Following the Soviet Note and M. Molotov’s broadcast which paved the way for the Soviet invasion of Poland the Polish Embassy in London launched on September 17th 1939, a vigorous statement on such a violation of pacts between the two countries .
This was the first of many protests issued by or on behalf of, the tragic PolishRepublic.
STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE POLISH EMBASSY IN LONDON SEPTEMBER 17th 1939;
On September 17th at 4 a.m. Soviet troops crossed the frontier of Poland at many points and were met immediately with strong resistance on the part of the Polish National Army. A sharp encounter in particular is being fought near the frontier in the region of Molodeczno.
The pretext which the Soviet Government advances in order to justify this flagrant act of direct aggression is that the Polish Government has ceased to exist, and that it has abandoned the territory of Poland, thus leaving the Polish population on territories outside the zone of war with Germany without protection.
The Polish Government cannot enter into any discussion of the pretext which the Soviet Government has invented in order to justify the violation of the Polish frontier.
The Polish Government responsible to the President of the Republic and to the duly elected National Parliament is functioning on Polish territory and is carrying on the war against the German aggressors by all means in its power.
By the act of direct aggression committed this morning the Soviet Government have flagrantly violated the Polish Russian Pact of Non-Aggression concluded in Moscow on July 25th 1932, in which both parties mutually undertook to abstain from all aggressive action or from attack against each other.
Moreover on May 5th 1934, by the Protocol signed in Moscow, the above Pact of Non- Aggression was prolonged until December 31st 1945.
By the convention concluded in London on 3rd July 1933, Soviet Russia and Poland agreed on a definition of aggression, which clearly stamped as an act of aggression any encroachment of the territory of one Contracting Party by the armed forces of the other, and furthermore that no consideration of a political military, economic or any other order, could in any circumstances serve as a pretext or excuse for committing an act of aggression.
Therefore, by the act of wanton aggression committed this morning, the Soviet Government stands self condemned as a violator of its international obligations, thus contradicting all the moral principles upon which Soviet Russia pretended to base her foreign policy since her admittance into the League of Nations.
DR MOSCICKI, PRESIDENT OF THE POLISH REPOBLIC IN A PROCLAMATION TO THE POLISH NATION, SEPTEMBER 18th
Citizens! At a timewhen our army ,with incomparable courage is struggling ,from the first day of war against the overwhelming power of the enemy ,withstanding the onslaught of almost the whole of the armed might of Germany, our eastern neighbour has invaded our land in violation of solemn covenants and ofthe unchanging laws of morality.
Not for the first time in our history we are faced with an invasion inundating our country both from the west and the east.
Poland allied to France and Great Britain, is struggling for the rule of law against lawlessness, for faith and civilization against soulless barbarism, against the reign of evil in the world.
From this struggle I have the invincible faith; Poland must and shall emerge victorious.
Citizens! From the passing deluge we must safeguard the symbols of the Republic and the course of the constitutional authority.
Therefore, with a heavy heart, I have resolved to transfer the seat of the President of the Republic and of the highest executive authority of the State to a place offering conditions that assure to them full sovereignty and enable them to watch over the interests of the Republic.
Citizens! I am aware that throughout the hardest ordeals you will preserve the same strength of spirit, the same dignity and lofty pride by which you have earned the admiration of the world.
On every one of you today rests the duty of guarding the honour of the nation, no matter what may befall you.
Almighty Providence will render justice to our cause.
MR. CHAMBERLAIN, IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, SEPTEMBER 20th.
On September 17th an event occurred which has inevitably had a decisive effect upon the war on the Eastern Front.
On the morning of September 17th, Russian troops crossed the Polish frontier at points along its whole length and advanced into Poland.
A Note was handed to the Polish Ambassador in Moscow to the effect that Warsaw as the capital of Poland no longer existed, that the Polish Government had disintegrated, and that the PolishState and its Government had ceased to exist.
In the same way the agreements concluded between the Soviet Union and Poland had come to an end.
Poland had become a suitable field for all manner of hazards and surprises which might constitute a threat to the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union could therefore no longer preserve a neutral attitude, and the Soviet Government had ordered their troops to cross the frontier and take under their protection the life and property of the population of the Western Ukraine and Western White Russia.
The effects of the Russian invasion upon the hard pressed Poles have naturally been very serious.
Caught between two vast armies, and with their communications to the south cut off, the Polish forces are still continuing their courageous resistance.
It is still too early to pronounce any final verdict on the motives or consequences of the Russian action.
For the unhappy victim of this cynical attack the result has been a tragedy of the grimmest character.
The world which has watched the vain struggle of the Polish nation against overwhelming odds with profound pity and sympathy admires their valour, which even now refuses to admit defeat.
If Britain and France have been unable to avert defeat of the armies of Poland, they have assured her that they have not been forgotten their obligations to her, nor weakened in their determination to carry on the struggle…..
COUNT RACZYNSKI, POLISH AMBASSADOR, IN A NOTE TO THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT, SEPTEMBER 30th.
I raise in the name of the Polish Government the most formal and most solemn protest against the plot hatched between Berlin and Moscow in disregard of all international obligations and of all principles of morality.
Poland shall never recognize this act of violence, and fortified by the justice of her case, she shall never cease to struggle until her territories have been liberated from the imvaders and her legitimate rights fully established.
