European Diary, 1977-1981 Part 36

10 R. A. Butler, 190282, cr. Lord Butler 1965, KG, holder between 1941 and 1965 of almost every Cabinet office except that of Prime Minister. Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, 196578. Chancellor of the Universities of Sheffield and Ess.e.x.

11 It persisted for three and a half weeks.

12 (Sir) Robin Day, b. 1923, was already a political television interviewer and presenter of note, although not quite so pre-eminent as today.

13 The purpose of such meetings was to decide which Commissioner handled which item and to determine some consistency of line.

14 Under Article 85 of the Treaty of Rome a derogation to the ban on market-sharing agreements could be temporarily permitted to ease problems of overproduction. A request for such a derogation was first made by the synthetic fibres industry. Consideration of the validity of the request occupied much of the time of the various Community inst.i.tutions in the second half of 1978.

15 Sir Michael Stewart, b. 1911, Minister in Washington 19647, was Amba.s.sador to Greece 196771, before becoming Director of the Ditchley Foundation 19716.

16 d.i.c.k Taverne, QC, b. 1928, was Labour and then Democratic Labour MP for Lincoln 196274. He served with me at the Home Office and the Treasury 196670, and was the forerunner of the SDP.

17 Gwynfor Evans, b. 1912, was Welsh Nationalist MP for Carmarthen 196670 and 19749.

18 Jacques Chaban Delmas, b. 1915, Mayor of Bordeaux since 1947. President of National a.s.sembly 195869, 197881, 19868. Prime Minister of France 196972. Candidate for the presidency 1974.

19 Not exactly. That had been earlier in the House of Commons. This one (14 July 1940) said: 'Should the invader come ... we will defend every village, every town, every city...'

20 Cledwyn Hughes, b. 1916, cr. Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos 1979, having been MP for Anglesey from 1951, and a member of the Cabinet from 1966 to 1970. Now leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords.

21 The 7th Marquess of Anglesey, b. 1922, author and Chairman of the Historic Buildings Council for Wales, had married Shirley Morgan, daughter of the novelist Charles Morgan; she was then Chairman of the Welsh Arts Council.

22 Roy Hattersley, b. 1932, has been Labour MP for Birmingham, Sparkbrook since 1964, was Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection 19769, and has been deputy leader of the Labour Party since 1983.

23 Patrick Devlin, b. 1905, cr. Lord Devlin 1961, was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary 19614 before unexpectedly retiring to authorship and occasional inquiries.

24 Filippo Pandolfi, b. 1927, Italian Minister of the Treasury 197880, and later of Industry and of Agriculture.

25 Over the summer of 19781 decided that the internal working of the Commission and its services needed improvement, particularly through a loosening of the rigidities which prevented the most effective deployment of personnel. This was the first point discussed that year at the cabinet strategy meeting at East Hendred in late July. A small outside committee of inquiry, seemed to me the best chance of overcoming national defensive-ness and innate conservatism. This committee took shape under the chairmanship of Dirk Spierenburg, a Dutch diplomat and former Coal and Steel Commissioner, with British (d.i.c.k Taverne), French, German and Italian members.

At about the same time President Giscard d'Estaing conceived the idea of having 'Three Wise Men' to look at the relationship to each other of all the European inst.i.tutions. This obviously embraced the external powers of the Commission, but not its internal working. The two inquiries were slightly confusingly parallel to each other, but not strictly overlapping. Neither transformed Europe, but I think mine produced more practical result than did his.

26 Raimundo Ba.s.sols y Jacas, b. 1925, was Spanish Amba.s.sador to the Community throughout my presidency and later Amba.s.sador to Morocco.

27 Renee van Hoof was (and is) the head of the excellent Commission interpretation service. She became Madame Haferkamp in 1986.

28 I did not think that I could dictate to a senior vice-president who should and who should not be in his party for a particular visit. He said that he needed her for interpretation purposes, not with the Chinese but within his multinational team.

29 Sir Derek Walker-Smith, b. 1910, cr. Lord Broxbourne 1983, Conservative MP for Hertfordshire and a middle-rank minister 195560, was a Member of the European Parliament 19739.

30 And as it turned out the only time.

31 Stanley Johnson, b. 1940, was an official in the Commission's Environment and Consumer Protection Service 19739, a Conservative MEP 197984, and is now back in the service of the Commission.

32 I had seen a Home Office man the previous week.

33 Konstantinos Tsatsos, b. 1899, philosopher and lawyer, was President of Greece 197580.

34 Pope Paul VI had died on 6 August. His successor Pope John Paul died on 28 September.

35 Konstantinos Mitsotakis, b. 1918, was Greek Minister of Coordination and Planning 197780, of Foreign Affairs 19801, and has been leader of the new Democratic Party since 1984.

36 George Mavros, b. 1909, had been a Minister or Governor of the Bank of Greece for much of the time between 1946 and 1966 and again briefly in 1974. Imprisoned under the Colonels. In Opposition in 1978.

