tolerably at the time, but subsequently led to a lot of rather mystifying ill-feeling. I don't know whether he was offended that I did not give him lunch and left Haferkamp to do this. There was in fact not the slightest reason why I should have done so. I had when he came in December and it was quite appropriate that Haferkamp should on the second occasion, which indeed was exactly the routine we had followed with Bob Strauss. I thought after the meeting that maybe if anything I had pressed him rather too hard, though some of his subsequent complaints, which came out partly in the press, partly in reports back from the j.a.panese, and partly what he said in Paris, indicated that we hadn't pressed him hard enough, except on points of detail. (The whole incident was very odd. Us.h.i.+ba, I think, finds it difficult to understand what is the split between Community and member state competence, prefers dealing with the Americans to dealing with us, reacts somewhat, not altogether surprisingly, to being kicked around from capital to capital in Europe and complained to about the success of the j.a.panese economy; and also has a mind which while intelligent seems to operate in an odd and indiscreet way.) I left the Berlaymont feeling dissatisfied and drove with Edward and Jennifer to Ghent, where we lunched late with the Phillips' before going to see the great Van Eyck triptych in the cathedral.

MONDAY, 30 JANUARY. Brussels.

Henry Plumb,11 President of the National Farmers' Union, to lunch with Jennifer and me rue de Praetere. A nice, sensible, solid Warwicks.h.i.+re farmer, now with a great deal of NFU experience behind him and, as I had thought when he was one of my vice-presidents in the Britain in Europe Campaign for the 1975 Referendum, a very good person indeed. He obviously feels he is near the end of his time as President of the NFU, which he has done for eleven years, and is looking, rather interestingly, at the possibility of running for the European Parliament, where he would undoubtedly be a great a.s.set.

TUESDAY, 31 JANUARY. Brussels.

11.15 meeting with the House of Lords Select Committee (on European Community matters); about eight of them, Tony Greenwood12 in the chair, but Humphrey Trevelyan13 the leading figure. A good discussion on enlargement. Then I saw Cobbold, ex-Governor of the Bank of England and a member of the Committee, on his own for quarter of an hour about EMU.

At 1.15 I gave a lunch for the new Court of Auditors (Cour des Comptes)14 based in Luxembourg, with their nine members, one from each national state; a necessary but not exciting occasion. As it turned out also a tragic one, because Mart, the very nice Luxembourg ex-Minister of Finance who had been appointed to the Court, left before the end as he had just received a message that his wife had been seriously injured in a motor crash on an icy road and he didn't know what he would find when he got back. Alas, he found that she was dead.

Tried rather desperately to think of something to say for my third speech at the COREPER twice-yearly 'change of presidency' dinner that evening, and arrived only half-prepared. There was much better food than is usual at Val d.u.c.h.esse, and this seemed to put everybody in a good temper so that the speech went slightly better than I thought it deserved. Van der Meulen didn't speak for too long afterwards and Riberholdt,15 who had just got up from a 'flu bed to which he quickly returned, delivered a whimsical Nordic speech, but nonetheless all reasonably satisfactory.

WEDNESDAY, 1 FEBRUARY. Brussels.

Commission meeting which proceeded in the normal way until just before 12 o'clock. I then went downstairs to greet the President of Mauritania, Oudh Daddah. We had an hour with him in the Commission and then went off to Val d.u.c.h.esse again to give him lunch. He was much the nicest of the francophone Africans I had met: small, distinguished-looking man, talked rather well but, more than that, talked interestingly because he was happy to talk about his early life, quite unlike Mobutu. Daddah was keen to tell me how he had been born in a tent and had effectively been a nomad until the age of twelve or thirteen.

To the Cinquantenaire for the Commission's New Year diplomatic reception; stood up and received from 6.30 to 8.00, as did Jennifer. The last two days have been the height of the Commission winter season!

THURSDAY, 2 FEBRUARY. Brussels and London.

Coffee with Reg Underhill and Joyce Gould of Transport House at 11 o'clock (direct elections). The Egyptian Amba.s.sador at 11.45 - a foolish man, alas.

