British peer puts Swiss in a lather

London’s Swiss Church celebrates its 250th anniversary this year. More than 50 pasteurs – French and German - have preached to the Swiss Colony in London since records began in 1762. One of those was Marcel Dietler who served the community during the 1960s. It was a period of great economic woe in the UK and in some quarters a challenging time for Swiss-British relations. But as Marcel explains, a good sense of humour went a long way in those days.

I was the minister of the German-speaking congregation from 1963 – 1973. It was the time of the soap war between Britain and Switzerland. Pound sterling had been devalued under the Wilson government in 1967. It looked like the UK might have to depend on the banks of 'little Switzerland'? A bitter pill for many! Conservative peer Lord Arran who was also a columnist at the London Evening News, wrote about his fear of the financial ‘Gnomes of Zurich’, who hardly used soap and only occasionally washed, taking over London’s financial institutions. A series of articles written in this vein led to Arran becoming one of the most hated men in Switzerland at that time. To me, however, he was merely demonstrating the art of British black humour on the Swiss banks. It all amused me greatly.

These articles were also the source of long discussions in the Swiss Colony between the Embassy and the Church. On one occasion, planning the traditional Swiss Church Bazaar, I suggested I would invite Lord Arran to sell soap on behalf of the church. Everybody found this highly amusing, but nobody actually expected me to get in touch with him.

When I joyfully told the committee at the next bazaar meeting that Lord Arran had indeed agreed to sell soap, it was met with anger and some members threatened to boycott the church event, unless the invitation was immediately withdrawn. Lord Arran was very disappointed with this reaction and it led to another dose of his sarcastic British humour against the Swiss. This time the fictitious story referred to, what he described as, "the annual shooting of hundreds of stray cats by parliamentarians on the Bundesplatz in Bern". Owing to his Swiss tales, the Conservative peer had become our great soap enemy.

However, behind the scenes the enemy proved to be an even greater Swiss friend. Whenever I needed help from the British authorities I would just call his Lordship. Once we had a Swiss student who had been robbed, sadly on Christmas day. The young man was particularly upset that lots of precious photos from his years living in Canada had been stolen. Lord Arran appealed through his newspaper for the robber at least to send back the very personal pictures. Although the photos were never returned, the young student felt greatly comforted that the famous soap warrior had made such an effort to help him.

Rev Marcel Dietler

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