37 Andreas Papandreou, b. 1919, was leader of the Opposition 197781, and has been Prime Minister of Greece since 1981.

38 Samuel Brittan, b. 1933, has been princ.i.p.al economics correspondent of the Financial Times since 1966.

39 Rather a euphemism for the transfer of resources to the poorer countries to encourage them to come into the EMS.

40 Rene Monory, b. 1923, was French Minister of Industry and Trade 19778, of Finance and Economics 197881, and of Education 19868.

41 Technical term for an attempt to reconcile differences between the two arms of the budgetary authority.

42 Donald Bruce, b. 1912, cr. Lord Bruce of Donnington 1975. Labour MP 194550, MEP in the last years of the indirectly elected Parliament.

43 Curiously, it subsequently emerged that the British thought they were on stronger legal ground on one or two of the minor ones than on the major one-the size of the so-called Norway pout box (an area closed to fishing for this type of fish) - on which our own legal services were so doubtful.

44 I suppose, in retrospect, that we were sensitive to the story because, while strictly non vero, it had its ben trovato element.

45 Following the death of Pope John Paul I on 28 September, his successor Pope John Paul II, formerly Cardinal Wojtyla of Cracow, had been elected on 16 October.

46 Lady Benson, 190781, was married first to Conde Nast and then to the English banker, Sir Rex Benson. She was the mother of Leslie Bonham Carter and the owner of Bussento, the house in the south of Italy which we frequently visited.

47 Milton Gendel, b. 1924, is an American art historian who is the widower of Judy Montagu, the daughter of the recipient of so many Asquith letters.

48 It was advanced as a ploy to teach the French not to play anti-communautaire games, and while I thought it a good joke, I did not have time to spare to serve on a leisurely committee of inquiry.

49 The four big countries had ten votes, the Netherlands and Belgium five, Denmark and Ireland three and Luxembourg two. The importance of getting away from eighteen was that it set a precedent for flexibility when Spain and Portugal came in.

50 A few years later this disappeared, and after my return to the House of Commons in 1982 my relations with this angular and insular but exceptional and distinguished English eccentric (b. 1907, Labour MP for Battersea 194683, President of the Board of Trade 19647, cr. Lord Jay 1987) were happily repaired.

51 Josef Ertl, b. 1925, a Bavarian member of the FDP, was German Minister of Agriculture 196983.

52 The power of the American Government to waive so-called 'countervailing duties' was due to expire on 3 January 1979. Unless they took urgent legislative steps to extend this power the effect on European imports into the USA was likely to be considerable and the climate in which MTNs were carried on substantially worsened.

53 Jelle Zijlstra, b. 1918, was Prime Minister of the Netherlands 19667, and head of the Dutch Central Bank 196781.

54 Paolo Baffi, b. 1911, was Governor of the Bank of Italy 197580.

55 Paul Volcker, b. 1927, was President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank 19759, and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System 197987.

56 Ten years later that particular bit of the future has still not arrived.

57 Emile van Lennep, b. 1915, Treasurer-General of the Dutch Ministry of Finance 195169, then became Secretary-General of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation and remained there until 1984.

58 Laurens Brinkhorst, b. 1937, was Netherlands State Secretary for Foreign Affairs 19737, deputy leader of D66 (a new political party) 197782, and European Community Amba.s.sador in Tokyo 19826.

59 Paul Delouvrier, b. 1914, was Prefect of the Paris region 19669, and President Conseil d'Administration, Electricite de France, 196979.

60 Umberto La Rocca, b. 1920, was Political Director of the Italian Foreign Ministry at this stage and closely a.s.sociated with Andreotti. Later Amba.s.sador 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 34953.

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 19713.

65 (Sir) Patrick Wright, b. 1931, Amba.s.sador to Luxembourg 19779, Saudi Arabia 19846, 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 197780, and head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank 19804.

70 William Miller, b. 1925, was Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank 19789, and Secretary of the Treasury 197981.

71 Jacques de Larosiere de Champfeu, b. 1929. Under-Secretary of the Treasury 19748, Chairman of the Deputies' Group of Ten 19768. Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of IMF 197886; 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 195083. 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 192846 and Chairman 194683.

77 Mrs Vincent Astor, nee 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 19703, and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 19734. Despite this entry he was Defence Secretary 197982 and only Foreign Secretary 19823. His father was Leslie Pym, MP for Monmouth 193946.

2 Sir Nicholas Henderson was due to retire as Amba.s.sador to Paris in April 1979.

3 For the start of a six-day 'Lome' 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 193666 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, a.s.suring the same terms to all users, and denied France's a.s.serted 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) 197986.

12(Sir) John Greenborough, b. 1922, a senior Sh.e.l.l man, was President of the CBI 197880.

13 Robert Mackenzie, 191781, 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 195667, when he was removed from office in the Cultural Revolution. He was restored to favour as a member of the Politburo 19736, 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 19759. 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 ent.i.tled The Middle Kingdom.

22 Sir Oliver Wright, b. 1921, was Amba.s.sador to Bonn 197581, and to Washington 19826.

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 a.s.semblies 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 Emba.s.sy for a European Council. It would have given the impression of too close a national affiliation, most of all in Paris.