European Diary, 1977-1981 Part 20

TUESDAY, 24 APRIL. Brussels, Frankfurt and Strasbourg.

I flew to Frankfurt to speak at a European Election demonstration in the Rathaus there. There were about five speeches, including a good one from the Minister President of Hessen. We then motored down past Heidelberg and Karlsruhe and got into Strasbourg at 5.30. I had Fellermaier, the leader of the Socialist Group, and Manfred Michel, the secretary, to dinner. Fellermaier, absolutely typically, turned up an hour late, with some less than adequate excuse. However, I had a useful period of preliminary conversation with Michel about Socialist Group affairs and likely figures in the new Parliament.

WEDNESDAY, 25 APRIL. Strasbourg.

Saw Cheysson at 11.30, partly to rebuke him for the ridiculous telegram which he had sent to Nkomo the week before, which was singularly ill-judged.

John Ardwick43 to lunch. He is a nice and intelligent man who has been very helpful in the European Parliament and it was intended as a thanks on departure. Quite what he will do in the future I don't know. Interesting gossip about King, Cudlipp, Wilson, Gaitskell, etc. He remains a very firm old Gaitskellite in spite of the curiously close personal relations.h.i.+p which he had with Wilson over a large number of years.

Then I saw Christopher Tugendhat to talk about some of his budgetary problems, mainly next year's. This year's budgetary dispute between Parliament and Council has resolved itself well, the only disadvantage being that our additional applications for staff have got lost down an oubliette, though I don't think there is much we can do about that at this stage.

THURSDAY, 26 APRIL. Strasbourg, Luxembourg and Brussels.

I saw Rowling, the ex-Prime Minister of New Zealand and currently leader of the Opposition, for a slightly inconsequential chat, and then motored to Nancy with Nick Stuart. Nancy was absolutely magnificent. Curiously I had never been there before, though often through it by train. The Place Stanislas is one of the supreme urban sights of Europe.

After lunch we drove on to Luxembourg, where I delivered a direct elections speech, with questions, in the television headquarters building before a smallish, but quite notable, audience. Accompanied by the excellent Mart, the Luxembourg member of the Cour des Comptes, who would make a good Commissioner, I dined a trois with the Grand Duke in his Palace. Very good dinner and engaging tour d'horizon conversation. The Grand Duke I found agreeable, relaxed and intelligent. Avion taxi back to Brussels at midnight.

FRIDAY, 27 APRIL. Brussels and East Hendred.

A long meeting with the President of Bangladesh. He was a reasonably amiable military gentleman who said that he was very inexperienced in politics, and who was also slightly slow and inarticulate, but sensible and seems resolved (we will have to see what exactly happens) on returning the country to democracy. They seem also to be beginning to make a little economic sense.

Rue de Praetere luncheon for Calvo Sotelo, with his Amba.s.sador and one other Spaniard, for a discussion of the Spanish position, the form of negotiations, etc. Calvo Sotelo, as always, impressive, sensible, and francophone.

Evening plane to London for an unexpected weekend at East Hendred. This was because we had decided, four or five days before, to postpone an Egyptian visit as there wasn't much to discuss with them, the meeting was rather badly set up (thanks largely to their incompetent amba.s.sador in Brussels whose only possible qualification is that he is the brother of the Prime Minister), and the Egyptians, no doubt because they had a lot of other things on their minds, hadn't given the long-previously requested agrement to our delegate in Cairo, so we had n.o.body to organize things there.

MONDAY, 30 APRIL. East Hendred and London.

Lunch with the Gilmours at Isleworth. Ian thought the Conservatives were probably winning the election, though wasn't overwhelmingly confident, and told me more strongly than when I had seen him before Easter that he was pretty committed to accept the number two job at the Foreign Office, under Carrington. The night they had won the no-confidence vote in the House of Commons, he had rashly agreed over a late-night drink with Carrington that he would do this, which greatly strengthened Carrington's claims to the Foreign Office, which now seem fairly clearly established. The difficulty is that whoever is number two there ought not to do Europe. The Foreign Secretary ought essentially to do that himself, and this makes the job, apart from the disadvantage of not being head of a department, in my view a less good one than Ian ought to have.