I then saw the Israeli Amba.s.sador from 4.00 to 5.00, partly complaints about citrus fruit, but also no doubt a deliberate visit, arranged with great empress.e.m.e.nt on his part to counteract any harmful effects of my visit to Egypt and indeed the Egyptian Amba.s.sador's call that morning. He gave me the Israeli position, which needless to say was fairly hard, but not absolutely rigid; an intelligent and reasonable presentation.

6.25 plane to London. Encountered Willie Whitelaw16 at dinner. He came in rather late and then started to tell me how absolutely ghastly life was with that awful woman, how he was thinking of resigning (from the Shadow Cabinet), what was my advice, etc. So I said, 'On the whole, don't resign, Willie.' 'Oh, good,' he said. 'No, don't resign,' I said, 'but distance yourself.' 'Quite right, quite right,' he said, 'quite right. It's better not to resign, but distance myself. That's right.' A long and typical conversation with him, not to be taken too seriously.

SUNDAY, 5 FEBRUARY. East Hendred.

Owens to lunch, for the first time for just over a year. They were both extremely agreeable-Debbie as always but David more so than he can be. He was a little bruised by some of his recent experiences and perhaps slightly nicer as a result. There were obviously a few subjects on which we did not agree, but no tension or any difficulty and perfectly agreeable conversation. Then a good game of tennis with them.

MONDAY, 6 FEBRUARY. London.

Called on s.h.i.+rley Williams17 at 12.15 at the Department of Education and Science near Waterloo Station, where I had not been since once going to have a drink with Reg Prentice three or four years ago. s.h.i.+rley was very friendly and it was a great pleasure to see her, and we then drove together to the Charing Cross Hotel where I gave a lunch for twelve or fourteen members of the Labour Committee for Europe and had some informal exposition and discussion afterwards.

In the evening the annual Guildhall dinner of the Overseas Bankers' Club, at which I last spoke almost exactly ten years ago in my first year as Chancellor. In the meantime they have desirably cut down both the number of courses and the number of speakers, but not the size of the audience, which is still quite remarkable, at about seven hundred. John Baring18 was in the chair, the Lord Mayor spoke briefly, I spoke for twenty-five minutes, and Gordon Richardson spoke for about fifteen. A very grand occasion, with a sung grace, loving cups, etc., particularly impressing Michel Vanden Abeele, the new Belgian member of my cabinet, who came with me.

TUESDAY, 7 FEBRUARY. London and Brussels.

8 o'clock British Airways plane from London Airport for the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels. We had a mad pilot who would not take off for about twenty-five minutes because the plane was not clean. I had a conversation with him in which I felt rather torn, for he kept saying, 'We've got to keep up standards; this airline is going to pieces,' a proposition with which in general I rather agree, but not to the extent of making everyone twenty-five minutes late in order to have bits of the carpet re-Hoovered. However, I eventually got into the Council soon after it had begun. There until 1.15; not particularly exciting or demanding. I made several interventions during the morning, lunched with them, and then went back to the Council for another two hours. I then saw the Jamaican Foreign Minister, a rather dynamic figure called Patterson, and went to a male dinner party with the Canadian Amba.s.sador, preparatory to my visit to Canada.

THURSDAY, 9 FEBRUARY. Brussels.

10.00 meeting with the Socialist Group of the Parliament on economic and monetary union. Only British and Germans spoke and they in their differing ways were both pretty sceptical. Then on to a meeting with the executive committee of the ETUC. About twenty-five people present, Vetter in the chair, Len Murray19 arriving rather late: a rather better meeting with them.

SAt.u.r.dAY, 11 FEBRUARY. Brussels and Northern France.

A new pattern of weather now; quite different from anything we have had since the early winter before Christmas. Cold and freezing hard and on the whole sunny, with occasional cloud and slight snow. Left at 12 o'clock to drive via the Namur citadel to lunch at Les Ramiers in the valley at Crupet. Then on and over the French frontier near Sivet to dine and stay at Auvillers-les-Forges.

SUNDAY, 12 FEBRUARY. Northern France and Brussels.

Drove to Laon, very cold on the hill, though with a little cloud coming up; spent an hour there looking round the cathedral and the town, which was better than I had remembered. Then on to Reims where (in spite of heavy restoration) the cathedral is magnificent, particularly the gla.s.s. It came on to snow during lunch and we drove back in rather mixed weather to Brussels, arriving about 6 o'clock.

