Blog History of government

What’s the context? 31 March 1939: the British guarantee to Poland

Posted by: Gill Bennett, Posted on: 28 March 2019 - Categories: Foreign Office Historians, Second World War

On 31 March 1939 Neville Chamberlain committed Britain to defending Polish independence. After years of trying to preserve peace and buy time for rearmament, he recognised that international developments and domestic opinion meant this guarantee was necessary, though it was to mean war with Germany 6 months later.