Ali
01-16-2007, 11:31 AM
French sought union with Britain in '56 (http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/16/news/france.php) Newly discovered documents in Britain's National Archives show how a former French prime minister, Guy Mollet, discussed the possibility of a merger between the two countries with Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden of Britain.
Eden rejected the idea of a union but was more favorable to a French proposal to join the Commonwealth, according to the documents — one of which said Mollet "had not thought there need be difficulty over France accepting the headship of her Majesty."
Threatened by an Arab revolt in French Algeria and hobbled by instability at home, France was desperate to maintain its independence from both the Soviet Union and the United States...
...it was probably just a political tactic to press the British to firm up their role for the imminent attack on Egypt, whose leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the French accused of supporting the Algerian insurgents.
But even under the circumstances, the suggestion that France would accept the British Queen struck historians as bizarre.
Mollet was a socialist, and leftist Frenchmen looked to the execution of their king Louis XVI as one of the crowning achievements of the French Revolution. They would have been unlikely to welcome a foreign monarch with open arms. "It must have been some kind of eccentric gesture," Vinen said.
A year after Britain turned down France's proposed merger, the French joined the Common Market, the European Union's predecessor. By the time Britain tried to join the group seven years later, Charles De Gaulle had largely revived France's international standing, even as Britain's economy continued to stagnate. De Gaulle vetoed Britain's attempts to join the European Economic Community — twice.
"In retrospect, the irony of this was that the losers were the British," Vinen said. "Maybe we'd be in a better position being ruled by Charles de Gaulle in 1965 than Harold Wilson."I'm dying to see what sam i spam has to say about this :)
Can you imagine the French being told they were going to be her majesty's subjects?!? Off wizz 'er 'ead!!! Allez á la Guillotine!!!
Strangely enuff, the French do their nut whenever the Queen visits Paris. She does a walk through Montergeuil and you can't get within ten blocks of the route!
And French papers are(were) full of stuff about Princess Diana... as are one of the tunnels :eek:
Very interesting background to all this, in terms of the current Middle East situation. BBC link (http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6261885.stm) On 10 September 1956 French Prime Minister Guy Mollet arrived in London for talks with his British counterpart, Anthony Eden.
These were troubled times for Mollet's France. Egypt's President Gamel Abdel Nasser had nationalised the Suez Canal and, as if that was not enough, he was also busy funding separatists in French Algeria, fuelling a bloody mutiny that was costing the country's colonial masters dear.
Monsieur Mollet was ready to fight back and he was determined to get Britain's help to do it.
Mollet was desperate to hit back at Nasser. He was also an Anglophile who admired Britain both for its help in two world wars and its blossoming welfare state.
There was another reason, too, that the French prime minister proposed this radical plan.
Tension was growing at this time along the border between Israel and Jordan. France was an ally of Israel and Britain of Jordan. If events got out of control there, French and British soldiers could soon be fighting each other.
With the Suez issue on the boil Mollet could not let such a disaster happen.
It seems that the French prime minister decided to quietly forget about his strange proposals.
No record of them seems to exist in the French archives and it is clear that he told few other ministers of the day about them.
This might well be because after Britain decided to pull out of Suez, the battle against President Nasser was lost and all talk of union died too.
Instead, when the EEC was born the following year, France teamed up with Germany while Britain watched on. The rest, it seems, is history.
Eden rejected the idea of a union but was more favorable to a French proposal to join the Commonwealth, according to the documents — one of which said Mollet "had not thought there need be difficulty over France accepting the headship of her Majesty."
Threatened by an Arab revolt in French Algeria and hobbled by instability at home, France was desperate to maintain its independence from both the Soviet Union and the United States...
...it was probably just a political tactic to press the British to firm up their role for the imminent attack on Egypt, whose leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the French accused of supporting the Algerian insurgents.
But even under the circumstances, the suggestion that France would accept the British Queen struck historians as bizarre.
Mollet was a socialist, and leftist Frenchmen looked to the execution of their king Louis XVI as one of the crowning achievements of the French Revolution. They would have been unlikely to welcome a foreign monarch with open arms. "It must have been some kind of eccentric gesture," Vinen said.
A year after Britain turned down France's proposed merger, the French joined the Common Market, the European Union's predecessor. By the time Britain tried to join the group seven years later, Charles De Gaulle had largely revived France's international standing, even as Britain's economy continued to stagnate. De Gaulle vetoed Britain's attempts to join the European Economic Community — twice.
"In retrospect, the irony of this was that the losers were the British," Vinen said. "Maybe we'd be in a better position being ruled by Charles de Gaulle in 1965 than Harold Wilson."I'm dying to see what sam i spam has to say about this :)
Can you imagine the French being told they were going to be her majesty's subjects?!? Off wizz 'er 'ead!!! Allez á la Guillotine!!!
Strangely enuff, the French do their nut whenever the Queen visits Paris. She does a walk through Montergeuil and you can't get within ten blocks of the route!
And French papers are(were) full of stuff about Princess Diana... as are one of the tunnels :eek:
Very interesting background to all this, in terms of the current Middle East situation. BBC link (http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6261885.stm) On 10 September 1956 French Prime Minister Guy Mollet arrived in London for talks with his British counterpart, Anthony Eden.
These were troubled times for Mollet's France. Egypt's President Gamel Abdel Nasser had nationalised the Suez Canal and, as if that was not enough, he was also busy funding separatists in French Algeria, fuelling a bloody mutiny that was costing the country's colonial masters dear.
Monsieur Mollet was ready to fight back and he was determined to get Britain's help to do it.
Mollet was desperate to hit back at Nasser. He was also an Anglophile who admired Britain both for its help in two world wars and its blossoming welfare state.
There was another reason, too, that the French prime minister proposed this radical plan.
Tension was growing at this time along the border between Israel and Jordan. France was an ally of Israel and Britain of Jordan. If events got out of control there, French and British soldiers could soon be fighting each other.
With the Suez issue on the boil Mollet could not let such a disaster happen.
It seems that the French prime minister decided to quietly forget about his strange proposals.
No record of them seems to exist in the French archives and it is clear that he told few other ministers of the day about them.
This might well be because after Britain decided to pull out of Suez, the battle against President Nasser was lost and all talk of union died too.
Instead, when the EEC was born the following year, France teamed up with Germany while Britain watched on. The rest, it seems, is history.