The Swiss example
Sir: I cannot imagine why you published Geoffrey Sampson's article 'The xenophobic Swiss' (2 May); it is a dull piece and, like most tedious things, it is mean. Switzerland earned the peace and prosperity its 'grasping hoteliers' are so 'smug' about. When the rest of Europe was still trying to snatch Alsace, Lorraine, Belgium, Poland, Nice, Savoy, Corsica etc, Switzerland was actually refusing territories. It rejected the blandishments of the Lorelei 'Herrenvolk' on the other side of the Rhine, it kept its integrity and humour and it was not conquered during the last war because of the same militant, intelligent neutrality which it still practises and Which could, if we were sensible, be an example to us.
Perhaps their Federation does work, perhaps they are tidy, perhaps most of them go to bed at nine o'clock and ski and walk up and down mountains, but there is a tremendous amount of culture for such a very small country — museums, picture galleries, orchestras, theatres; they even make films. Of course, they have no posturing politicians, no grands hammer, thank God; it was a pleasure to be in Geneva when Mon GOneral was blowing hot air from France.
They have a perfect right to try to keep their society as it is. Foreign workers do know the rules of the game and it is true that they have made Swiss society less trusting than it was: 30 years ago when I first was there no one locked their door or their bicycle or their car.
Poor Mr Sampson — how many international officials and visiting professors have I known, living at the heart of the most fascinating of continents and seeing only cuckoo clocks.
Nina Harvie
86 Harberton Road, London N19
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