European Diary, 1977-1981

by Roy Jenkins

  58 Laurens Brinkhorst, b. 1937, was Netherlands State Secretary for Foreign Affairs 1973–7, deputy leader of D66 (a new political party) 1977–82, and European Community Ambassador in Tokyo 1982–6.

  59 Paul Delouvrier, b. 1914, was Prefect of the Paris region 1966–9, and Président Conseil d’Administration, Electricité de France, 1969–79.

  60 Umberto La Rocca, b. 1920, was Political Director of the Italian Foreign Ministry at this stage and closely associated with Andreotti. Later Ambassador to the United Nations.

  61 Commission name for the large reception hall on the thirteenth floor of the Berlaymont.

  62 Too optimistic as it subsequently emerged. See pages 349–53.

  63 Not a very good judgement as he has since been in considerable legal trouble.

  64 Barend William Biesheuvel, b. 1920, was Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1971–3.

  65 (Sir) Patrick Wright, b. 1931, Ambassador to Luxembourg 1977–9, Saudi Arabia 1984–6, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office since 1986.

  66 This was exceptional in my European life, except from Brussels to London and vice versa. The explanation on this occasion was that my staff for the Parliament (Hayden Phillips and Laura Grenfell) had gone back to Brussels, and Crispin Tickell had gone ahead to Washington.

  67 The venue of a Giscard-organized four-power meeting which was pending in January, and attendance at which did James Callaghan so much accidental harm.

  68 An announcement of full diplomatic relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China came on Friday, 15 December.

  69 Anthony Solomon, b. 1919, was Treasury Under-Secretary 1977–80, and head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank 1980–4.

  70 William Miller, b. 1925, was Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank 1978–9, and Secretary of the Treasury 1979–81.

  71 Jacques de Larosière de Champfeu, b. 1929. Under-Secretary of the Treasury 1974–8, Chairman of the Deputies’ Group of Ten 1976–8. Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of IMF 1978–86; Governor of the Banque de France since January 1987.

  72 Mrs Katherine Graham, b. 1917, has been the proprietor and publisher of the Washington Post, Newsweek etc. since the death of her husband Philip Graham in the 1960s.

  73 Tom and Joan Braden have straddled Washington since the beginning of the Kennedy presidency.

  74 Henry Brandon, b. 1916, was Sunday Times correspondent in Washington 1950–83. His wife since 1970 has been Mrs Reagan’s social secretary.

  75 Kitty Carlisle (Hart), actress and singer, is the widow of the impresario Moss Hart.

  76 William Paley, b. 1901, was President of CBS 1928–46 and Chairman 1946–83.

  77 Mrs Vincent Astor, née Brooke Russell, the last station on the mainline of the Mrs Astors of New York.

  78 Princess Marella Caraciolla de Castagneto, married to Giovanni Agnelli since 1953.

  1 Francis Pym, b. 1922 (cr. Lord Pym 1987), had been Conservative Chief Whip 1970–3, and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 1973–4. Despite this entry he was Defence Secretary 1979–82 and only Foreign Secretary 1982–3. His father was Leslie Pym, MP for Monmouth 1939–46.

  2 Sir Nicholas Henderson was due to retire as Ambassador to Paris in April 1979.

  3 For the start of a six-day ‘Lomé’ tour of two francophone and one anglophone African countries.

  4 Abdou Diout, b. 1935, was Prime Minister from 1970until 1980 and has been President of Senegal since then.

  5 This was the peak (or trough) of the ‘winter of discontent’.

  6 James Lees-Milne, b. 1908, was on the staff of the National Trust 1936–66 and has been a prolific author during and after these years.

  7 Neil Bruce, b. 1919, was a Balliol contemporary who was subsequently a BBC foreign correspondent and a lecturer in international politics at Keele University.

  8 The Court of Justice ruling of November 1978 had in effect upheld the Commission’s right to insist on a Community Agreement for the supply of nuclear materials from Australia, assuring the same terms to all users, and denied France’s asserted right to conclude a parallel bilateral agreement.