MONDAY, 13 FEBRUARY. Brussels and Strasbourg.

Entertained the Labour Party Regional Organizers-all of them -for a quick drink at 12.30. (I am certainly working hard on direct elections.) 4.17 TEE to Strasbourg. Deep snow over the Ardennes, slight snow in Strasbourg. To the dismal old Sofitel.

TUESDAY, 14 FEBRUARY. Strasbourg.

I made my Programme speech in the Parliament from 10.15 to 11.00. Dullish speech, which I delivered in a fairly low key but thought it was quite well listened to. Back to the hemicycle, where the debate continued mostly in a fairly desultory way, although there were one or two good speeches, notably from Mark Hughes, the Labour MP for Durham. The most critical speech came from a German Christian Democrat, chairman of the Budget Committee. I wound up from 5.40 to 6.05 and then went to the Chateau de Rohan for the Museum of the Year Award, jointly sponsored by the Council of Europe, UNESCO and IBM, and made the presentation to the Ironbridge Gorge Museum at Telford.

WEDNESDAY, 15 FEBRUARY. Strasbourg.

Easy and routine Commission meeting from 9.00 to 11.00, and then, feeling in need of some exercise, for a long walk round the Orangerie and out beyond it, getting rather lost, through a vast housing estate, and the new university area of Strasbourg, which brought me out on to the ca.n.a.l, or one of the rivers, the Ill perhaps, down below the cathedral. Five miles altogether.

I gave a dinner for the British Labour Group. It was memorable mainly for a tremendous row between Mark Hughes, who becomes an increasingly admirable man, and Gwyneth Dunwoody,20 which led to her flouncing out before the end.

THURSDAY, 16 FEBRUARY. Strasbourg and Brussels.

Brussels by avion taxi for a pre-lunch meeting with Vouel, Ortoli, Vredeling and one or two officials about how we should handle the deputation of van Agt21 and most of the Dutch Government which was coming that afternoon to try and reach an agreement with us about their Bill on investment aids. Then the normal, rather pointless COREPER lunch, and then the huge Dutch delegation from 3.30 to 5.30. Van Agt I thought rather impressive. From 5.30 to 6.30 an hour-long interview with Die Zeifs foreign editor (Dieter Buhl). An agreeable small dinner party for Fredy Fisher, editor of the Financial Times, with the Jonquieres22 and Tickells.

FRIDAY, 17 FEBRUARY. Brussels, Copenhagen and Brussels.

Plane to Copenhagen, arriving at 8.45 in cold, sparkling weather. Greeted on the tarmac by Jorgensen (Prime Minister) and drove to the Christiansborg where we talked mainly about plans for the European Council, but also about wider economic problems for two and a half hours. Then a lunch for about thirty people in the Parliament building before going into a question session with the Danish EEC Committee. This went on from just after 2.00 until 4.15 and was exhausting but otherwise quite satisfactory. Rather good general questions and all my careful preparation of specific Danish issues proved unnecessary. Then a press conference followed by a drive round Copenhagen for about half an hour. It looked a handsome city as always; it was snowing hard, which suited it. Then to the airport where I thought we were rather lucky to get off at all, but we did so only a few minutes late. Rue de Praetere by 8.00.

SUNDAY, 19 FEBRUARY. Brussels and Paris.

Left home just before 11 o'clock to drive to Paris. Near the frontier we ran into quite a considerable snowfall, saw about twenty cars in the ditch, and had slowly to follow a snow-plough for nearly thirty miles north of Senlis. To the Train Bleu restaurant at the Gare de Lyon for lunch with Edward; good decor, expensive, moderate-quality food, quite fun however. To the Emba.s.sy in the afternoon. Nicko had a drinks party with Pierre-Brossolettes,23 Courcels, t Beaumarchais24, two or three Emba.s.sy couples, one or two Paris grandes dames, Odette Pol Roger and another; quite agreeable. Then to the Bra.s.serie Lipp for a dinner alone with Nicko, and afterwards sat talking with him in the Emba.s.sy for another hour and a half until nearly 1.00.

MONDAY, 20 FEBRUARY. Paris.

