Martin
Gwynne(Wednesday, July
2, 2003) gives the low-down on why Britain did not declare war on Stalin in Sept 1939
Why
Britain did not declare war on the Soviet Union in Sept
1939
–
cont’d
IN answer to a letter on your website about this historic puzzle, I have looked up the facts: following Germany’s invasion of Poland, World War II began on September 3, 1939. Two weeks later, Russia also invaded
Poland, from the east.
Naturally, reasonably well-informed members of the
British and French public assumed that Britain would forthwith declare war on Russia, since on August 25, the
United Kingdom and Poland had entered into a Pact of Mutual
Assistance. This Pact was recorded in Cmd. Paper 6101, the principal Article of which stated:
“Should
one of the Contracting Parties become engaged in
hostilities with a European Power in consequence of
aggression by the latter against the Contracting Party,
the other Contracting Party were at once give the
Contracting Party engaged in hostilities all the support
and assistance in its power.”
Plain enough for the ordinary man to understand.
Five years later, as the war was drawing to a close and the Soviet armies were of course everywhere victorious, His
Majesty’s Stationery Office in London published a re-print of the Cmd. Paper 6101. It had the appearance of being an exact replica of the original, BUT there was one significant addition on page 4. This read as follows:
“The
Polish Government and the Government of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are agreed
upon the following interpretation of the Agreement of
Mutual Assistance signed this day as alone authentic and
binding: 1
(a) By the expression ‘a European Power’ employed in this
agreement is to be understood
Germany.”
Why the readily-available word “Germany” was not used to represent Germany in the original version of Cmd. Paper 6101
must be considered an interesting question!
The research which located all the above was done by the late Anthony Gittens.
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