Britain recognises the Polish Army

On 15 October 1918 the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour replied to a note from the representative of the Polish National Committee in London. In it the Committee announced the creation of a single Polish national army and the appointment of General Józef Haller as its commander-in-chief, and at the same time asked the British government to recognise the Polish forces fighting the Central Powers as a co-belligerent army. Balfour wrote back that His Majesty’s Government “gladly accede to this request” and would henceforth recognise the Polish Army as “autonomous, allied and co-belligerent”. This date for the letter is given by Roman Dmowski, who quoted it in full in a letter to the American Secretary of State of 25 October, published in the collection of United States diplomatic documents. The British chronology of the war records the recognition under 12 October. Where that date came from is not known, but Balfour’s letter itself is dated 15 October.

Britain adopted the same formula that France had laid down in the agreement of 28 September. This mattered to the Committee, because its army was formally still being formed under a decree of the French president, and recognition by a second Entente power made it an armed force of the whole coalition. In the language of diplomacy the word “allied” meant that Poland, although it did not yet exist as a state, was taking part in the war as a member of the Allied camp.

Balfour did not confine himself to a dry formula. He wrote that the British government had followed with appreciation the Committee’s efforts to strengthen its compatriots throughout the world in their resistance to the Central Powers and to any compromise with them on the Polish question, and that its confidence in the Committee’s loyalty to the Allies “remains unshaken”. He recalled that London had repeatedly declared itself in favour of a united and independent Polish state and had gladly joined in the Versailles declaration of 3 June. He expressed admiration for the Poles, who had not allowed Germany and Austria-Hungary to dictate the future status and frontiers of their country, and the hope that the “present provisional arrangements” would soon come to an end and that a free and united Poland would itself establish its constitution in accordance with the will of the nation.

Italy took a similar step. The Foreign Minister Sidney Sonnino, in a letter to the Committee, recognised the Polish troops fighting alongside the Allies as a single, autonomous, allied and co-belligerent Polish army. Dmowski, who was then in Washington, asked the American government for the same, citing the example of France and Britain. The United States recognised the Polish Army on 1 November, but only as “autonomous and co-belligerent”, without the word “allied”. The United States itself was not formally an ally of the Entente but an associated power.