Sir Michael Palliser for a serious talk at Brooks's from 6.45 to 8.00. Acting on the a.s.sumption of a change of government, which both of us thought likely but neither of us thought certain, we then discussed how things should be played. He thought that Carrington was likely to be Foreign Secretary and would be marginally better, because more experienced, than Pym. Quite a good and sensible talk with him, including a satisfactory interchange about Crispin's future. I said very firmly that Crispin should be given a substantial emba.s.sy as soon as he came back from me (and a KCMG too) in order that he might have the opportunity to move up fairly quickly to one of the three top jobs by the end of his career, which he was certainly good enough to deserve. Palliser has Mexico City in mind for him.

TUESDAY, 1 MAY. London and Brussels.

To the Maudling memorial service at St Margaret's. It was absolutely packed, and a good, rather moving service. Ted (Heath) gave an impressive and generous address, done remarkably without notes, and there was also a good reading by Sandy Glen.44 I walked out with David Steel and told him how well I thought his campaign had gone and that he really had done the best of the three, though I had no idea how many votes it would bring him. I had a brief word with Harold Macmillan and with Ted afterwards.

Plane to Brussels with Jennifer where we had a rue de Praetere dinner for Senator Ed Muskie,45 whom I had not talked to since the memorable occasion in Dougla.s.s Cater's house in Was.h.i.+ngton seven and a half years ago when he had been so completely carved up by Dean Acheson, the last occasion on which I saw Acheson. We also had Hinton, the American Amba.s.sador, one person whom Muskie had brought with him, and Edmund Dell, who is one of the trois sages, plus his a.s.sistant, a very bright Foreign Office lady called Alison Bailes, who had been sitting in the car with Sykes when he had been a.s.sa.s.sinated in The Hague. It was altogether an interesting dinner. Muskie was very agreeable and more impressive than when I had seen him with Acheson; rather protectionist, however, despite being very close to the President. Dell seemed friendly and reasonably sensible on his affairs.

WEDNESDAY, 2 MAY. Brussels.

Pressing messages from Philippe de Rothschild saying he must see me urgently on some highly important personal matter. I thought it was to do with Jean-Pierre de Beaumarchais and therefore thought I should see him, and persuaded Jennifer a little reluctantly to have him to lunch. And then during the morning he kept ringing me up about the arrangements and also asking if he could bring Joan Littlewood46 with him. I agreed to this reasonably enthusiastically as I thought she might be quite interesting; she turned out to be moderately so. The only thing he wanted was to try and get me to sponsor some wine (i.e. Mouton) art exhibition in London.

In quick succession at about 7.30 I had frantic telephone calls from Bill Rodgers and s.h.i.+rley Williams, both of whom had had Number 10 on to them saying there was a tremendous rumour circulating in the City that I was about to come out with a pro-Tory statement. I a.s.sured them that I was coming out with no statement at all during the election. They seemed relieved. (Nor did I vote. Jennifer voted Liberal.) Dinner, rue de Praetere, with John Harris who was staying, Jennifer and Laura. John pretty convinced, but by no means absolutely so, that the Tories would win. He and I stayed up talking about the future and what I might or might not conceivably do in politics.

THURSDAY, 3 MAY. Brussels.

A rue de Praetere luncheon party for the Chinese Amba.s.sador and his wife. We also had Thea Elliott who was staying with us and was an old China hand, having had one child born in Peking in the late 1950s, plus Denmans, Tickells, and Plaja, the Italian Permanent Representative. I was surprised and pleased that the Chinese had come to lunch on their own, without any 'interpreter'. The Amba.s.sador showed no signs of resentment that the follow-up to my Peking talks are not as yet going terribly well, mainly because of the French taking up a very restrictive view on the textile agreement and one or two other governments being difficult on GSP.

A visit from Lathiere, the French head of the Airbus consortium. He is the most surprising man, Enarque, Inspecteur de Finance, had been Chef de Cabinet to Jacquet when I was dealing with him on Concorde in 19645, looked like a butcher, talked a most undistinguished English fluently, and was obviously an extremely effective head of Airbus. Then just after 7 o'clock I went to the Brussels Hotel de Ville and made a brief direct elections speech and then wandered around the stalls which had been laid out in the Grand'Place, one for each of the numerous Belgian parties competing in the election. But my insular mind was slightly more on other elections that day.

