Douglas Hurd called a meeting this afternoon to discuss the objectives for 1990 and his diary for the next month or so. Life is likely still to be dominated by Europe and Hong Kong, though I have reminded Douglas of the need to continue to pay attention to Japan, India and Australia. He shows some resistance to Japan, while acknowledging its importance. This may again be a generational thing; even someone only one year older than myself may tend to be more anti-Japanese from the war. Margaret Thatcher shows marked signs of such a bias, as did Harold Wilson.
3 JANUARY 1990
Nicky Gordon Lennox called on retirement from Madrid, and gossiped with me about the Prime Minister and Denis Thatcher. He had been struck by how heavily Denis was now drinking, and referred to worries among Margaret Thatcher’s close circle that this could become a reason for her to give up early.
In the context of a discussion about top appointments, Stephen Wall claimed that the Prime Minister is opposed to David Hannay ‘because there would be too much rapid machine-gun fire from the FCO’. Douglas Hurd asked me jokingly whether my own machine-gun fire had much worried the Prime Minister. I replied that my machine gun had been sited much too far away, during my whole time as PUS, for it to worry Margaret Thatcher.
9 JANUARY 1990
The Prime Minister has reacted very angrily to a telegram from Christopher Mallaby in Bonn about German attitudes to our stance on reunification, saying that she is ‘alarmed’ that he can be so wrong on our line. Percy Cradock commented to me that the PM has a distressing tendency to shoot the messenger, and to form rapid prejudices, combined with the memory of an elephant.
10 JANUARY 1990
I called on William Waldegrave today to try to persuade him to accept one of Personnel Department’s two candidates as his private secretary, both of whom have East European and Middle East experience, in succession to his previous private secretary who has had to be moved because of a liaison with the no. 2 in the PLO office in London. The Gore-Booth machine has already been hard at work trying to identify other candidates, which will infuriate Personnel Department. I have told David Gore-Booth to lay off. And now it emerges that William has been to the private office, and mentioned it to Douglas Hurd, who has undertaken to raise it with me. Dear God!
Douglas Hurd told me that, in the course of a talk with the Prime Minister about senior appointments, she agreed to see one senior appointee before his posting, mentioning that she had seen Crispin Tickell before his posting ‘and look how well he has done’. More seriously, she complained about the FCO’s failure to follow through with imaginative ideas, claiming that the French always outdo us with initiatives – a bee in her bonnet, which Douglas is not inclined to take too tragically.
I attended a small meeting chaired by Robin Butler, at my suggestion, to discuss Whitehall coordination on drugs work. Rather surprisingly, he got Clive Whitmore’s agreement to transfer the drugs committee from the Home Office to the Cabinet committee. When I reported this later to Douglas Hurd, he was very surprised, and thought David Mellor would resist very strongly, having just got his teeth into drugs work.
11 JANUARY 1990
A two-hour seminar at Carlton Gardens on Germany, CFE and European Architecture. There is slight gloom among the troops who have prepared extensive papers for the Chequers seminar on 28 January, since Douglas now thinks – perhaps in response to the Prime Minister’s recent grumbles – that he should produce three punchy minutes, rather than sending departmental papers. I later pointed out him, as he readily accepted, that it was a pity to suppress some extensive and imaginative work by the department, thereby fuelling the Prime Minister’s belief that no one in the FCO ever produces any ideas.
Meanwhile, Alan Clark (now a minister at the MOD) has put forward some personal ideas (well covered in his subsequent diaries) about major reductions in BAOR (the British Army of the Rhine), which will be attractive to the Prime Minister as a supposed ‘lever’ against reunification (which of course it is not).
Hermann von Richthofen called at noon to deliver a message from Genscher, revealing – rather oddly – that the Russians have made slightly different proposals, suggesting to the Americans meetings at Foreign Minister level, but ambassadorial or Special Envoy level to ourselves. The aim of both proposals is primarily to discuss FRG/GDR relations. We shall need (as Genscher has asked) to keep very close to the Germans on this, since they will be very sensitive to any four-power discussion on anything other than Berlin. There is also the risk that the Prime Minister is likely to share, and will want to respond to, Soviet anxieties. In her present mood, she gives the impression of trusting Gorbachev more than Kohl.
