December in the Kongo and Ubangi Shari was an uneasy period.
Since the departure of the King the two local governments kept running as if nothing had happened. The Dutch settlers, worried that the fragile situation in Ubangi Shari might once descend into chaos and fearing perhaps the Kongolese military might seize its own chance sought added security. The remaining Dutch forces were put on alert and in mid-December a chartered liner docked at Moando and disgorged 3,000 Marines and equipment to be on the safe side.
King Charles had not carried out the widely assumed action of adding his dead brother's titles to his own. Indeed he realised that the political situation would never countenance that. The constitutional dilemma was who should be head of state of the two nations. The choice was to ask King Charles to take the throne, which would not be universally popular and might show the government was weak and invite some kind of coup or public protest. A more distant relative was another choice but there was little practical point in that. Elevating a local tribal king to the status of a European king would be an audacious move but would stoke Dutch resentment and the Crown might act to protect its investments. Also, choosing such a local ruler would be impossible without inviting strife from other envious and dissatisfied ethic groups. The more radical path was to revoke the rule of a colonial power and declare a republic and install a president. That was sure to invite Dutch counter-action and could spark a major crisis if not war. In any case who would make an ideal president, even elections could be bitter affairs and the thorny issue of white versus black rule was still acute whatever the title of the Head of State.
There was even debate whether it was time to end the artificial separation of Ubangi Shari from the Kongo and unite them as one nation. This would solve many problems of investment and uneven development and the rather artificial political groupings it created. Even so, progress would never be easy and it was no fast solution or even proven possibility. So the talking continued all month, in committees, special parliamentary sittings, local political clubs, pubs and in homes across the two nations.
Rumour and intrigue was no less in metropolitan Holland where the press treaded carefully but everyone sensed a constitutional crisis would erupt sooner or later during 1948. The most pessimistic (or optimistic if you happened to be anti-colonial) was a domino effect that could overtake the East Indies and all Dutch possessions as the pressures of self-rule erupted. On the other hand a brutal repression seemed unthinkable, especially after the pains taken to relieve the Ubangis from N'Dofa's military dictatorship. Some still wondered about his whereabouts and what part he might yet play, while dark rumours about the Kings Investigative Service refused to die.