Sat up listening to the results with Jennifer, Laura, Thea and Celia, which began to come in seriously about 12.40 Brussels time. I eventually went to bed at 5.45, having waited to hear the Stechford result, but, Birmingham being as incompetently late as ever, had failed to do so. It was clear that the Tories were set for a substantial majority which would last a full Parliament. I had mixed feelings at the end, though on the whole I think a change of government is better for Britain's relations with Europe, but I cannot find pleasure in it. Thea I think was the most solid Labour supporter amongst us, though we were all somewhat torn.

FRIDAY, 4 MAY. Brussels.

In the afternoon I heard the totally unexpected and dreadful news of s.h.i.+rley Williams's defeat, and then went home for a sleep before the Beaumarchais' arrived to stay at about 8 o'clock. Late-night telephone conversations with s.h.i.+rley and Bill Rodgers.

SUNDAY, 6 MAY. Brussels.

Did some English telephoning, to Ian Gilmour, Peter Carrington, one or two other people, including David Owen, who had got a good result personally, rather surprisingly so. To bed very early. The post-election weekend definitely exhausting, draining and not very satisfactory.

TUESDAY, 8 MAY. Brussels and Luxembourg.

In the margins of the Foreign Affairs Council I had a substantial talk with Francois-Poncet, mainly about the agenda for Mercues, the French 'Schloss Gymnich', and also on some difficult nuclear matters, the French having decided to take the nuclear question off the Mercues agenda thinking it was too sensitive in advance of direct elections. I agreed to this but said we couldn't leave it for too long. Francois-Poncet was reasonable and quick and I was definitely pro him on this occasion.

At the end we disposed of Cheysson's telegram to Nkomo, which over the weekend had shown signs of escalating into a major row with the French, although they knew perfectly well that I had not approved of it. However, Poncet agreed that we could now leave it where it was. But in the typical French way of getting in a parting shot, he said as we were walking out that there was great sensitivity about Commission political activity. Some people-not, he implausibly alleged, the French as much as the Germans-had raised eyebrows at the high degree of political content in my China talks.

At lunch Christophersen (Danish Foreign Minister) made the most ridiculous fuss about the leaked Denman working paper on relations with j.a.pan, which had contained the famous phrases about 'workaholics', 'rabbit hutches', etc. I replied robustly, saying it was a pity it had leaked, but I was far from sure that it had done any harm, I had since received several friendly communications from the j.a.panese Prime Minister, and in any case it was much better that people should write in vivid phrases than in the usual awful Europe bureaucratese. I was strongly supported in this line by Dohnanyi and Simonet, both of whom were excellent, but nonetheless it took a very long time to persuade the stubborn Christophersen not to raise the matter in open Council during the afternoon.

The Council spent all day grinding its boring way through the negotiating brief for the final stages of the Community/ACP47 negotiations. This very detailed work, which ought to have been done by COREPER, was a clear example, as I told Francois-Poncet, of the way in which the Council downgraded itself and became no more than a glorified COREPER, with a consequent bad effect upon the attendance of Foreign Ministers who just sent their undersecretaries who could not take decisions: a cla.s.sic vicious circle.

I then drove to Luxembourg on the most perfect evening, a long overdue improvement in the weather, to make a valedictory statement to the departing nominated Parliament on the following afternoon.

THURSDAY, 10 MAY. Brussels, London and Edinburgh.

London for my Open University degree at Guildhall. Kingman Brewster, the American Amba.s.sador in London, and I were jointly honoured, and Asa Briggs was installed as the new Chancellor. I saw the Wilsons going into the lunch, and Mary, amazingly, more or less confirmed the story in Harold's notorious interview that she had intended to vote for Mrs Thatcher.

Then to Edinburgh in filthy weather for a dinner with the Consultative Committee of the Coal and Steel Community, presided over by Derek Ezra48 and attended by a fair collection of Scottish notabilities, including the new Secretary of State, George Younger.49 I spoke without a text for about twenty minutes. I sat between Ezra and Gormley, Gormley making a great number of centre party noises.

SAt.u.r.dAY, 12 MAY. East Hendred and Cahors.

To Northolt to get a lift in Peter Carrington's plane to the French 'Schloss Gymnich' at Mercues, near Cahors. I gave Peter a rundown on the various other Foreign Ministers and encouraged him at some fairly early stage to make a general statement of European commitment. The weather improved spectacularly just south of Paris and we landed at Toulouse on the most perfect warm spring morning. There was a reception there by prefect, mayors, the new British Amba.s.sador (surprisingly) etc., and then into a helicopter accompanied by one or two other Foreign Ministers for a rather long journey to the Chateau de Mercues. When we got there we found a most spectacular place, an old castle turned into a very high grade hotel on a cliff overlooking the Lot about seven miles out of Cahors.