Jogged around the Emba.s.sy garden on a beautiful morning from 8.45. Hard freezing snow without any real pistes established and, as it proved, disastrous going for my ankle. In the afternoon I drove over difficult roads to see Jean Monnet at Houjarray, near Montfort L'Amoury. Monnet looked immensely frail. He came into the room very slowly on a stick, helped by his wife, and sat down surrounded by rugs like a pa.s.senger on a pre-war Atlantic liner, although these were very necessary as the heating had collapsed, and I sat in some considerable chill. But in conversation, certainly in the length of it, he was less weak than I had expected and, having been told that half an hour was about all that he could do, found that he kept me for two and a quarter hours.

There was a lot of talk about his book, by the English edition of which he was absorbed. Also, towards the end, some general European conversation. I am not sure that he said anything of particular penetration, which is not surprising at the age of eighty-nine, although he was remarkably sharp in his comments about other people in the early days. Uri25 and Hirsch26 were first-cla.s.s, but apart from them there was hardly anybody of any use. Schuman27 didn't really understand the treaty which bore his name, and the German members of the Commission-and indeed those from other nations-were pretty useless. However, it was very nice to see him and, curiously, I left on this occasion with less of a feeling that it was the last time I would see him than I had on some previous occasions.

TUESDAY, 21 FEBRUARY. Paris and Brussels.

A substantial thaw during the night. Worked all morning in the Emba.s.sy. To the Elysee for my meeting with Giscard at 5 o'clock. Found him with a cold, dressed rather peculiarly for a Tuesday afternoon in a tweed suit, and perhaps not looking as svelte as usual but otherwise quite relaxed, in spite of election pressure. Talked to him for about an hour. Crispin was present but Giscard had no one. He had however an agenda which he wished to work through, and did so quite effectively, leaving time for me to raise any points. Nothing tremendously significant, except for his suddenly saying that the French were entirely on the side of the British about agricultural prices and believed that a 2 per cent increase was too high, that 1 per cent would be better, and that he would be prepared to fight for this. We shall see. The French are, of course, now in the British position so that they can give their farmers an increase by dismantling their Monetary Compensatory Amounts28 without a general rise in the price level. A friendly conversation on the whole. No discussion-not raised by him and obviously not at this juncture by me-about the French internal position and electoral prospects. On economic and monetary union at the end he was favourable in theory, non-committal in practice, but not discouraging.

6.45 train from the Gare du Nord. Rue de Praetere by 9.30.

THURSDAY, 23 FEBRUARY. Brussels, London, Dublin and London.

After a meeting with Ortoli to tell him about the Giscard talk and generally review EMU progress, I took the 10.45 plane with Crispin to London for David Bruce's memorial service in Westminster Abbey. The service was brought alive by one or two good hymns and by Harold Macmillan's reading of the second lesson, which was a spectacular piece of ham acting and show-stealing, but very well done.

4.25 plane to Dublin. Met at the airport by Michael O'Kennedy, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and drove in for three-quarters of an hour with the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, and found him pleasant to talk to though a bit too concerned with fairly detailed Irish points. Then an hour's meeting with four or five ministers presided over by Colley, the Minister of Finance and deputy Prime Minister, with a lot of Irish complaints on four or five specific points, but all done perfectly agreeably. Then a dinner with Lynch and these other ministers all in Iveagh House before leaving in a hurry for the airport and the 10.15 plane. Escorted out (fortunately he was not at the wheel) and on to the plane by an extremely drunk deputy Chief of Protocol who kept on trying to tear up my airline tickets and came down the aisle of the aircraft to say goodbye to me on, I think, four separate occasions, the last two messages of farewell being mysteriously delivered in French. Kensington Park Gardens by 11.30.

FRIDAY, 24 FEBRUARY. London, Cardiff and East Hendred.

A party at the Commission office for the Monnet Memoirs, at which I wish I could have stayed longer, as there were a lot of people there I was very glad to see: Hugh Thomas,29 David Watt,30 George Brown, and indeed old Michael Stewart,31 as well as two or three other journalistic or literary figures of note. Richard Mayne32 has a good intellectual drawing power. Left for East Hendred just after 12.30. Afternoon train from Didcot to Cardiff to preside over the annual meeting of the UWIST court for just over an hour. Hurried departure for return train and East Hendred by 8.00.