I attended one of Douglas Hurd’s ministerial meetings this morning, at which he underlined the importance of not letting Hong Kong swamp all other foreign policy questions. There is a lot of sensitivity in the third world about super-power preoccupation with Europe; and there is a danger of British ministers thinking only of Europe and Hong Kong at present. William Waldegrave, in particular, is reluctant to pay any attention to Africa, other than South Africa.
12 JANUARY 1990
A long bilateral with Douglas Hurd today before his departure for Hong Kong and my own departure for East Africa next week. Douglas does not want us to take any specific action following the Prime Minister’s recent rebuke to the FCO for our failure to follow up ideas, though I pointed out the lack of contact between the PM and middle-ranking officials in the FCO.
I also spoke with him about the continued protection arrangements for Henry Catto that I discussed yesterday with Tim Sainsbury, who has minuted strongly on the subject. Henry faces a ‘unique risk’ and should have appropriate protection. Douglas, as an ex-Home Secretary, is very reluctant to argue the case against his old department, but has agreed to talk to David Waddington about it next week.
UKDEL Vienna have just discovered that the French, Italian and German foreign ministers have got together to speak at the forthcoming CFE conference without telling us. A sign of the times, with the UK being marginalised, or perhaps treated as ‘the United States’ anchor to windward’, on which Antony Acland has just sent in a powerful warning from Washington.
Douglas Hurd also mentioned to me his dinner last night with Julian Amery, whom he described as ‘a sort of Foreign Secretary in exile’. He asked me if Julian had been a nuisance in the office; I said that, on the contrary, he was sometimes quite useful, e.g. in arranging for officials to meet Savimbi.
There were more astounding developments today in Eastern Europe, with the Romanians tonight outlawing the Communist Party, and Gorbachev telling the Lithuanians this morning that he had ordered legislation to be prepared to enable them to break away as an independent state, if that was what they wanted.
16–23 JANUARY 1990: VISITS TO EAST AFRICA
24 JANUARY 1990
Home for the inevitable pile-up of paper, including an extraordinary report from Harare of the Zimbabwe Foreign Minister commiserating with a group of East European ambassadors on the terrible upheaval which the Imperialist West is creating in Eastern Europe, and expressing the hope that all will return to normal again! The ambassadors tried, but failed, to persuade him that it was nothing whatsoever to do with the West, and that they were all delighted at what was happening.
25 JANUARY 1990
I called on Lynda Chalker, mainly to report on my Africa trip (where she is shortly going again), but also to remedy the long gap since I last saw her à deux. She raised with me the arrangements for aid to Eastern Europe, where she rightly wants more ODA involvement. But she seems to have had a good meeting with William Waldegrave, and has reached an understanding with him.
I also discussed this with Douglas Hurd this evening, and got his support for the idea of a Cabinet Committee on Eastern Europe at both ministerial and official level. He is showing that he is already far more self-confident that John Major was (for understandable reasons); but he takes little interest in personnel questions, or the no. 1 board, and seems
happy to accept our advice.
27–30 JANUARY 1990: VISIT TO WASHINGTON
Much of Douglas Hurd’s visit, and my own talks with Bob Zoellick and Bob Blackwill in Washington, dealt with Germany, on which there are new developments daily. [I was told, many years later, that the FCO could find no trace of a long reporting telegram which I sent from the embassy; but which was eventually looked for, at my suggestion, and found in No. 10’s papers.]
Hans Modrow, the new Prime Minister of the GDR, has brought forward the elections to March, and Gorbachev has been quoted as saying that he would now accept German reunification. There is, of course, a lot of work to be done on various implications for NATO, the European Community, CSCE and our Four-Power status in Berlin. The Americans have thrown the Prime Minister into a state by telling her on Saturday that Bush intends to announce, in his State of the Union message, further considerable reductions of US troops in Germany.
