synarchy movement of empire book ii - Pierre Beaudry's Galactic ...

The President of the Council is authorized, if the British
government will agree to the French government taking this step, to
declare to the British government that the surrender of the French fleet
to Germany would be held to be an unacceptable condition.
Should the British government withhold its consent to this step, it
seems likely, in view of the opinions expressed at the cabinet meeting,
that the President of the Council would have no alternative but to
resign.}" (Shirer, p. 819.)
This was Reynaud's last act of courage before the tragedy. Reynaud
was taking a last forceful and complex negotiating position, and was putting
Churchill up against the wall on the fate of the French flee. This
demonstrated that Reynaud not only had kept some sharpness of mind, in
spite of the abuse of Helene de Portes, but also was setting and example of
how the negotiators of the Peace of Westphalia had to solve a {Three Body
Problem} within the complex domain. In a nutshell, Reynaud was asking
Churchill for permission to waver the conditions of the French-British
Cordial Alliance and to ask Roosevelt's advice on a German armistice.
There are several things to consider here, the main difficulty being
that France could not sign a separate peace with Germany, that is, an
armistice, without breaking the Treaty of the French-British Alliance
Cordiale, but also could not allow Germany to take control of the French
fleet.
1- Synarchist Deputy Chautemps proposed that "France ask
Germany - not for an armistice, but for its {conditions} for an
armistice." This proposition had been put before the Council with
such perfidy that the majority of the Cabinet members were
seduced and trapped by it. This had the effect of forcing Reynaud
to either join the majority in asking British permission to break
with the {Alliance Cordiale}, or else he would have to resign,
which would have brought the government down, as Laval was
hoping to do, and given the French fleet to the Germans. The
proposal of Chautemps read as follows:
"{If, contrary to what we expect, the conditions [for an armistice]
appear moderate, our British friends will no doubt agree that we
should study them. If, on the other hand, as you and I expect, the
73