SUNDAY, 26 FEBRUARY. East Hendred.

To Sevenhampton for lunch with Ann Fleming, Bonham Carters, Arnold Goodman and Susan Crosland, the first time I had seen her since Tony's death. I was delighted to do so and found her forthcoming and friendly. She and I must have talked for an hour and a half. She didn't ask me about Tony's earlier life,33 as apparently she had been asking one or two others like Raymond Carr,34 but was nonetheless fascinated by any conversation about him, and particularly by the story which I eventually decided to tell her about my two dreams, the one in Rome on 19 February 1977 and the other on the same day this year. On both occasions he appeared vividly and we talked for some time, the first being almost at the exact moment of his death and the second its exact anniversary.

MONDAY, 27 FEBRUARY. East Hendred and Brussels.

9.55 plane to Brussels. A late lunch with Gundelach, rue de Praetere, for a general review of agricultural problems. I found him as usual persuasive, easy, agreeable and worthwhile to deal with, but it all being a little insaissisable, partly because everything is so much in his mind, so little on paper, so little confided to his officials or even his cabinet. Sarah Hogg of the Economist for a 'major' interview on EMU from 5.45 to 7.25, which was at least giving her good value in time.

TUESDAY, 28 FEBRUARY. Brussels, Bonn and Brussels.

A farewell lunch to the Chinese Amba.s.sador, Huan Hsiang. A party of six: he and his Counsellor, Crispin, Roy Denman and Franz Froschmaier, Haferkamp's Chef de Cabinet. The Amba.s.sador spoke very good English, having been in London for some time, and was quick and indeed funny; therefore an agreeable and probably worthwhile occasion. Back to the office for a short time before motoring to Bonn with Etienne Reuter for my 5.30 meeting with Schmidt, which started five minutes late and went on until 7.20.

This was a dramatic meeting. After a normal session with photographers and almost as soon as we were alone, Schmidt plunged in, almost blurting things out. What he broadly said was: 'You may be shocked, you may be surprised at what I intend to do, but as soon as the French elections are over, probably at Copenhagen35 - a.s.suming that the French elections go all right and that there aren't any Communists in the Government-then I shall propose, in response to the dollar problem, a major step towards monetary union; to mobilize and put all our currency reserves into a common pool, if other people will agree to do the same, and to form a European monetary bloc. There will be great risks', he added, 'if it all goes wrong, then maybe the Community will fall apart. Do you think it is worthwhile?'

I of course said, 'Yes, certainly,' and we then discussed in considerable detail how it should be managed, what the currency should be called, whether the European unit of account should be used, etc., the detail he supplied showing that he was serious about what he was saying. I asked him what degree of secrecy he wanted preserved, and he said, 'A great deal, I have discussed it with n.o.body except Emminger of the Bundesbank and the new Minister of Finance [Matthofer]. There may be a lot of opposition here; there probably will be. I am not sure whether I can get away with it, but I am prepared to try. Do you think there is a chance of the British moving?' I said, 'Maybe; doubtful; I am not sure.'

I also a.s.sured him that I would not inform the Commission at this stage. He particularly asked me not to tell Ortoli or Haferkamp, at least until he had had a chance to consult Giscard. I asked him what he thought would be the position if, as seemed to me quite likely, there was a confused result after the French election. He said he would be guided by the advice of Giscard. He still had great faith in Giscard, as indeed he said he had in Barre. He would not necessarily mind having Communists in the Italian Government, but he could not go ahead with this with Communists in the French Government. He spoke reasonably warmly about Callaghan, much more critically than I had ever heard him about Healey, whom he thought showed an excessive, almost nauseating, eagerness for eating his own words without the slightest sense of shame, and, more importantly, with deep hostility towards Carter, whose behaviour over the dollar was intolerable, whose behaviour over the neutron bomb was vacillating, whose behaviour in the Middle East was ineffective, whose behaviour in the Horn of Africa was weak, etc. etc.

The anti-Americanism or anti-Carterism, because Schmidt is basically pro-American-was in a way worrying, although if the dollar crisis is such an amorce for economic and monetary union, I am prepared, up to a point, to go along with it. At the same time he was anxious to stress that if we made such a move there might be suspicion that Europe was becoming inward-looking and therefore it should be an additional reason for our taking a liberal att.i.tude on trade questions at Geneva and, he added, for not pressing the j.a.panese too hard.

