Two for the doghouse ,
LETTERS
From Charles Janson, Sir Eric Roll, Tom Stephenson, Robert G. Armstrong, Emmanuel Oil, M. Elizabeth Barber, Dr Donald M. Bowers, Madeleine Simms, Luciana Cianci, -Sir Denis Brogan, Michael R. Braby, Barry Turner, Patrick Marnham.
Sir: Mr Jock Bruce-Gardyne (28 February) protests a little too much about the incivility of British diplomacy. For years now MM de Gaulle, Debit and Couve have played the game of beggar-my-neighbour wholly appropriate to the Congress of Vienna but not, one feels, rele- vant to the siege of Berlin. Can it be held seri- ously that France has not imperilled all Europe by its blend of Realpolitik and metaphysics? The basis of Gaullism is that only a certain type
• of France is valid and that the Gaullist state, as it takes form, must command the obedience of Europe and thereby make it truly European. Unfortunately half of France and all the rest of Europe rejects this fixed ideation-system. This Means that the present diplomatic problem of non-French Europe is not how to build 'an 'en- during European union' around a Franco- British or some other alliance.but simply to try to limit French disloyalty to an obvious com- mon cause, the military and political defence of Europe.
Did the Soames affair drive de Gaulle yet further from les anglo-saxons? If so, Britain may have acted unwisely. But this seems un- likely. The General's ultimate objective, to de- Americanise Europe, is currently compatible with acceptance of the us- defence umbrella. The Six's quarrel with him arises from his sabo- tage of their movement towards a Europe that could be a permanent ally of America and per- manently impenetrable by the East. To imagine that last week's fracas has changed any of this is, I suggest, to ignore the essence of Gaullism: an anti-reality system deriving from the poll- tique d'abordl of Charles Maurras and work- ing unconsciously for long-term chaos. No doubt it is uncivil to say it; but this kind of aberration can no more be combined with nor- mal western procedure than Soviet marxism. Its external policies, like the Soviet ones, can be
checked by steady opposition; but its local radiation can only be removed with the Prophet himself.
Charles Janson 39 Edwardes Square, W8
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