WHAT IF THIS MARRIAGE HAD TAKEN PLACE?
How would this marriage shape the course of European history?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6261885.stm
Formerly secret documents unearthed from the National Archives have showed Britain and France considered a "union" in the 1950s.
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.
Formerly secret documents held in Britain's National
Archives in London, which have lain virtually unnoticed since being
released two decades ago, reveal the extraordinary proposal Mollet was
about to make.
The following is an extract from a British government cabinet paper of the day. It 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."
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.
Secret document
So, when Eden turned down his request for a union
between France and Britain the French prime minister came up with
another proposal.
This time, while Eden was on a visit to Paris, he requested that France be allowed to join the British Commonwealth.
A secret document from 28 September 1956 records the
surprisingly enthusiastic way the British premier responded to the
proposal when he discussed it with his Cabinet Secretary, Sir Norman
Brook.
It says: "Sir Norman Brook asked to see me this morning
and told me he had come up from the country consequent on a telephone
conversation from the prime minister who is in Wiltshire.
"The PM told him 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"
Seeing these words for the first time, Henri Soutou,
professor of contemporary history at Paris's Sorbonne University almost
fell off his chair.
Stammering repeatedly he said: "Really I am stuttering
because this idea is so preposterous. The idea of joining the
Commonwealth and accepting the headship of Her Majesty would not have
gone down well. If this had been suggested more recently Mollet might
have found himself in court."
Textbooks
Nationalist MP Jacques Myard was similarly stunned on
being shown the papers, saying: "I tell you the truth, when I read that
I am quite astonished. I had a good opinion of Mr Mollet before. I
think I am going to revise that opinion.
"I am just amazed at reading this because since the days
I was learning history as a student I have never heard of this. It is
not in the textbooks."
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.