OxBlog |
Front page
|
Monday, January 15, 2007
# Posted 7:14 PM by Taylor Owen
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.Not surprisingly (insert bad trade analogy here), it didn't go very far, but the tenacious Mollet was willing to dig deeper, putting French Nationalism itself on the table (insert surrender monkey joke here): 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.Apparently, the offer was actually taken seriously by the Brits: A document dated September 28 1956 records a conversation between the prime minister and his cabinet secretary, Sir Norman Brook, saying:So what do les Francais vivants think of this revelation?: "I tell you the truth - when I read that I am quite astonished," the French Nationalist MP, Jacques Myard, told the BBC today.I bet not. Curious what Oxblog's resident historian thinks of all this? Plausible? (6) opinions -- Add your opinion
Comments:
Yo,
Post a Comment
no idea. amusing though, especially this: "A spokesman for the French embassy said most people had been surprised by the revelation. "We are looking at our national archives," he said. "We cannot comment at this stage." I can hear the shredder...
|