Notebook
The idea of a memorial in Central Lon- don to the two million victims of the Yalta Agreement was first mooted in the pages of the Spectator in 1976. Last weekend, it became a reality when a 'mobile water sculpture' was dedicated by the Bishop of London in Thurloe Square, South Kensington. Whatever one may feel about the design of the memorial, the fact that it exists at all is a notable achievement. The same Foreign Office which conspired between 1944 to 1947 to transport two million Russians and East Europeans into the hands of their hostile governments (which put many thousands of them to death) did its best to hamper the project. The Secretary of the Appeal, Mr John Jolliffe, was told by one senior diplomat: 'I wouldn't object to a memorial somewhere, but certainly not on Crown Land.' But on Crown Land is where it now finds itself, thanks, so it is said, to the personal in- tervention of Mrs Thatcher. To be fair to the diplomatic profession, Mr Jolliffe reports that half a' dozen retired am- bassadors subscribed to the appeal, in- cluding one former Permanent Under Secretary. Other contributors included brigadiers and admirals, Red Cross nurses and doctors, who had all had direct ex- perience of the horrors of the handover. In a letter accompanying his contribution, a retired major in the Royal Artillery wrote: `I honestly think that if we had not just finished a long and bloody war and were seeking peace and quiet, many of our troops would have mutinied rather than transport these unfortunate people to the border and send them to their death.' Other contributors wanted the guilty men to be named on the memorial, but this was ob- viously asking rather too much of the Foreign Office. Even so, it is a pity that the wording of the inscription could not have been a little more specific. This is what it says: 'This monument was placed here by members of Parliament of all parties and others to commemorate the thousands of innocent men, women and children from the Soviet Union and other Eastern Euro- pean states who were imprisoned and died at the hands of Communist governments after their repatriation at the conclusion of the Second World War.' No mention of the use of force, no mention' of the shameful roles of the British and American govern- ments. But the inscription is enough to alert the passer-by that something terrible hap- pened and that a lot of people in Britain still feel guilty about it.
With Britain's decline as an economic power, greater value has become at- tached to our historic institutions — Parlia- ment. the monarchy and so on. Foreigners, whether they care to admit it or not, con- tinue to be impressed by them. But like some desperate, ageing whore we are now prepared to give away absolutely everything we have got in order to retain the uncertain interest of our powerful sugar-daddy, the United States. So President Reagan becomes not only the first American presi- dent to be invited to say at Windsor Castle since Woodrow Wilson; he also becomes the first ever American president to be asked to address both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall. The only other foreign statesman ever to have been granted this se- cond privilege was General de Gaulle in 1960, and for that there were convincing reasons. I agree with Mr Michael Foot when he says he cannot understand why Mr Reagan should be afforded an honour which was denied to presidents like Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and Ken- nedy. There can, indeed, be no good reason for it. No wonder the White House was so pleased and leaked the news to the Los Angeles Times A:cording to The Times, 'the tenacity with which Dr FitzGerald had attemp- ted to stay in office surprised many people.' This tenacity should be put in perspective. It hardly compared with the lengths to which Mr Charles Haughey, leader of the Fianna Fail party, was prepared to go to secure his return to power in Dublin. Both Mr Haughey and Dr FitzGerald, the out- going prime minister, had talks with the in- dependent Dublin MP, Mr Tony Gregory, on whose support each believed he depend- ed if he was to lead the next Irish govern- ment. Mr Gregory is interested in only one thing — the revival of the increasingly run- down inner city of Dublin. Mr Haughey ob- tained his vote at the price of £120 million, to be spent on projects for urban renewal. Clearly Dr FitzGerald felt that such a spec- tacular bribe would be more than Ireland could afford. But even this was insignifi- cant in comparison with Mr Haughey's other bribe. In exchange for the support of three Sinn Fein members, supporters of the Official IRA, Mr Haughey substantially hardened his line on Northern Ireland. In his first speech to the Dail as Primie Minister, he promised to seek 'the fina", withdrawal of the British military anu, political presence'. This is the sort of tall' that can cost lives.
Beside Camden Lock in North London 3 group of old brick warehouses are the process of conversion into the new headquarters of Mr Peter Jay's breakfast television organisation. Both inside and out, it will be decorated with the colours of the rising sun. Carpets in a shade of mid- night blue will remind those who haVe to at- rive there at 5.00 am that the night is not yet out. It will, I am told, be a 'fun' place t0 work in. But all the excitement is still a long way off. To Mr Jay's chagrin, the IndePen. dent Broadcasting Authority told him that his little galaxy of stars — Anna Ford; Angela Rippon, David Frost, Michael Parkinson and Robert Kee — could 110.1 begin twinkling in the early mornings not' May of next year. Now the BBC has an- nounced that it will start its own breakfast television service a couple of months earlier in the spring of 1983. There was something rather comforting about the way in which Mr Alasdair Milne, the managing director of BBC television and the next director- general, described the new service. It not involve 'an astounding galaxy talent', he said. 'There won't be song an,', dance involved . . . . I would hope it would be rather like Tonight was — only in the mornings.' It sounds reassuringly dull. So: little more than a year from now, we will have two breakfast television services one bright and' breezy, the other staid and cosy,— and nobody really knows why. The IBA invented the idea because it had rtin out of other ideas to invent. The BBC 1135 joined in because it feels it always has t° compete with ITV. But will anyone want In watch television at such an hour? Of course there are, as Mr Milne pointed out, the unemployed.
Anything that costs more than f15°, million pounds deserves some sort ol admiration. That was what the Queen also seemed to think when she opened the Oar" bican Centre for Arts and Conferences last week. Referring to the various amazing statistics that had appeared in the press, she declared: 'What has been created here must have some claim as one of the wonders of the modern world'. It is, we are told, the largest thing of its sort in Europe. It has fascination, having no comprehensible shape or form and being lost inside an ex,' ceptionally ugly housing estate in the mid- dle of the City. It is also very well equipped for the cultural purposes it intends to serve. But is is rather a sad place — a peoples palace built by plutocrats, an attempt by the City Establishment to assuage some ill- defined sense of guilt. And the sponsors seem to have imposed on it the atmosphere, in which they feel most at home — that 01 London Airport.
Alexander Chancellor
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