'It is not a question of a change in policy: it is a question of changing people,' Schuman added. 'Democracy and her freedoms can be saved only by the quality of the people who speak in her name.'20

Schuman wrote these words at a time when his efforts towards Franco-German agreement seemed likely to be frustrated. 'I had a sort of intuition that came to me through that book,' he recalled three years later. 'I saw new perspectives opening before me.'21

Western defence, then, had been secured by the signing in April 1949 of the Atlantic Pact. The larger task, as Schuman saw it, of 'giving ideological content to the lives of the masses', remained. Buchman was making this a main theme at Caux in the summer of 1949 and, with Schuman's agreement, printed the essence of what Schuman had said at Boucquey's dinner in the invitation. He also asked Schuman and Adenauer to come to Caux and help him. Schuman agreed and suggested dates in June which suited Adenauer. 'Your desire to dedicate a week at Caux is of major importance for the pressing problems of France and Germany,'22 Buchman replied. He also wrote to Minister-President Arnold that if the leaders could 'get together and have a common mind under the guidance of God, then He can give the answer to the extremely difficult and seemingly insoluble problems that present themselves'.23

In the event, Schuman was tied up throughout June at the fruitless Paris meeting on German reunification and asked Georges Villiers, President of the French Employers' Federation, to represent him at Caux. Adenauer, too, wrote, 'I am extremely sorry that, contrary to my original intentions, I could not get to Caux last week. Now that we have decided on the elections and choice of government I have been completely taken up with the preparations, but I hope to come later to Caux and to have the pleasure of seeing you again. I would like to express my thanks once more for the help you have shown us Germans in making it possible for us to meet people from other countries again and so to bridge the gulf which, alas, still separates us from the rest of the world.'24

377