Three-and-a-half-hour session, mostly outside. Peter made his statement of intent or commitment, and made it very well. He then went on and more or less told us that they were very loath to keep on Rhodesian sanctions beyond the autumn. This was received in a rather reserved way by Genscher, Simonet, van der Klaauw, and to some extent by Forlani. But Francois-Poncet, Christophersen and Hamilius, the Luxembourgeois who was subst.i.tuting for Thorn, were more forthcoming. However, Carrington got away with it better than he would otherwise have done because everyone was so pleased with his preliminary statement.

At dinner there was the usual tour of the world, no more inspiriting or profound than previously. I got to my room fairly early. It was a perfect night, full moon, and I sat by my window reading for two hours.

SUNDAY, 13 MAY. Cahors and Brussels.

A spectacular early morning, with the dark smooth-moving river looking incredibly beautiful. The south-western French countryside can have a peculiarly benign and smiling quality.

Another alfresco session for two hours. Frangois-Poncet raised his complaints about the European Court but got virtually no support, and in the course of it, rather surprisingly, paid an enormous tribute to the Commission, and to me in particular, for the help we had given in solving the (Community 1979) budget problem.

Maurice Faure, Mayor of Cahors and former patron of Frangois-Poncet whom he had introduced into the area, plus the prefect, came to lunch. I had quite an amusing conversation with Faure, Frangois-Poncet and the Simonets about the Kennedys, on which subject they were all curiously ill-informed, and I held forth for some time.

Faure then insisted on taking me on a tour of the local sights, driving himself very fast with his chauffeur in the back. He drove rather as I do, I suppose, except that he went over all the red traffic lights, vaguely waving to the local population. Very long flight back in Simonet's turbo-prop plane. He had been told the Belgian jet couldn't get in to Cahors, as the British had also been told, but found that his Dutch colleague had a perfectly good jet on the tarmac, as indeed did Frangois-Poncet. This produced a spark of Benelux jealousy.

MONDAY, 14 MAY. Brussels and Copenhagen.

On my way back from my Bois jogging I read the Guardian lead story which stated that there were now new Commission estimates that the budgetary cost to Britain in 1980 would be up from 1000m to 1500m, but that I, after consultation with the Commission, had suppressed this estimate in the meeting that I had had with Mrs Thatcher the previous week. The story was a total fabrication because apart from anything else I hadn't seen Mrs Thatcher, it was probably malevolent coming from Palmer, and in my view was highly defamatory. I therefore decided to act extremely heavily, partly to try and stop any repet.i.tion from Chateau Palmer. Sol rang up Preston, the editor, and began by saying firmly, 'You grossly libelled me this morning.' He sounded absolutely terrified, as though he had been sh.e.l.lshocked, and we then dictated to him a statement which had to appear on the front page the following morning.

I then left for Copenhagen, first for an hour's meeting with Anker Jorgensen, the Prime Minister and a nice man, and then my direct elections meeting and address to the Danish Foreign Policy Society. They produced a remarkably good audience, absolutely packed, I should think about 250 people in the Hotel d'Angleterre. The audience seemed to have a complete comprehension of English, and there were some good questions afterwards. Dinner in the Parliament with ?. B. Andersen (now the Speaker).

TUESDAY, 15 MAY. Copenhagen, Munich and Brussels.

10.45 plane to Munich to address the ETUC conference. The audience was a great contrast with Copenhagen. It was a much bigger room, probably rather more people (about five hundred) but they were all sitting at desks shuffling papers around, the acoustics were rather bad, and I got the impression that I was talking through a wind to a non-listening audience. However, rather to my surprise, they applauded quite well at the end, and they listened to me at least as well as they listened to any of their own leaders.

I then had a very good sight-seeing tour of Munich: the Frauen-kirche, the old Rathaus, the new Rathaus, the Opera House, the Hofgarten, Nymphenburg, which was closed, but which we were able to walk round: an attractive, surprisingly early building, about 1680 (I thought it was later) with great wings spread out, rather as at Versailles or Blenheim, to make it look as big as possible. The disappointing building was the Amalienburg, which I had always heard was rather good. Then back to Schwabing, which is now the smart, 'left bank' quarter. Brussels by just after 11.00, having had three of the last four meals on aeroplanes, which is too much by any standard.