  9 The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is a means of giving tariff preferences on behalf of developed countries to developing countries. The GSP was agreed in 1968 at the Second Session of the UNCTAD in New Delhi. The preferences are nondiscriminatory, autonomous (i.e. not contractually agreed) and non-reciprocal. The European Community began such arrangements in 1971, the USA in 1976. The Community scheme applies to 128 independent countries and more than twenty dependent countries. China has benefited from the Community scheme since 1980.

  10 Heinrich Aigner, b. 1924, had been a CSU (Franz Josef Strauss’s Bavarian party) member of the Bundestag since 1957 and of the European Parliament since 1961.

  11 Giorgio Napolitano, b. 1925, a member of the Camera dei Deputati, was President of the Italian Communist Group (in the European Parliament) 1979–86.

  12(Sir) John Greenborough, b. 1922, a senior Shell man, was President of the CBI 1978–80.

  13 Robert Mackenzie, 1917–81, was an LSE professor of Canadian origin who achieved considerable fame as a BBC political commentator and inventor of the ‘swingometer’.

  14 I was due to go to China for ten days on 20 February.

  15 ‘The winter of discontent’.

  16 I think this is proving to have been an exaggeration.

  17 Deng Xiaoping, b. 1904, was Secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party 1956–67, when he was removed from office in the Cultural Revolution. He was restored to favour as a member of the Politburo 1973–6, at the beginning of which period we had been offered our unexpected interview, and then again disgraced as an ‘unrepentant capitalist roader’ by the Gang of Four in April 1976. He returned to the Politburo in 1977 and became Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 1978.

  18 More of which they wanted to export to us but which we did not want to receive.

  19 In fact their 1985 imports turned out to be $33.4 billion, with the difference between 1979 and 1985 prices more than bridging the discrepancy.

  20 Eric Varley, b. 1932, was Secretary of State for Industry 1975–9. He withdrew from politics and became Chairman of the Coalite Group in 1984.

  21 In 1981 (English edition 1983) he published an excellent book on China entitled The Middle Kingdom.

  22 Sir Oliver Wright, b. 1921, was Ambassador to Bonn 1975–81, and to Washington 1982–6.

  23 (Sir) John Sainsbury, b. 1927, has been Chairman of J. Sainsbury Ltd since 1969, and of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, since 1987.

  24 The Government’s proposals for devolution of powers to Scottish and Welsh assemblies had been submitted to referenda on 1 March and had resulted in the narrowest possible victory, on a low poll, in Scotland and overwhelming defeat in Wales.

  25 True, so far.

  26 I would not have thought it wise to stay in a British Embassy for a European Council. It would have given the impression of too close a national affiliation, most of all in Paris.

  27 Using the Social Fund to ease the consequence of the rundown in the steel industry.

  28 Sir Geoffrey de Freitas, 1913–82, Labour MP 1945–61 and 1964–79. High Commissioner to Ghana and Kenya in the interval. A Strasbourg figure since 1951 and President of the Assembly of the Council of Europe 1966–9.

  29 Michael Murphy, b. 1919, was the first President of the Cour des Comptes 1977–81.

  30 Sir John Eden, b. 1925, cr. Lord Eden of Winton 1983, was Conservative MP for Bournemouth 1954–83 and a middle-rank minister 1970–4.

  31 Sir Peter Parker, b. 1924, was Chairman of British Rail 1976–83. Now Chairman of the Rockware Group and a member of many other boards.

  32 Sir Richard Sykes, 1920–79, had been a Deputy Under-Secretary in the Foreign Office before going to The Hague in 1977.

  33 Baroness Gaitskell, cr. 1963, is the widow of Hugh Gaitskell.

  34 Sir Con
O’Neill, 1912–87, twice resigned from the foreign service before becoming Ambassador to the EEC 1963–5. Director of the Britain in Europe campaign for the 1975 referendum.

