Europe House and the FIME

The Board of Europe House

The return to Europe was to be a watershed. It offered a moment of reflection about my longer term aims. I saw that until then I had merely been propelled from one stage to the next without having to exercise any real choice. This was the moment to break free of that cycle. I had elected civil engineering as a profession within the remit of what I thought would please my new Father, but was it really to be a choice for life?

A further vital lesson I had learnt in India was that the needs of the developing world~ indeed of just that one country alone, would far exceed the resources that Britain could contribute on its own. The Rome Treaty giving birth to the European Economic Community had just been signed, and it did not seem too fanciful to imagine that this might also become a Community for a concerted effort to assist world development. So my first thought back in London was of how one could achieve that aim. Britain had fastidiously stood aside from the EEC negotiations as soon as it became clear that they would involve rather more than just trade. The first priority therefore was to find ways of making the establishment as a whole understand the processes at work, what had persuaded the six founder countries to become convinced of this course; and to create an informed public capable of bearing on the decision makers.

The Federalists

Before long I was introduced to a group of likeminded friends already working at putting into practice the thoughts of British thinkers like Charles Kimber, Derek Rawnsley and Patrick Ransome who had already fought hard for these principles in the 'thirties, sadly too late to prevent the war. Enshrined in an organisation named Federal Union, and later backed by Harold Wilson, Barbara Wootton and Philip Kerr, Marquess of Lothian, they stood for the application of federal principles in relations between states. Only a merging of external sovereignties, whilst institutionally protecting the rights of individual member countries, could eventually bring peace to the world. Much of the impulse for the EEC had come from federalist thinkers in France and Italy. The realistic economist Jean Monnet nevertheless recognised that there had to be an intermediary stage aimed specifically at integrating the countries' heavy war-making industries to make conflict between them physically impossible. Barely 13 years after the guns had fallen silent, that already stood for the supreme achievement of the federalist doctrine. Nor was it unacknowledged by members of the establishment. The diary of Churchill's Secretary, Jack Colville, records a 1940 entry on the 11th hour plan for an Anglo-French Union, 'We had before us the bridge to a new world, the first elements to European or even world federation'.

Europe House and the FIME

Much of the British debate was led from a house in Belgravia owned by a Czech immigrant industrialist named Ota Adler. It was there that I met the fiery young men and women who were carrying this message forward in a variety of activities, and who became life-long friends. Douglas Robinson, still in his 'twenties, had been Secretary of the Liberal Party, now directed the NATO Parliamentarians Conference. He and a trade union official and publicist, Norman Hart, were also on the Board of Europe House, a nascent body under the patronage of the publisher Sir Edward Hulton, just beginning to organise meetings that would give EEC politicians the opportunity of addressing a British public. I was offered the task of developing that activity as Director of Europe House. I hardly know how, but in a short time we managed to transfer the locus of these meetings to the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons, and eventually its offices from Fleet Street to the heart of Whitehall, into a graceful 18th century building at No. 43 Parliament Street. This enabled us to invite rather grander officials and Ministers from EEC countries, including those of the status of French Prime Minister Giscard d'Estaign.

The Europe House concept had been copied by Walter Lessing from rather better endowed examples on the Continent. The German houses tended to be located in well-known scenic beauty spots, were residential and able to offer a continuous programme of courses and encounters; the French Houses were usually in city centres like Paris, Clermont Ferrand and Toulouse. Most were staffed by professionals, young and enthusiastic, though in France still under the tutelage of the Grandes Dames of the Resistance. I visited many of them and eventually proposed that we set up a linking mechanism, which in time emerged as the Federation Internationale des Maisons de l'Europe. I was asked to be its first President and served until I handed over to Ernest Wistrich, and he to Dr Bruno Buchwieser in Vienna in 1965. It was a time full of energy, hope and excitement, palpable all across Europe. The age of doubt was to come only much later, as younger people were no longer witness to the miracles which had graced those days of creation, unable to appreciate what horrors of unbridled nationalism had impelled them. But their work has continued to bring together European energies and give them a direction. The most active of them, the European Academy Otzenhausen, has meanwhile created a linking mechanism for all Europe-wide associations, covering most fields of practical endeavour. Alongside the national Federation of the now numerous French Europe Houses, it_ has massively propagated the groundwork laid by the original FIME, which had already grown to embrace 23 countries and more than 100 Europe Houses within them.

The European Academy Otzenhausen

These activities also gave me the opportunity to work with the new leaders of the EEC in Brussels. The FIME became a source of pride to them and we were often invited to hold our meetings in the Commission's headquarters, usually opened by one of the Commissioners. One occasion I cringe to remember showed up my immaturity: unaware until I saw my corrected text that the plural of 'ideal' was 'les ideaux', I gleefully confirmed to our host what came out as 'nos idiots communs'. But among those 'ideaux', both in Brussels and with the FIME members, I strove to plant also the seeds of a development community. Given the ongoing French involvement in their shortly-to-be independent colonies, as well as Belgian, German and even Netherlands colonial histories, there seemed enough ground to build on. Soon this became a new dimension which some Europe Houses took into their curricula.