Eagleburger and Gates were sent over to discuss all this with the Prime Minister, while Douglas and I were still in Washington. The PM told them that she would support Bush publicly (‘as is our habit’), but that she took strong issue with the apparent failure to consider the strategic implications. It certainly seems to have been handled in Washington in an entirely ‘political’ way; the only person in the Pentagon who was told was the Defence Secretary.
31 JANUARY 1990
I attended Douglas Hurd’s ministerial meeting, at which there was general agreement that we need to do something to correct the image that we are the most opposed to reunification. But it won’t be easy; the PM still speaks pretty incautiously to all and sundry.
David Hannay called, worried about our isolation in the community on the line we are taking over Eastern Europe – i.e. that we are the only member who does not believe that the thaw in the East calls for a tighter and more ‘Federal’ community. I also talked to him about the PM’s views on Germany, on which we have seen some further, very hurt, German comment (though Ewen Fergusson reported today that François Scheer thinks that the French are equally in the doghouse, if not more so).
My bilateral with Douglas Hurd this afternoon was quite jolly, though I find him a much less open, or jokey, person than either Geoffrey Howe or John Major. I discussed him with Antony Acland during the Washington visit, since Antony and Douglas were exact contemporaries at Eton and Oxford, and are mutual godparents to their children. Although I still find him a very private and bottled-up person, I do find him very easy to work with, and receptive to argument and advice, in spite of his experience and confidence in dealing both with papers and the Prime Minister.
2 FEBRUARY 1990
Stirring events in South Africa today, with promises to release Mandela and un-ban the ANC.
5 FEBRUARY 1990
Stephen Wall had a row with Charles Powell yesterday (Sunday), when Charles telephoned Catharine from Chequers, demanding to talk to Stephen. Stephen told Catharine to say that Richard Gozney was the duty private secretary, and that he should talk to him. Charles refused to do so. (This may be an incidental, and rather unfortunate, result of my telling Stephen that he should delegate more!)
6 FEBRUARY 1990
Geoffrey Howe tells me that the Conservative Party ball, chaired this week by Bridgett Walters, had been totally boycotted by the Jewish community, presumably in protest at Dennis Walters’s well-known pro-Arab views. Geoffrey is outraged, and was muttering about the hypocrisy of Jews applying boycotts, when they have consistently tried to get the government to fight the Arab boycott.
7 FEBRUARY 1990
A mixed press for Douglas Hurd’s speech in Berlin yesterday, with some commentators describing it as the first real sign of political thinking on Germany by the government; with others trying to draw a distinction with the PM’s more critical remarks in Parliament yesterday. The office is still being deluged with letters from No. 10, urging Douglas Hurd to get together with the French and the Americans à trois.
8 FEBRUARY 1990
A difficult meeting today with Douglas Hurd and Francis Maude on Hong Kong, to decide how to tackle the extremely tough position the Chinese are taking on constitutional development in Hong Kong. Percy Cradock, who was present, is very worried that Francis Maude’s rather gung-ho attitude could lead us into real crisis. It was an interesting example of officials arguing for settlement, with ministers extremely worried about parliamentary accusations of kowtowing. A more or less satisfactory conclusion was reached, that David Wilson should be asked to try to ensure that EXCO support it.
There was apparently a tempestuous Cabinet meeting today. Len Appleyard was later to give us a vivid and amusing account, which led Douglas Hurd to remark: ‘Cabinet now consists of three items: parliamentary affairs; home affairs; and xenophobia.’ The Prime Minister was said to have been in a very erratic mood, lashing out at our friends and allies, but suggesting at one point that we should be resuming arms sales to Iraq and Iran – a bit ironic, since the Home Office has given its reasons for expelling nine Iranians (without consulting or informing the FCO) that they were supporters of the Iranian regime.
