British Guarantee To Poland
On March 31, 1939, in response to Nazi Germany's defiance of the Munich Agreement and occupation of Czechoslovakia, the United Kingdom pledged the support of itself and France to guarantee Polish independence.
... in the event of any action which clearly threatened Polish independence, and which the Polish Government accordingly considered it vital to resist with their national forces, His Majesty's Government would feel themselves bound at once to lend the Polish Government all support in their power. They have given the Polish Government an assurance to this effect. I may add that the French Government have authorised me to make it plain that they stand in the same position in this matter as do His Majesty's Government.On April 6, during a visit to London by the Polish foreign minister, it was agreed to formalize the guarantee as an Anglo-Polish military alliance, pending negotiations.
This guarantee was extended on April 13 to Greece and Romania following Italy's invasion of Albania.
Read more about this topic: Anglo-Polish Military Alliance
Famous quotes containing the words british, guarantee and/or poland:
“History is made in the class struggle and not in bed.”
—Alex Mitchell, British left-wing journalist. quoted in Sunday Times (London, 29 Dec. 1985)
“Don’t go on a man’s bond in public, nor guarantee his debts in private.”
—Chinese proverb.
“It is often said that Poland is a country where there is anti-semitism and no Jews, which is pathology in its purest state.”
—Bronislaw Geremek (b. 1932)