[Assam] Britain & France "union"!!! Proponents of Assam inside India should take note of this report. Unfortunately for Assam, some fools made a nightmare of Henri Souto for France, a reality in case of Assam.

[Bartta Bistar]

When Britain and France nearly married

By Mike Thomson
Presenter, Document

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/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.



*Really I am stuttering because this idea is so preposterous"*

Henri Soutou
Historian

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.

*Document's A Marriage Cordial will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 2000 GMT on
Monday.*
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