The Atlantic Congress

Douglas Robinson's work with the NATO Parliamentarians introduced also an Atlantic dimension. As Executive Secretary, he became responsible almost single-handedly for launching the spectacular Atlantic Congress of 1959 that brought together the Heads of State of the then 15 NATO countries, to deliberate on the Alliance's tenth anniversary how they could act jointly also in civilian and cultural affairs. It proved a monumental achievement at a time when the Cold War was at its height, but also the revulsion against prospects of further use of force and violence. The Congress, opened by the Queen in Westminster Hall, proved brilliantly successful, leading to the opening of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to North American membership and a range of other practical recommendations, and consolidating the unity between the old and but recently rehabilitated democracies.

Douglas and his Chairman, Geoffrey de Freitas, asked me to join the preparations as his deputy. I joined a minute Secretariat in Great Peter Street, augmented by a number of international experts in the specific fields whose agendas were under preparation. It was a joyfully vigorous time, not least because of the lateness of the hour. It was an enormous relief when the moment came for it all to leap into action. On the eve of the Opening Ceremony, the rehearsal took place for the procession of the 15 Heads of State and their governments through the historic Westminster Hall and up the steps where the next day they would meet the Queen and Prince Philip, attended by Guards of the Household Cavalry. Responsible for the protocol, the Lord Chamberlain keenly observed their movement, then turned to Douglas and stage-whispered, 'My God, they look like the remnants of a defeated army!'

The Opening Ceremony in Parliament's Westminster Hall

It had been too late to include international development on the agenda, but I agreed with the senior US member of the Parliamentarians Conference, Senator Jacob Javits, to add it to the considerations of their follow-up conference in Washington later that year. Senator Javits became and remained a great friend to me as well as to the concept. Sadly, though much lauded for the success of the Congress, Douglas attracted criticism for some minutiae of his day-to-day administration of the organisation. No doubt also somewhat politically inspired by the European side keen to transfer the Secretariat, it was a hurt he would not be able to take lightly. He rebelled and resigned on the spot. I could not do otherwise than to stand and fall by his side. Nevertheless the Atlantic world was seeded with Douglas's friends who had given him their affection and respect. He was a magnet who exerted an often immediate force not only on his own circle but on some of the great statesmen of the time whom he enlisted in this cause.

The stately home in Albion Street became a political powerhouse, welcoming personalities of all persuasions and nationalities, weaving their views into the tapestry that was being spun within its walls. Sheila, herself politically active and mature, presided over late-night coffee parties at which ideas and strategies were developed whilst she nurtured three strapping sons - one of whom inherited the fascination with politics. Simon, the youngest, became my godson and later built up a highly successful language service. For all of them, life proved a continuous struggle and in time Sheila succumbed and they were divorced. Douglas died as he had lived, a man who set the bar of expectations of himself impossibly high and often lapsed into depression because he could not attain his visions swiftly enough. I loved and respected him, and have a deep gratitude for the man who opened the door to most that has been good and productive in my life.

Britain in Europe

Slowly, opinion began to turn towards the European idea as the effort to familiarise decision makers with its realities gained ground. By 1960 British industry had begun to shape arguments favouring eventual British membership of the EEC and meanwhile helped to establish an organisation called Britain in Europe to argue the case publicly. Its staff was headed by a former Ambassador, Eric Ungerman, a delightful Irish economist Angela Coffey, and Jim Hunt, a researcher with a Latin American banking background. Iwas asked to assist and they moved into the Europe House premises in 43 Parliament Street. I finally had a legitimate employment with a miniscule salary, and things were moving. Much of the research centred on Commonwealth trade: how would its members fare if Britain joined behind an external tariff wall; and what would be Britain's fate without cheap food imports and Imperial Preference? The Economist Intelligence Unit was commissioned to do a major study, which eventually became the basis for the principal lines of the accession negotiations.

But there was much ground to be covered before that process could even be contemplated. Several years' work lay ahead for Britain in Europe/ Europe House, with Federal Union and others in the background, whilst major battles were still being fought internally by our neighbours on the other side of Parliament Street, the Treasury and the Foreign Office. I recall an Osbert Lancaster cartoon showing a Whitehall building emblazoned 'Commonwealth Relations', with a caption that had a commissionaire saying to an enquiring passer-by, 'Fraught, mate, fraught!' Meanwhile I was tending and extending relations within the FIME.

The Atlantic Congress Opening Ceremony