Apparently, sometime in the 1950s, the French Government proposed a merger with England that would have effectively ended the existence of France as an independent nation:
Britain and France talked about a “union” in the 1950s, even discussing the possibility of the Queen becoming the French head of state, it was reported today.
On September 10 1956, Guy Mollet, the then French prime minister, came to London to discuss the possibility of a merger between the two countries with his British counterpart, Sir Anthony Eden, according to declassified papers from the National Archives, uncovered by the BBC.
A British cabinet paper from the period reads: “When the French prime minister, Monsieur Mollet, was recently in London, he raised with the prime minister the possibility of a union between the United Kingdom and France.”
Not only did the British reject the idea of conquering without conflict their historic enemy, they even rejected the idea of France joining the British Commonwealth:
When Mr Mollet’s request for a union failed, he quickly responded with another plan - that France be allowed to join the British commonwealth - which was said to have been met more warmly by Sir Anthony.
A document dated September 28 1956 records a conversation between the prime minister and his cabinet secretary, Sir Norman Brook, saying:
“The PM told him [Brook] on the telephone that he thought, in the light of his talks with the French:
? That we should give immediate consideration to France joining the Commonwealth
? That Monsieur Mollet had not thought there need be difficulty over France accepting the headship of her Majesty
? That the French would welcome a common citizenship arrangement on the Irish basis.”However, this proposal was also eventually rejected and, a year later, France signed the Treaty of Rome with Germany and the other founding nations of the European common market.
This is really quite astonishing. I mean, I knew the French were cheese eating surrender monkeys, but I figured they’d at least wait for a war before giving in.
January 17th, 2007 at 12:35 am
France has changed. France fought the Hundred Years War to prevent the English monarch from ruling France, and here, they surrender without a fight.