MONDAY, 16 MAY. Brussels and London.

6.35 plane to London and to Grosvenor House for my CBI dinner speech. It was one of the most formidable gatherings I had ever addressed, about twelve hundred people, including almost exactly half the Cabinet-Howe, Joseph, Maude, Nott, Howell, Prior50 and various others I can't remember-plus most of the Permanent Secretaries, plus s.h.i.+rley Williams, plus Bill Rodgers, plus Denis Healey, plus Roy Mason. My speech, which was mainly European, but also had a good plug for centrist politics, telling the Government not to make major legislative changes unless there was good reason to believe the changes would survive the next tilt of the political balance, went rather well. It was moderately reported in the press and very well reported on the BBC the next morning, but slightly to my regret more the European part rather than the warning to the Government to spare us too many queasy rides on the ideological big dipper.

I drove s.h.i.+rley home and discovered that her views on her own future are very sensible. She was not rus.h.i.+ng back into the House. She wasn't sure she was going back at all, but certainly wanted to stay out for the rest of this year. She has lots of things to do, including an autumn's teaching at Harvard. She wants to look around, and I suppose let people seek her rather than vice versa.

THURSDAY, 17 MAY. London and East Hendred.

To the Monnet memorial service at St Margaret's. It was not very well attended in numbers, although it was quite a distinguished gathering, with Callaghan rather surprisingly there, plus Alec Home, plus Ted, who gave another of his noteless, even if not wholly impromptu, addresses. I thought it rather a good service, in spite of unfamiliar hymns.

SUNDAY, 20 MAY. East Hendred and London.

Jennifer and I went to Lew Grade's great Euro Gala at Drury Lane. We had d.i.c.kie Mountbatten and Ted Heath in the box with us, Mountbatten boisterously friendly as usual, Ted reasonably friendly to me though basically in a very grumpy mood, partly because he had had his snarl-up with Mrs Thatcher over her incredibly foolishly sending him a written offer of the Was.h.i.+ngton Emba.s.sy. A delicate sounding might have been one thing, a formal written offer was ludicrous. I sympathized with him but got into slight difficulty, knowing that Nicko Henderson had been decided on a week or so before, and nearly telling him that I knew, but withdrew into saying only that I thought they had now got a candidate. He showed every sign of wanting to pursue this with understandable vigour.

MONDAY, 21 MAY. London.

A noon meeting with Mrs Thatcher, the first time I had seen her since the election, and indeed, apart from perhaps three meetings with her as leader of the Opposition, almost the only time that I had talked to her seriously.

She was anxious to be pleasant, came downstairs to meet me, arriving very faintly fl.u.s.tered two seconds too late to be at the door, and we then had beaming photographs taken and moved to the upstairs study, where I had spent so much time with Wilson and even a certain amount of time with Callaghan. Rather to my surprise she began by offering me a drink, which Callaghan certainly wouldn't have done at noon, and I'm rather doubtful about Wilson too. I rather primly refused, saying it was a little early. She looked rather disappointed, so I made what I thought was a tactful recovery, saying, 'Let us have one at 12.30. It will give us something to look forward to if the conversation goes badly.'

However, it didn't go too badly at all. We started off with some general conversation about Chequers, her pattern of life, etc. Then she went into her rather simpliste European lecture, which I let run on for ten minutes or so when it slightly died away, and then after that she listened as well as talked and I should think I had 60 per cent of the remaining hour. She was fairly rigid on a number of things, notably fish, but was however very anxious to strike a constructive note on others: very determined to get something on the budget; willing I think to give something-I'm not quite sure what beyond general cooperative goodwill-in exchange for this; anxious to grasp points of detail and quite quick at doing so; thinking always a little too much in terms of the EEC and NATO as two bodies which ought to be amalgamated; and making one or two frankly foolish remarks about starving the Arabs to death by cutting off North American wheat supplies, or something equally silly. However, the general impression was quite good and certainly friendly.

TUESDAY, 22 MAY. London, Birmingham and Brussels.

