Table talk
Sir: I should like to begin by pointing out to Mr Richard Walker that I am not a Roman Catholic, although 1 was brought up as one. I am in the position of John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Knox. Ernest Remit Bishop Pike. etc. I chose to make my remark about Mon- sieur Guy Mollet for two reasons. The first is he is the French politician I most dislike. He is probably the most unattractive specimen of the people who are now trying se faire une virginites. I mentioned the fact that he is a Protestant not out of any anti-Protestant bias. (I have many Protestant friends; I am in fact married to one.) But Monsieur Mollet does not live up to the picture of a Protestant which
the French Catholics, and still more the French Protestants, tend to accept, of a highly distin- guished. austere, upright, and perhaps rather unamiable group. Monsieur Mollet is no more like this kind of Protestant than was the late President Doumergue.
I think Mr Chowdharay-Best is quite right in cutting down my rather absolute statement about cardinals' hats to scale. But I was think- ing of modern times. 1 have never seen a cardinal with his official hat in any public cere- monial, and I have seen a good many, e.g. in Rome. However, it is possible, perhaps likely, that I am wrong since it is some time since I have seen a cardinal in full ecclesiastical fig. And, of course. I knew that there are cardinals who are not bishops. e.g. John Henry, Cardinal Newman. There were in not very remote times cardinals who were not priests, e.g. Mazarin, Consalvi, Antonelli, a fine mixed bag. There were rumours a few years ago that Monsieur Jacques Maritain was to be made a cardinal after his wife's death. He still may be.
And perhaps I may be allowed to correct Mr Marc Ullmann when he says 'as Winston Churchill is reputed to have said of Attlee, "a modest little man with plenty to be modest about."' Reputed or not. this famous story is without foundation. My authority is Sir Winston himself: he assured me that he had never said it and that he had the greatest ad- miration for Mr Attlee.
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