Two legends
Patrick Cosgrave
De Gaulle Sam White (Harrap £9.95)
The first piece I wrote for the Spectator was about de Gaulle and it was pub- lished in, I think, 1966. Thereafter I was able from time to time to persuade the then editor (now Chancellor of the Exchequer) and his successor, George Gale, to use Pieces of mine which extolled the General, at a time when, with one exception, the British press were excoriating him. The exception was Sam White in the Evening Standard. My knowledge of de Gaulle was entirely academic: I read all his books, and I had pretended to be ill in 1958 so that I could stay at home from school and listen to the radio bulletins that detailed the stages of his return to power. But I knew nothing of the flavour of French politics, nothing of the sounds and scents of that extraordinary labyrinth. So, when writing for Nigel Lawson or George Gale, I Shamelessly borrowed everything in the Way of nuance from Sam White.
And here, in one volume, are those Evening Standard pieces. Taken together, they constitute what I can only describe as an epic poem on the theme of how one great man restored a country fallen into desuetude. As in all long works there are errors, and it is greatly to Sam White's credit that he has not sought to conceal front his readers the occasions on which he Was wrong in predicting what would hap- P.M But he was, all along, overwhelmingly cright. The accusations — rife in France !.1.01n 1945 onwards — that the General intended to make himself a dictator, the hysterical ranting of the American press to the effect that he was in league with the USSR, the childish babbling of British newsPopers that French policy towards this country
Tents —
was determined by wartime resent- all these were set to rights by Sam White at the time. It is good to have his pwrofound and often lyrical judgments bet- cen hard covers.
wish,' he wrote in one dispatch, 'I could like de Gaulle less and the French The sentence summarises his ex- LSPeration with his adopted country, and _11_18 regard for a man who in his character expressed the best and the worst of the reach "On the face of it, the empathy between c haugh ty- General, armoured by his own personality, and the genial and discursive Australian was unusual, and unexpected. pwri e now now, of course, that de Gaulle's vate language reflected the style of the !/arrack room rather than that of his own Stately press conferences. Nonetheless, the essence of the persona was one of gran- deur: the very way in which he held himself showed that he constantly had in mind what was due to de Gaulle, and what was due, through de Gaulle, to the dignity of France. The last time I saw Sam White — at a Spectator party a couple of years ago — I introduced him to my wife, at a stage of the evening when, as is proper on such occasions, most of those present were merry. Afterwards, I asked her what she thought of one of my great journalistic heroes. 'He's sweet' she said. 'And it's such a relief to know that there's some other writer who burns cigarette holes in his shirts.'
'Sweet' is thought of as a woman's word, but it applies in its perfection to Sam White. In 1971 I was about to undertake a trip to Paris, and I asked George Gale if he thought it would be all right if I called on the great White. George said he was sure it would. I asked for an address and/or telephone number. George told me not to bother, but just turn up at the Crillon Bar and ask for Sam. I did, and the legend was proved true: he was there, and he was garnering copy.
I introduced myself, and I was welcomed as though I had been a long lost friend. Now, at the time, my knowledge of the inner workings of French politics was at about the same level as it had been five years earlier. I was a tyro and, for that matter, a poacher. Sam (he became Sam immediately he cut off my polite `Mr White') opened to me a mind full of knowledge, insight, instinct and acute mor- al judgment. And I had a great time in Paris.
'The thing', Sam said to me on that trip, 'about the bloody French is that they didn't deserve him.' He put it, with that simple grace of the best of his own prose
when he wrote, on 28 April 1969, 'Memor- ies are short and people forget. It is not fashionable now to recall the Fourth Re- public Vnd compare it with the Fifth. Having lived under both, I can honestly say that both as a reporter and a resident I felt more free and secure under the Fifth than under the Fourth.' The institutions of the Fifth Republic, the creations of de Gaulle, are still there, and nobody serious would question them. They are the General's monument, and his legacy. And nobody has written better about them and de Gaulle than the Paris correspondent of the Evening Standard.
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