He was gloomy, as usual, about German politics. 'Oh, things have gone pretty badly, with the near defeat over the anti-terrorist bill,' and this was having a bad effect on the standing of the Government, with a real danger that it might be left as a lame-duck administration. He asked how much progress I thought we could make at Copenhagen. I said a certain amount; that Jrgensen would certainly be anxious to be helpful, but that we should probably not envisage getting a major commitment tied up there, but should rather see Copenhagen as a very important stage towards the following European Council under the German presidency at the beginning of July, which he had decided to hold in Bremen.

On the Western Economic Summit later in July, he expressed scepticism as to whether Carter would come. I told him that I disagreed with this. I thought Carter would come and I thought that the Summit could be extremely important but could take place in appallingly difficult circ.u.mstances with, if we made the worst of a series of a.s.sumptions, confrontation between Europe and j.a.pan, virtual breakdown of the multinational trade negotiations, great weakness and uncertainty in France and a further and more intensive dollar crisis.

Rather typically he brightened up at this catalogue of gloom and agreed that this was an additional reason for having a strong Community front. We parted on very friendly terms; indeed he gave me a medal on the way out, but not by premeditation and just one of his own collection, i.e. a spontaneous present and not a decoration! After the meeting, with Etienne to the Konigshof Hotel where I needed a quick drink to help me digest all this, and then back to Brussels by 10 o'clock, where Laura and Crispin came to a late supper and I rather excitedly informed them of this great turn-up for the book.

WEDNESDAY, 1 MARCH. Brussels.

I was sufficiently exhilarated by my Schmidt meeting to attempt a run in the Bois at 8.15. A great mistake for my ankle. A long Commission morning from 10.10 to 1.25, and then off to the depths of Uccle for an Australian Emba.s.sy lunch for Garland,36 their new Trade Minister, to whom I was determined to be agreeable in order to try and put relations on to a better personal footing. I did not find this too difficult as he is an agreeable man.

Resumed Commission meeting from 3.45 until 7 o'clock. A fairly wearing Commission day, particularly as my ankle was being extremely tiresome. In the morning we had quite a difficult one and a half hours on enlargement. In the afternoon we had Ortoli being fairly blatantly nationalist on the French demand that we should freeze their MCAs despite the pre-election fluctuations of the franc. He insisted that we waited until 7 o'clock for a report from Gundelach, who was seeing the French Minister of Agriculture (who had descended on him in the Berlaymont).

Back to rue de Praetere just before 8.00 to let (Dr) Ann Phillips have another go at my ankle. Marietta Tree,37 who was staying, brought three of her 'collaborators' for a drink, and then at 8.30, everybody overlapping with everybody else, we had a dinner party for her with Hintons (the US Amba.s.sador to the Community), Dillons (Irish Permanent Representative) and Perlots. It became like an opera scene with too many people doing different things on the stage at the same time.

THURSDAY, 2 MARCH. Brussels and Edinburgh.

10.40 plane to London. In the VIP lounge at London Airport I met, by accident, Douglas Wa.s.s, the Permanent Secretary of the Treasury, and Bill Ryrie, now Economic Minister in Was.h.i.+ngton and my old private secretary at the end of my time at the Treasury, and had quite an interesting exchange of views with them. They were very concerned to know what Schmidt was thinking about monetary questions and I was forced to give them a somewhat guarded reply. 11.40 shuttle to Edinburgh. Lunch with the Scottish Development Council in the North British Hotel. Then a fairly hectic hour of TV and radio interviews. To the university to deliver my Montague Burton Professorial Lecture at 5.15. It wasn't a great lecture, but the audience was extremely good. The lecture theatre was packed with six or seven hundred people. Then a large reception and finally a university dinner. An agreeable conversation with old Lord Cameron, the Scottish Judge, on one side, about Scottish and English legal systems, etc., and with the acting Princ.i.p.al, on the other (the Princ.i.p.al had died six weeks before), about American twentieth-century history. John Mackintosh38 was also present. The dinner was notable for the fact that it was in a room surrounded by about eight very well-lit Raeburn portraits; he paints heads much better than hands.