European Diary, 1977-1981 (37 page)

WEDNESDAY, 12 APRIL.
Luxembourg and Brussels.

Commission from 8.30 to 9.30. Then into the Parliament, first to listen to K. B. Andersen's report on the European Council and then to give my own report. Lunched with Colombo in the Parliament building and received the President of the Spanish Cortes in the afternoon. Listened to and replied briefly to the debate from 4.00 until 6.00. A particularly bumpy avion taxi ride to Brussels, where I arrived too late to listen to Michael Palliser's lecture at the Institut Royal but went to the reception for it briefly and then took Solly Zuckerman out to dinner.

THURSDAY, 13 APRIL.
Brussels and Berlin.

Flew to Berlin, with a change of plane at Frankfurt, over lunch time. To the Kempinski Hotel, where the City government had installed me in a magnificent suite at the top. Then to the Schöneberg Rathaus for a call on the Governing Mayor, Dietrich Stobbe, from 3.30 to 4.45. Mainly political talk with him about the Russians. I liked him very much.

Next to the Senate Guest House for a meeting with Mrs Juanita Kreps, the American Secretary of Commerce, whom I had not met before. She had asked for the meeting, and proceeded to behave in the most extraordinary way. Her object was to discover exactly what had happened at Copenhagen. Her method was to come into the meeting accompanied by seven or eight officials, of whom four were engaged in taking a verbatim note, and immediately, without establishing any sort of relations, to ask me what had there taken place. When I pushed the question away, she seemed rather miffed. But it was a most bizarre idea that I would suddenly spill the Copenhagen beans to somebody I had never met before who (i) showed no understanding of the subject, and (ii) sat around with a whole series of hard-faced note-takers.

On from there to the Chamber of Commerce, where I gave quite a good lecture for about forty-five minutes, attended a reception, and returned to the Senate Guest House for a fairly hard-working dinner with thirty guests for two hours or so.

Then back to the Kempinski for a talk with Lambsdorff, the German Economics Minister, from 10.30 to midnight. I had not
known him well before and found him easy and agreeable, much more so than one might at first think. Physically, and even mentally, he is like a curious mixture of Iain Macleod and Donald Tyerman, the ex-editor of the
Economist
whom I nearly succeeded.

FRIDAY, 14 APRIL.
Berlin and East Hendred.

A splendid morning panoramic view from the top of the Kempinski, with the Berlin weather as splendid as usual. Further talks at the Schöneberg Rathaus, made memorable by the deputy Mayor, who spoke the most excellent English, suddenly announcing that one of the major social problems in Berlin was the presence of two or three hundred thousand immigrant ‘turkeys', who apart from anything else made a great deal of noise in the streets. I said ‘What, after Christmas, as well as before,' and then, such is the English juvenile sense of humour, and our capacity for expecting linguistic perfection from others while not even attempting it ourselves, we all found it very difficult not to giggle for the rest of the meeting. Then a press conference and afterwards the signing of the Golden Book in the Schloss Charlottenburg with a nice gracious speech from Stobbe and a reply from me which was one third in German. An official lunch there, and then the 3 o'clock plane from Tegel. East Hendred via Frankfurt by 7.45.

MONDAY, 17 APRIL.
East Hendred and London.

Motored to lunch with about forty American correspondents at the Waldorf Hotel. Made them an unprepared speech for about fifteen minutes and answered questions. I stressed that we were not pursuing an anti-American course by wanting somewhat to reduce the role of the dollar in world monetary affairs and to do something of our own in Europe, rather than merely complaining about what the Americans did or did not do. At 6.45 I went to Eaton Square for a forty-minute worthwhile monetary talk with Harold Lever,
⁵⁶
whom I had not seen for some time. He wanted a little reassurance on the American point, but was sensible, sympathetic and generally helpful.

Then to address a grand European League for Economic Cooperation dinner of about two hundred people, a very powerfully representative gathering, marred typically by the twelve or fourteen MPs present having to go off in the middle of the speeches to cancel each other out in a vote in the House of Commons: the speech was both well received and well reported.

THURSDAY, 20 APRIL.
Brussels.

