France sought to join British Commonwealth
Sacre bleu! In 1956 France's Prime Minister Mollet proposed first to form a union with England, and when that didn't work, he sought to have France join the British Commonwealth.
A French historian nearly had a stroke on hearing the news:
Seeing these words for the first time, Henri Soutou, professor of contemporary history at Paris's Sorbonne University almost fell off his chair.In the "let's ask Britain to be our friend" derby, Prime Minister Mollet's proposal ranks up there with Rudolf Hess's request for an alliance on the eve of the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
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."