To Birmingham for George Canning's inauguration ceremony as Lord Mayor. Arrived early and therefore paid a visit to the Art Gallery. Warmly greeted by the curator, a number of people on the way round, and indeed by quite a lot of people in the street, both before and after the ceremony-a rather pleasant, warm, Birmingham-returning atmosphere.

George looked very smart, every inch a Lord Mayor. The speeches were good. Minnis (a Liberal) proposed and Clive Wilkinson seconded; then a very good speech from George himself. All were full of warm references to me. There was time for a drive around Stechford before the 4.30 plane to Brussels.

WEDNESDAY, 23 MAY. Brussels.

Michael O'Kennedy, the Irish Foreign Minister, arrived at noon for his acclimatization meeting and lunch. We had quite a good meeting for one and a quarter hours, nothing very dramatic, his grasp being reasonable without being exciting. Then a Commission lunch for him at which, again, he acquitted himself quite well.

THURSDAY, 24 MAY. Brussels, Aachen, Brussels and Milan.

Motored with Laura to Aachen for the Karlspreis ceremony. Colombo received the prize and Tindemans made the allocution. Genscher spoke on behalf of the Government, and the Mayor of Aachen, Malangre, who is in the course of being elected to the European Parliament, also spoke. As three of the speeches, including Tindemans's, were in German and Colombo's was in Italian, I did not, alas, understand a great deal, and there were no translations. However, it is a nice hall and the ceremony strikes evocative chords with me.

Then back to Brussels and to Milan with Laura by 7.30. We were met by Giro, the head of our office in Rome who was in Milan for some other occasion, and were driven in by him in an immensely expensive, huge Mercedes, which he had hired on our behalf, but privately, as it wasn't an official visit, and which we then made the dreadful error of keeping to take us on half a mile to dinner, and which altogether cost 45 - an appalling waste of money.

FRIDAY, 25 MAY. Milan and Lucca.

Left early and drove in a hired car via Parma to the Gilmour house near Lucca in time for lunch. Jennifer, the Gilmours, Charlie and Sara Morrison,51 and Hayden had already arrived from London.

SUNDAY, 27 MAY. Lucca.

Ian (Gilmour) slept most of the weekend but was on good form when awake. He seemed to enjoy being a Foreign Office Minister and was full of splendid anecdotes about the early days of the Government. Sara Morrison very sharp, but quite amusingly so, about everybody, including old friends like Peter Carrington. She is still a dedicated Heath woman and therefore a dedicated anti-Thatcher one. Charlie Morrison slightly deaf (a good thing to be if married to Sara, who does talk almost without stopping) but nice and sensible and more intelligent than I had realized; an absolutely rock solid centrist-liberal on every issue one could think of -Europe, hanging, Rhodesia, race relations, indeed everything imaginable, which is surprising and impressive.

MONDAY, 28 MAY. Lucca, Athens and Rome.

Left with Laura for the 7.53 train from Pisa. Rome, after rather an uncomfortable journey without breakfast, at 11.00. First to the Ha.s.sler, then to Ciampino to join Andreotti on his plane. Athens, with a change of time, about 3.40. There was an enormous ceremonial greeting, with vast guards of honour. Mitsotakis, the Cretan deputy Prime Minister, took charge of me and drove me in to the Grande Bretagne. The ceremony52 was well organized in a modern rotunda between the Parliament and the Acropolis. We had three speeches (Francois-Poncet, Karamanlis and me) and then the ceremonial signing. Giscard turned up, but did not speak. He sat beaming in the seat nearest the rostrum, looking like the mother of the bride.

Then to dinner at the Presidential Palace, where I was received with immense warmth by Tsatsos, the little President, mainly on the ground that he had read and enjoyed the Asquith which I had given him last autumn; and then, apparently, at dinner he got Giscard going on Dilke ('Dilkie' is Giscard's favourite subject), and was regaled with the whole story.

Dinner was for about three hundred people. I sat between Francois-Poncet (with whom I had quite an amusing conversation) and van der Klaauw. After dinner Karamanlis spoke again as well as Tsatsos. Then Giscard spoke in Greek, which perhaps showed more gallantry than sense.

Then briefly to a spectacular reception, with tremendous lighting and illuminated alleyways in the garden of the old Royal Palace, until we left at 11.30, drove to the airport and took off at midnight for a rather sleepy return to Rome and the Ha.s.sler. It was satisfactory to have got it all done in one day. Very good hot weather, temperature about the same - 85 - in Rome and Athens, but slightly clearer in Rome.