A meeting with Doko, the very old President of the Japanese employers' organization, and the delegation he had brought. I am not sure how much progress we made, but I suppose it was worthwhile. Then a luncheon for the chairmen or the managing directors of about twenty-five European television chains. They all seemed keen on monetary union, but not as much so as my 3.30 deputation from the European Cooperative Savings Institute who came specifically to express their strong support.

FRIDAY, 21 APRIL.
Brussels and East Hendred.

12.35 plane to London (late), and to East Hendred. Worked quite hard on my speech for that evening at the Vale of the White Horse Council's annual dinner in Abingdon. They had assembled a great European turn-up from Lucca, Montreuil, and the other twinned towns. I had assembled what I hoped was a number of apposite quotations, two from Chesterton and one from Matthew Arnold, but I suspect I would have done better if I had devoted the time to putting on a tail coat with decorations, which all the top table except me were wearing, rather than the dinner jacket which I thought was enough.

SATURDAY, 22 APRIL.
East Hendred and Birmingham.

Motored to Birmingham in the early evening for a Stechford farewell party to Ruby and Oliver Rhydderch (two former councillors). It was quite unlike last summer, no great sense of regret at going back to Birmingham, no sense of how awful it was that I was no longer MP there. They were extremely pleased to see me, though equally all extremely pro-Terry Davis (my successor), who
was there, and who obviously turned up at everything; not that they criticized me for not doing that.

MONDAY, 24 APRIL.
East Hendred and Brussels.

Stayed at East Hendred for the morning, not rushing back to Brussels, as I am increasingly of the view that I don't get much real work done in the Berlaymont. 3.30 plane, and to an International Medical Services dinner in the Amigo Hotel, to which David Ginsburg
⁵⁷
persuaded me to go. I made them rather a dull speech after the first course. Belgian service excelled itself and was so incredibly slow that when I left at 11 o'clock the last course was still unserved.

TUESDAY, 25 APRIL.
Brussels.

A noon meeting with the Portuguese Foreign Minister (Victor Sá Machado), who came into the Government following its widening to a coalition, and is not a socialist. He speaks very good English, unlike most Portuguese, mainly I suppose because he was Secretary-General of the Gulbenkian Foundation—or perhaps the other way round. The good news was that the long-drawn-out negotiations with the IMF were at last settled and that the Portuguese expect to sign in the near future.

Bob Maclennan,
⁵⁸
Professor Maurice Peston,
⁵⁹
David Marquand and Michel Vanden Abeele to lunch rue de Praetère. Peston I found an impressive man: I liked him very much indeed. He used to work for Reg Prentice and was rather fed up with what Reg had done, though still speaking of him with sad affection. We had a useful discussion about various points around the monetary union issue.

At 3 o'clock I went to the External Affairs Committee of the Parliament, opened for half an hour, listened to their comments, and wound up for twenty minutes at the end. I like this format of opening fairly informally, listening to what they say and then weaving what points one chooses into a reply.

I saw Christopher Tugendhat for an hour on a number of his points, but also because I wished to tell him I had now decided, fully in accordance with his wishes, to relieve him of the Personnel portfolio with the intention of giving it to Vredeling. He made no difficulty about this.

WEDNESDAY, 26 APRIL.
Brussels.

Six rather tiresome hours in the Commission, particularly at the end of the morning on a Vouël paper on State Aids (to industry), which had been badly prepared by the
Chefs de Cabinet.
I was much worse briefed than I usually am on what is likely to come up. However, no disasters, although mildly irritating.

An Economic and Social Committee dinner at Basil de Ferranti's
⁶⁰
flat, mainly for Leslie Murphy, Ryder's successor as Chairman of the National Enterprise Board. There were various other people like le Portz of the European Investment Bank, Provost, President of UNICE, and Debunne, the chief Belgian trade unionist. A general discussion after dinner, which I had to lead and which was not too bad. Murphy a bit sceptical on monetary questions. But Provost and one or two others obviously excited at what they thought had been the real progress at Copenhagen and how it had followed on from my Florence speech, which was encouraging.

THURSDAY, 27 APRIL.
Brussels and Madrid.

