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VII. Britain and the Russo-Polish Frontier, 1919–1921*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

H. J. Elcock
H. J. Elcock
Affiliation:
University of Hull
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Extract

At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 the Polish state was reconstituted as a result of the German defeat in the Great War, and the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires. In the years that followed, Poland refused to come to terms with her neighbours and sought a guarantee for her future safety in a close attachment to Britain and France; a course of action which ultimately led to renewed subjugation, under the hand of each of her neighbours in turn. It is with the first years of this course that we are here concerned.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 1969 , pp. 137 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

1 Cabinet Papers: Public Record Office, CAB 23, IX, WC 515, Minute 5.

2 U.S. Department of State: Foreign Relations of the United States: The Paris Peace Conference, 1919 (Washington, D.C. 1943) (hereafter referred to as PPC), III, 674.Google Scholar

3 Ibid. pp. 413–19 contains the minutes of this meeting.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 PPC, III, 405–12. Meeting of 19 March.

7 George, D. Lloyd, The Truth about the Peace Treaties (London, 1938), II, 405.Google Scholar

8 H. of C. Debates, 5th Series, 114 (1919), col. 2943.

9 Mantoux, P.; Les Délibérations du Conseil des Quatre: Notes de I'Officier Interprète (Paris, 1955), II, 130–1.Google Scholar

10 Balfour Memorandum on Eastern Galicia, 17 June 1919, in PPC, IV, 838–9; Meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers, 18, 25 June, PPC, IV, 828–32, 51 ff. Agreement on fixed date for plebiscite at latter meeting.

11 Meetings of the Heads of Delegations of the Five Great Powers, 23 September, Minutes in British Documents on Foreign Policy (Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1947–date, hereafter cited as BDFP), First Series, I, 720–2.

12 BDFP, First Series, III, 364.

13 Ibid. p. 368.

14 Cabinet Papers, CAB 23, XVIII, No. 13 (19), Minute 3.

15 BDFP, First Series, III, 909.

16 Cabinet Papers: CAB 23, XVIII, No. 13 (19), Minute 3.

17 Cabinet Papers: CAB 23, II, No. 601, Minute 3.

18 H. of C. Debates, Fifth Series, CVIV, cols. 2942–3.

19 Cabinet Papers: The final decision was taken on 12 December 1919. CAB 23, XVIII, No. 13 (19), Minute I.

20 BDFP, First Series, VI, 364–7.

21 BDFP, First Series, I, No. 64, Appendix I (The Sixth Report of the Polish Commission), pp. 789–90, and Meeting of the Supreme Council, 2 December 1919, at 2 p.m. Ibid. VII.II, p. 470.

22 Cf. the Minutes of the Anglo-rench Conference of II and 12 December at p. 140, n. 14 supra.

23 Quoted in Carr, E.H., The Bolshevik Revolution, III (Macmillan, 1953), 151.Google Scholar

24 BDFP, First Series, III, 759.

25 BDFP, First Series, III, 803–4.

26 Ibid.

27 Cf. Strang, Lord, The Foreign Office (Allen and Unwin, 1955), esp. pp. 43–7.Google Scholar

28 Cabinet Papers: CAB 23, XX, Nos. 6/20 and 7/20.

29 Degras, J., Documents on Soviet Foreign Policy (Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1951), I, 179–80.Google Scholar

30 Qu. Wandycz, op. cit. p. 141.

31 BDFP, Series I, XI, 215.

32 BDFP, First Series, VII, 144–51.

33 Ibid. p. 202.

34 Ibid. p. 144.

35 BDFP, First Series, XI, 245–6.

36 Cabinet Papers: CAB 24, CI, Paper CP 937.

37 BDFP, First Series, XI, 265–7.

38 BDFP, First Series, XI, 266–7.

39 Degras, op. cit. pp. 183–4.

40 BDFP, First Series, XI, 328.

41 BDFP, First Series, VIII, 281 ff.

42 Cabinet Papers: CAB 23, XXI, No. 35/20, Appendix II.

43 BDFP, First Series, XI, 363.

44 Cabinet Papers: CAB 24, CVIII, CP 1540. Memorandum on Poles and Wrangel.

45 BDFP, First Series, XI, 363–4.

46 Ibid. pp. 376–8.

47 Ibid. VII, 505, n. 3.

48 BDFP, First Series, VII, 441–2.

48 Ibid. XI, 371–2.

50 BDFP, First Series, VII, 530.

51 Text H. of C. Debates, Fifth Series, CXXXI (1920), cols. 2372 ff.

52 Cabinet Papers: CAB 23, XXII, No. 41/20.

53 Degras, op. cit. pp. 194–7 for text of Soviet reply, and BDFP, First Series, XI, 388.

54 Ibid. pp. 393–4.

55 BDFP, First Series, XI, 397.

56 Hankey's Report in BDFP, First Series, XI, 429–34.

57 Ibid. p. 422, n. 2.

58 BDFP, First Series, VIII, No. 81, pp. 670–80 is the minutes of this meeting.

59 Minutes of this Conference are in BDFP, First Series, VIII, chapter II, pp. 709–55. The declaration to Poland is at pp. 754—5.

60 BDFP, First Series, XI, 455–6.

61 Ibid. p. 462.

62 Cabinet Papers: CAB 23, XXII, No. 49/20.

63 BDFP, loc. cit. No. 430, pp. 473–6.

64 Cabinet Papers: Registered File No. 180. Report of the Allied Military Mission by Major-General Sir P. Radcliffe, Director of Military Operations.

65 For details of these events see Carr, E.H., The Bolshevik Revolution, (Macmillan, 1953), III, 212–13;Google ScholarDeutscher, I., Stalin (Oxford University Press, paper edn. 1961), p. 216.Google Scholar

66 BDFP, First Series, XI, 513–16.

67 Cabinet Papers: Registered File No. 179.

68 BDFP, First Series, VIII, 764.

69 Ibid. p. 776.

70 Ibid. XI, 535.

71 Ibid. p. 536.

72 Ibid. pp. 584–5.

73 BDFP, First Series, XI, 602.

74 Ibid. p. 619.

75 Ibid. p. 720.

76 Essays in Biography (Mercury paper edn., 1961), p. 36.Google Scholar

77 Cf. Taylor, A.J.P., Origins of the Second World War (Hamish Hamilton, 1961),Google Scholar and Gilbert, Martin and Gott, Richard, The Appeasers (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1963),Google Scholar among many other accounts of this period.