TUESDAY, 29 MAY. Rome and Lucca.

9 o'clock plane to Pisa and back to La Pianella at noon, swam before lunch, and lunched in the garden on a perfect day.

FRIDAY, 1 JUNE. Lucca and East Hendred.

To England after a very successful holiday, spectacular from the weather point of view, in spite of the Athens interruption. We were immensely well treated at Pisa Airport and for once by British Airways.

SAt.u.r.dAY, 2 JUNE. East Hendred.

The Rodgers' to lunch with Ann Fleming. They went rather better together than I expected. Bill was very funny and indiscreet about all Labour Party affairs, Callaghan, etc. After Ann went, the Rodgers', in improving weather, sat with us in the garden for another two hours. Bill was not too depressed by the election, very committed to politics, rather complacent I thought about shadow Cabinet elections: the Manifesto Group were only putting up nine candidates, they didn't wish to score too crus.h.i.+ng a victory, etc. He was quite realistic about his own position, thought he would get on, but in eighth, ninth, tenth position-something like that.

MONDAY, 4 JUNE. London and Brussels.

Lunch with Victor Rothschild. I found him on only tolerably good form. Only the subject of the Dimbleby Lecture, which he did last year and about which he had a great row, and I have agreed to do this year, really animated him.

Back in Brussels in the early evening I did a long British sound radio phone-in programme in the Brussels studio, which lasted no less than one and a half hours. There were surprisingly good questions, intelligent, friendly and rational. Apart from those who were listed to appear, Judith Hart,53 about to be a Dame, insisted on coming in and asked a long-winded question, to which it was not difficult to reply.

TUESDAY, 5 JUNE. Brussels.

I saw Gundelach, followed by Hinton the US Amba.s.sador, followed by the Pakistani Amba.s.sador, who wanted me to go and visit his country, which I have no intention of doing in view of their general behaviour and treatment of Bhutto in particular; and then lunched with Crispin, with whom I hadn't had a talk for some time.

Dined with Leon Lambert, with his splendid pictures, statuary and wine, for Ken Galbraith. I was very pleased to see Ken, after a long interval, and who now, though aged seventy-one or -two, was looking much better than I had seen him for quite some time past, and talking rather well without trying to hog the conversation. I am very fond of the old thing.

THURSDAY, 7 JUNE. Brussels.

Lunch with the new Belgian Prime Minister, Martens,54 in his hotel particulier. He is a nice, agreeable young man-about forty-two -not well-informed about European questions, though generally favourable like all Belgians. He is essentially an expert on the communal (i.e. Walloon/Flemish) question, which is I suppose what counts in Belgium at the present time. He is a Flemish Christian Democrat from Ghent. He listened while I talked most of the time, and alas I found myself addressing more and more remarks to Van Ypersele (the great Belgian monetary expert who is his Chef de Cabinet) because he understood so much more what I was saying.

At 3.15 I saw Ortoli for a rather difficult meeting. All difficulties with Ortoli arise about drafts, and we were arguing about whether a paper on the 1990s for the European Council should be on the basis of his draft (which he claimed was his cabinet draft, but which in fact he had done himself) or the draft which Michael Jenkins had done for me. I thought ours was better (it was really a clash between English and French stylistic and schematic approaches) but he was stubborn about his. I was inclined to be stubborn too.

However, by the time I got back from a one-and-a-half-hour visit of inspection to DG10 I had decided that it wasn't worth having a great row with Ortoli about the drafts. Both were tolerably good, neither was brilliant, and these papers are not read with sufficient attention that it is worth treating them as works of art. I therefore gave in to him, subject to our being able to make amendments to his version. I did a half-hour pre-Summit j.a.panese television interview, which is supposed to balance with one from Carter and is therefore quite important, and then had an hour with an Australian parliamentary delegation, led by Billy Snedden,55 who was pushed out by Fraser as leader of the Liberal Party and is now Speaker. Snedden was appropriately anti-Fraser. We then dined with the Tugendhats, a large party of about thirty, obviously their great summer fete.

FRIDAY, 8 JUNE. Brussels, Paris and Brussels.

7.30 train to Paris. The TEE was, as usual, about twenty minutes late. A meeting with Giscard from 11.00 until 12.15.