1.40 plane to Madrid. First a meeting of one and a half hours with Calvo Sotelo, the minister in charge of the negotiation, and various members of his
équipe.
To the Ritz Hotel to change and see Jennifer who had arrived from London, and then to an hour's meeting at the Palacio Moncloa with Suárez, the Prime Minister. Found him as impressive as at our previous meeting. He afterwards gave a dinner of about forty people, remarkable for the fact that he had the leader of the Socialist Party, Felipe Gonzales, the Secretary-General of the Communist Party, Carrillo, and the deputy leader of the Catalan Nationalist Party, as well as most of the major ministers, round the table. As I said in my brief speech after dinner, there were not many countries in the Community, or indeed in the world, where such a
cross-section could have been assembled, although I suppose Britain is one of them, and Italy another, but it would certainly not have happened in France, and probably not in Germany. Home very late, dinner not starting until nearly 11 o'clock.

FRIDAY, 28 APRIL.
Madrid.

Left at 9.15 for the drive out to Zarazuela, the King's semi-country palace. It is in fact more a large modern villa than a palace, though set in a big park about fifteen miles from the centre of Madrid. An hour's talk alone with him, in which he struck me, much as in Brussels six months before, as being agreeable, quick, with a non-regal manner, shrewd rather than intellectual. He expressed some concern about the coolness of Spanish public opinion in the street towards Europe, which was more than any of his ministers said to me.

Back to the centre of Madrid, indeed into the old town for the first time, for a meeting at the Foreign Ministry with Oreja, young, bright, quick, if not heavyweight, on a wide range of foreign policy questions. Then back to the Ritz, where Calvo Sotelo came to see me to follow up how we were to deal with one particularly difficult point relating to the renegotiation of the 1970 agreement which had arisen the evening before.

Then, at 1.15, to the Danish Ambassador's residence to brief the ambassadors of the Nine, including Antony Acland, Bobbie de Margerie
⁶¹
and others not known to me. I liked them rather better than the Community ambassadors in Portugal. Then, at 2.15, to a lunch of industrialists (or
empresarios
as they are rather surprisingly called in Spanish), which took place in the Financial Club, a newish institution at the top of a fourteen-storey building with a very good view over Madrid and out into the barren countryside beyond the edge of the city, which remains fairly concentrated, even though the population has now gone up to four million.

A dullish but not testing press conference at 4.45, and then to the Cortes for a meeting with the President and his various Deputies. A rather stilted discussion with them with inadequate interpretation and therefore a good deal of bad French.

Back to the Ritz and then, at 9 o'clock, a Calvo Sotelo dinner for about thirty people in the Palacio Fernan Nunez, an old Madrid
hôtel particulier,
built about 1750 and then done up rather sumptuously in the height of the style of the 1840s and taken over some time in the last thirty or forty years by Spanish railways, of which Calvo Sotelo had in the 1960s been President.

SATURDAY, 29 APRIL.
Madrid and Toledo.

To the Prado for an hour. The Velasquez and Goya rooms immensely impressive, but I found El Grecos
en masse
rather disappointing. He curiously fails to gain from being displayed in great quantity. Then a short walk through the Plaza Mayor. Left for Toledo just after noon. After a tedious drive on a bad road, through dismal suburbs with heavy traffic, low cloud and a nasty light we installed ourselves in the extremely comfortable Parador Nacional de Conde de Orgaz. That evening there was still a disagreeable hard light, though the view across the Tagus Valley to Toledo from the parador, with the cathedral, the Alcazar, and the other buildings rising on a hill above a bend of the river, is quite remarkable.

We had the Aclands to dinner, and much enjoyed seeing them again, although I thought them only moderately happy in Madrid, partly because a fourteen-storey bank is being built with great noise and dust alongside their embassy.

SUNDAY, 30 APRIL.
Toledo.

Sight-seeing expeditions across the valley in the morning (the cathedral and the Alcazar), and again in the early evening (the Hospital de Tovero outside the walls of the town, and Santo Tome with the magnificent El Greco, the burial of the Conde de Orgaz). From 7.30 to 9.00 I sat working and reading, partly on the balcony and partly in my room with the window open, in one of the most magnificent lights I have ever seen, a complete contrast with the evening before, still cold, still windy, but the clouds had broken up, giving a brilliant late-April sharpness, with snow-covered mountains to the north of Segovia (nearly a hundred miles away) clearly visible in the last hour of sunlight.