  35 The paper was closed down from November 1978 to November 1979.

  36 Douglas Stuart was a well-known BBC commentator.

  37 Airey Neave, 1916–79, was Conservative MP for Abingdon 1953–79, and Opposition spokesman on Northern Ireland from 1975.

  38 Robin Leigh-Pemberton, b. 1927, has been Governor of the Bank of England since 1983.

  39 My mildly mocking name for the Ortoli, Gundelach, Davignon, Jenkins quartet.

  40 It survived eighty years of railway ownership much better than it has since survived eight years of privatization.

  41 Sir Peter Wakefield, b. 1922, came to Belgium after three years as Ambassador to the Lebanon. Since 1982, Director of the National Art Collection Fund.

  42 Nicholas Davenport, 1893–1979, was a radical stockbroker and financial commentator, whose heterodox views did not prevent him making enough money to acquire a regicide’s fine mansion near Faringdon in which he much entertained, inter alia, Hugh Dalton and Richard Crossman.

  43 John Beaven, b. 1910, cr. Lord Ardwick 1970, was London editor of the Manchester Guardian 1946–55, editor of the Daily Herald 1960–2, and political adviser to the Mirror Group 1962–76 (hence his interest in Cecil King and Hugh Cudlipp).

  44 Sir Alexander Glen, b. 1912, was Chairman of the British Tourist Authority 1969–77.

  45 Edmund Muskie, b. 1914, was Governor of Maine 1955–9, Senator for that state 1959–80, and US Secretary of State 1980–1.

  46 Joan Littlewood founded the Theatre Workshop in 1945 and subsequently did many productions at the Theatre Royal, Stratford. Went to work in France 1975 and was largely responsible in the early 1980s for an unfortunate autobiography published by Philippe de Rothschild.

  47 African, Caribbean and Pacific (i.e. Lomé) countries.

  48 Sir Derek Ezra, b. 1919, cr. Lord Ezra 1983, was Chairman of the National Coal Board 1971–82.

  49 George Younger, b. 1931, was Secretary of State for Scotland 1979–86, and is now Secretary of State for Defence.

  50 Not many of them now left.

  51 (Sir) Charles Morrison, b. 1932, has been Conservative MP for Devizes since 1964. Sara Morrison, b. 1934, is a director of GEC.

  52 For the signing of the treaty admitting Greece into the Community.

  53 (Dame) Judith Hart, cr. Baroness Hart of Lanark 1987, was Labour MP for Lanark 1959–87, and holder of various middle-rank offices at periods between 1964 and 1979.

  54 Wilfried Martens, b. 1936, has since been Prime Minister of Belgium 1979–81,1981–5 and from October 1985.

  55 Sir Billy Snedden, 1926–87, had led the Liberal Party in opposition 1972–5.

  56 A unanimous decision of governments is required to override the Commission on such a matter.

  1 João de Freitas-Cruz, b. 1925, a professional diplomat, was Portuguese Foreign Minister 1978–80, and Ambassador in London 1980–3.

  2 La Prieuré was a sort of pavilion in the grounds of the Château de Val Duchesse.

  3 Fred Mulley, b. 1918, cr. Lord Mulley 1984, was Secretary of State for Education 1975–6, and for Defence 1976–9.

  4 Neologism for British Permanent Representation to the Community.

  5 So much so that we changed from the Sofitel to the Terminus-Grüber for the subsequent eighteen months of our visits to Strasbourg.

  6 (Sir) Leslie Fielding, b. 1932, was then head of the Commission Delegation in Japan and is now Vice-Chancellor of Sussex University.

  7 I.e. they wanted to have a German, French, Italian etc. figure for oil imports in the communiqué and thus be able to complain to an individual government if it was over its level, whereas we wanted to keep room for virement within the Community.

  8 Mark Boxer, 1931–88, cartoonist (Marc), and editor of the Tatler from 1983.

  9 Lady Katherine Asquith, b. 1949, is the great granddaughter of the Liberal Prime Minister.

  10 Patrick Trevor-Roper, b. 1916, is an ophthalmic surgeon and author.

  11 Stavros Roussos, b. 1918, was Ambassador to London 1974–9, and became Secretary-General of the Greek Foreign Ministry 1980–2.