9 FEBRUARY 1990
Talks today with German Permanent Under-Secretary Jürgen Sudhoff, almost entirely dominated by the German question. I started with a private word, trying to correct the impression in Germany that we are the most obstructive and reluctant of Germany’s allies on reunification. I read him two extracts from Douglas Hurd’s recent speech in Germany, but admitted that Margaret Thatcher was more suspicious. Jürgen said that he entirely understood her feelings; if he were a 65-year-old Brit, he would probably feel the same. But he was full of assurances that no German could ever contemplate making a third ghastly mistake again this century.
When I thanked Sudhoff for keeping to this visit in spite of everything going on (Kohl and Genscher leave for Moscow tomorrow), he said it had caused the only real row he had had with Genscher in three years as his PUS. But it was a good day of talks, though I was not entirely reassured that Sudhoff had got the message that Germany must consult her allies before taking up firm positions on NATO, the European Community, CSCE and Four-Power status.
There is clearly an overwhelming feeling in the FRG that the GDR is galloping towards chaos and bankruptcy (a word which caused a political row in Germany today), and they simply don’t know how to react. Sudhoff himself described Kohl’s offer yesterday of Monetary Union as a panic measure; no one, least of all West German bankers, knew what the effect would be.
East Germans are still pouring out at a rate of nearly 3,000 a day, and many factories, hospitals, schools and institutes are closing down. The whole distribution and administrative systems are paralysed.
We have just discovered that Nicholas Ridley has been discussing a revamp and privatisation of export promotion (since John Banham helpfully copied his reply to Ridley to Douglas Hurd!), but has given orders that the FCO are not to be told. It looks as though Douglas himself has some fairly unorthodox views, which we need to discover (and possibly try to correct).
More rumblings today from No. 10 on the PM’s views on Germany – nicely summed up in one newspaper headline as: ‘Maggie furious on German Unity; says UK must not pay’. Douglas Hurd has meanwhile had some useful talks with Baker, Dumas and Genscher in Ottawa, with more to come.
13 FEBRUARY 1990
Talks in the margins of the Open Skies Conference in Ottawa today seem to have produced a consensus that there should be talks between the two Germanys and the Four Powers fairly soon after the GDR elections. This was blazoned in the Daily Mail as a brilliant suggestion by Margaret Thatcher!
The PM continues to bleat about reunification to all her visitors – the Polish Prime Minister being the latest. She is also revelling in being the only politician to argue for the lifting of all sanctions against South Africa; she provoked a blazing row in the House of Commons today by accusing Neil Kinnock of taking his orders from the ANC.
14 FEBRUARY 1990
Douglas Hurd retur
ned from Ottawa this morning, having reached firm agreement on an early meeting of the ‘4+2’ talks, or ‘2+4’ as the Germans prefer to call it, after the GDR elections in March. Genscher flew in from Ottawa today, and saw the PM, in an attempt to reconcile German and British views on reunification. According to von Richthofen, Douglas Hurd’s presence was crucial in getting the Prime Minister to declare ‘public support’ for the German position afterwards, though he told me that the PM was very grudging.
I had my bilateral with Douglas Hurd this evening in the House of Commons, while he was struggling with a bad-tempered debate on South Africa. It emerged that Douglas does indeed have some fairly unorthodox views on trade promotion (see above), though he accepted my argument that we should be very careful not to set back the much greater acceptance in the service that ‘trade’ is an important part of the job. I suspect that his understandable preoccupation with the great issues of the day may lead him to underestimate the importance of other aspects of diplomatic work.
15 FEBRUARY 1990
William Waldegrave asked to see me to air his worries about a Joint Unit running the East European Knowhow Fund. Part of his trouble is his antipathy to Lynda Chalker and the ODA. He has also apparently had a row with Lynda over who should speak to the Southern African Development Community conference in April. But the Joint Unit is clearly floundering under the weight of enquiries and proposals for ways to help Poland and the other East Europeans.
Behind Diplomatic Lines Page 20