Riding with Tito
From Veronica, Lady Maclean Sir: I was glad that the Bush advisers hit on the 16th-century Castle of Brdo just outside Ljubljana in Slovenia for its venue last weekend. To me it seemed a wise and measured decision. It infuriated both the Croatian and Serb governments, and brought together the many threads of a chequered past that I myself experienced, and which both these countries are keen to forget: the Habsburg empire, the royal Yugoslav government, Prince Paul, Tito and the Partisans, Pavelic and the Ustache; the Slovenian militia trouncing the Yugoslav army, and the new Slovenia which is already doing well but is economically moulded with Austria. I hope that what will emerge is a new economic grouping of all the countries in the Balkans backed by American and European money rather than soldiers. It is anyway a part of the world that most Americans think of as a mess, and not worth a single GI bodybag.
My own personal memory of the castle is a happy one. It was in 1947 when my husband, Fitzroy Maclean, whom the FO, Unrra, and IRO had put in charge of a second Maclean mission — to sort out the displaced persons in the refugee camps in Italy and Austria and prevent their inmates being forcibly repatriated and probably shot — finally got fed up with all their procrastination and dithering and decided to sort things out on his own by a direct appeal to Tito.
We were flown to Lake Bled and he was driven up to the castle and had his serious talks with Tito the same day (which eventually resulted in 'the Bled Agreement'). The next day I was to be introduced to Tito, who had promised my husband we would take a lot of exercise in an all-day marathon and it would be fun.
I suppose I am the only woman still alive who galloped across a Slovenian line in the company of her husband, a Yugoslav dictator, his doctor and a posse of smartly turnedout army officers — all mounted on beautiful Lippizaner-Arabs, trained in haute ecole, which unfortunately I was not. After nearly three hours of it we returned to President Bush's summit venue and I staggered up its elegant staircase to a bedroom that had not long been vacated by Prince Paul. After a long, hot bath, swimming with the children and Tigger, Tito's dog, and a very relaxed luncheon, I just managed to toast the brave women of Yugoslavia and send them a message from the Tory ladies of Lancaster before Fitz took over. A drive up to the mountains in Goering's black-and-cream car, and it was dusk. We ate a simple supper of kasha in front of the castle. A war film was shown through which I dozed, and then Kardelj, who had flown up from Belgrade to report bad news from the Kremlin, slipped in behind me and Tito introduced us.
Neither the Russians nor the Americans were overpleased by this freelance demarche, but the Foreign Office was. I only hope that Dubya's talks in the castle were as successful.
Veronica Maclean
Korenla, Croatia
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