  12 Philip Noel-Baker, 1889–1982, cr. Lord Noel-Baker 1977, intermittently a Labour MP 1929–74, spent much time in Geneva on League of Nations business in the twenties and thirties (and was a great dancer).

  13 Simone Veil, b. 1927, French Minister of Health 1974–9, President of the European Parliament 1979–82.

  14 (Sir) Russell Johnston, b. 1932, has been Liberal MP for Inverness since 1964.

  15 Giacinto Pannella, b. 1930, had founded the Movement for Civil Rights and Freedom 1974, member of the Camera dei Deputati 1976–86, MEP since 1979.

  16 Mrs Barbara Castle, b. 1910, was MP for Blackburn 1945–79 and a fellow member with me of both Wilson Cabinets. She had been elected an MEP in June 1979, and became leader of the Labour Group in Strasbourg.

  17 This hope was never put to the test, for he died six months later.

  18 Peter Walker, b. 1932, MP for Worcester since 1961, has held a wide variety of Cabinet posts in both the Heath and Thatcher Governments. He was Minister of Agriculture 1979–83.

  19 Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper, b. 1914, cr. Lord Dacre of Glanton 1979, was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford 1957–80, before becoming Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, 1980–7.

  20 Mrs William Douglas-Home, b. 1929, following (at some delay) the death of her father who had been known by a higher title, emerged as the Baroness Dacre (27th in line) in 1970. She was not enthusiastic about sharing it with Professor Trevor-Roper nine years later.

  21 Jeremy Hutchinson QC, b. 1915, famous defence counsel, had been created Lord Hutchinson of Lullington in 1978.

  22 John Grigg, b. 1924, author and journalist, succeeded his father as the 2nd Lord Altrincham in 1959, then disclaimed the title when this became possible in 1963. Married to Patsy Grigg.

  23 John Bayley, b. 1925, has been Warton Professor of English Literature at Oxford since 1974. Married to (Dame) Iris Murdoch, philosopher and novelist.

  24 George Scott, 192 5–88, editor of the Listener 1974–9 and frequent Liberal candidate, had become head of the London office of the Commission earlier in 1979.

  25 Towards the end of our 1968–70 sojourn in 11 Downing Street we had assembled on the staircase (with the help of [Sir] Roy Strong, then Director of the National Portrait Gallery) a collection of cartoons of previous Chancellors. I think we had deliberately avoided photographs in order to provide a variation from the No. 10 staircase decoration.

  26 Current Brussels jargon for using the Community budget to help the poorer more than the richer countries. It therefore subsumed the problem of Britain’s excessive budgetary contribution. ‘Concurrent studies’ and the ‘reference paper’ were other jargon phrases with the same meaning.

  27 Roberto Ducci, b. 1914, was Italian Ambassador to London 1975–80.

  28 He was murdered four months later.

  29 Madron Seligman, b. 1918, a friend from Balliol days, has been an MEP since 1979.

  30 Uwe Kitzinger, b. 1928, had been a fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, since 1956, was then Dean of INSEAD (1976–80) and is now Director of the Oxford Centre for Management Studies and head of Templeton College.

  31 It was settled quickly and satisfactorily by that evening, in sharp contrast with pre-1971 ‘Bretton Woods’ devaluations.

  32 Bruno Kreisky, b. 1911, was Federal Chancellor of Austria 1970–83.

  33 Rudolf Kirchschläger, b. 1915, was Foreign Minister 1970–4, and President of Austria 1974–86.

  34 Brian Key, b. 1947, was the strongly pro-European Labour MEP for South Yorkshire from 1979 to 1984, when he was not reselected.

  35 (Sir) James Scott-Hopkins, b. 1921, was an MP 1959–79, and has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1973. He was leader of the European Democratic (Conservative)
Group 1979–82.