§ 5. Mr. Manderasked the Prime Minister the terms of the communication made to the League of Nations with reference to Great Britain's entry into the war?
§ Mr. ButlerI am circulating the terms of this communication in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Following are the terms of the communication:
§ Foreign Office, S.W.I.
§ 9th September, 1939.
§ SIR,
§ On the 23rd May last Viscount Halifax made, on behalf of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, a statement to the Council of the League of Nations concerning the obligations which His Majesty's Government had felt constrained to undertake in pursuit of pacific and well-defined ends. He explained that one principle was common to these obligations, namely, resistance to the imposition of solutions by the method of force, which, if continued, must result in reducing civilisation to anarchy and destruction. He added that everything that His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom had done was in conformity with the spirit of the Covenant.
§ 2. I am now directed by Lord Halifax to state that on the 1st September last the German Government committed an act of aggression against a member of the League of Nations. The action of the German Government was taken in disregard of the obligation, which they had accepted, to solve without recourse to force the questions which might become the cause of division between Germany and Poland; in disregard of the obligations which the German Government had assumed towards Poland and the other signatories of the Treaty for the Renunciation of War of the 27th August, 1928; and in disregard of the appeals which had, on high authority, been addressed to the German Government to seek a solution of Polish-German differences by pacific means.
§ 3. His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, in co-operation with the French Government, had exerted their utmost influence to promote a settlement by peaceful negotiation of the matters in dispute between Germany and Poland, and endeavoured, by diplomatic action, to bring the violation of Polish territory by German forces to an end. These endeavours failed, and the action of the German Government called into play the obligations which His Majesty's Government 685 in the United Kingdom had assumed towards Poland. These obligations, which originally resulted from the declaration made by His Majesty's Government on 31st March, 1939, were defined in the Agreement of Mutual Assistance between the United Kingdom and Poland signed in London on the 25th August, 1939.
§ 4. I am, therefore, to inform you that, in conformity with the obligations assumed by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, and in consequence of the continuance of aggressive action by Germany against Poland, a state of war has existed between the United Kingdom and Germany since II a.m. on the 3rd September, 1939.
§ 5. I am to request that this communication may be transmitted to the members of the League of Nations.
§ I am,
§ Sir,
§ Your obedient Servant,
§ (Signed) ALEXANDER CADOGAN.
§ The Secretary-General,
§ League of Nations,
§ Geneva.