XL 18th November 2005
In la Coupole on the 20th of this month I celebrated my eightieth birthday with family and friends; the first time I ate here was sixty-five years ago in March 1940. The clientele then, who knows, may have included Picasso and Matisse at one, and Jean-Paul Sartre with Simone at another table nearby, and perhaps De Gaulle having a lunch, as it was not far to his flat and the job in Invalides. This time we had four large tables, situated where long ago a spiral staircase rose to first floor, which often supported itinerary musical troupes, giving a song for a meal. It was very special to share this occasion and these memories with one friend who was there with me all those years ago and with others. In those days, afterwards, one used to go to Palais de la Decouverte, to watch the then new cloud of stars, then as now, called a Galaxy, or learn by heart the ʻ?ʼ numbers, never ending series, punched on a wall of a round-room, eleven of which: 3.1415926535, I have always retained with the memory of that age.
One also remembered well: walking from where we lived in Sablons along Avenue de Neuilly, now Avenue Charles de Gaulle, pretending to be Gestapo spies, to the ultimate destination, which was always the Samaritaine, holding finest collection of bicycles; we would leave numbered notes, on lamp-posts, advertising stands or pissoires, all the way past Etoile, down Champs Elysees and Rue de Rivoli, often with a detour to the Luna-park of Porte Maillot, now Palais des Congres, where for 20 centimes, one could watch racy film in an electric-machine. What crazy memories, still Paris which has not changed all that much since then.
When, the Sunday lunch was finished, bringing an end to dear reminiscences of long ago of: “Lycée Pasteur, the last train from Gare dʼAusterlitz, of ancient cathedrals and Unité dʼHabitation, or of a corner in the 5th Arrondissement and of the march of time” I was feted by a dozen waiters led by a Maitre-D, marching through the maze of guests in La Coupole today, with a prominent lit candle, singing: “Happy Birthday to You”.
In Leszczyn at this time the work with J- has become exceptional, no longer as an employer, but as friends, though I am still called the ʻchiefʼ; Artisan Centre has gone and instead we share thoughts of Idealism Sansfrontiers. It is here close to the Polish soil that the significance of today is easier to grasp. At this age one becomes a patriarch, entitled to accept seats offered by young ladies on the buses and to reminiscence. It could be easier if the heart were lighter: in those old days, we knew, mistakenly, as it happened for a while, that we were winning, this time the aggressor seems all-powerful and the vocabulary of victory has still to be invented. Do not believe prophets of doom, and remember warnings Winston gave then, easy to predict what might follow, his words as true today.
Some years ago I wrote to President Chirac:
| Dear Mr President | 29.04.02 |
You are in the unique position of being able to say anything without considering its political implication. Say what France wants to hear to make her spirit revive and stand in the leadership of the world where De Gaulle would have her:
Say: The heart of France is open to the poor of the world.
Say: The spirit of France is in a united Europe from Atlantic to the Urals.
Say: We are ready with our friends to lead the world without strife in the spirit of Christianity and Socialism.
Wishing you and France every success, Yours,
| Matthew Wallis |
TO MATTHEW WALLIS
| Presidence de la Republique | Paris, le 3 Juin 2002 |
| Le Chef de Cabinet | |
Cher Monsieur
Le President de la Republique francaise a bien recu votre lettre.
Sensible a votre demarche et a votre souci de lui faire part de vos reflections, Monsieur Jacques CHIRAC mʼa confie le soin de vous remercier.
Veuillez agreer, Cher Monsieur, lʼexpressions de mes sentiments les meilleurs.
| Annie LHERITIER |
Chirac stood alone at the time for France against the onset of crime. France is a society which has retained its form of values, sans-frontieres, reaching for the sky, with reason and with natural joy. The ? -1 or the Napierian ʻeʼ, a camembert, a bottle of burgundy, Chanel No 5, a family Sunday lunch, a salon discussion, or a coquettish woman, are at the centre of France, and mean one thing only: it is a culture devoted to peace and joy in life. She may be ridiculed by others, for everydayness of her aims, but she offers to an intellectual a cogito ergo sum assurance, whilst to a man in the street, a shared attitude of joie de vivre and to both an extramural hate of war. Many observe how her attitude to current affairs is free, flowing from this outlook, while sometimes mean, like: “why should we fight for Danzig”, but nevertheless open in her views, as with communist ministers, during the cold war, whether under De Gaulle or Mitterrand.
She suffered much through capitulation and collaboration with Nazism, trying now to leave behind the self-doubt and diffidence, which plague us all at times; nevertheless - France knows her beliefs - as when de Villepin spoke to the United Nations. For two millennia citizens of Europe struggled with two ideas: for liberty and for justice. Liberties were slow to develop: for peasants first who, not fully liberated, had rights established and parallel liberties of the middle clas- ses developed with finance, or eventually of workers with their trade unions. The story of Liberties is the story of Europe.
The assertion of the rights of justice also grew slowly: out of religious beliefs in the rights and in the sanctity of man, formulated in statutes like Magna Carta and through the understanding of classical, scientific, philosophical and socialistic beliefs. The story of Justice is the story of Man.
The two concepts sometimes exaggerated or opposed to each other were often drawn imperfectly across the borderline of their times. The frequent erosion of these rights was a cause of many struggles.
The last formulation of the concepts was drawn for the Continent at Yalta: on one side was Capitalism, aiming at freedom and on the other Socialism, aiming at justice. In the West, building wealth with freedom - neglected the underprivileged of the slums, while in the East building rights of the masses, to education or health, controlled their freedom, with slower wealth creation - but more justice. Market has created an Economy for Freedom and what one needs now is to create an equivalent Economy for Justice, with community rights not as commercial trade-off but as Common Wealth. This is what France understands and rejection of the European constitution is a demand for a true Federal Union, for a Europe with dreams, even if it is misrepresented as rejection of Europe. Her friendship with Germany and her kinship with Russia is a portent of success, which Britain who is also needed here will, in her wisdom and after her usual hesitation and delay, help to succeed.
