An apology to Poland from Australia

While surfing through David Irving's highly amusing attempts at being a historian, I stumbled across this article from The Sydney Morning Herald from 19 April 2001. I must admit to being completely unaware of the facts contained in this article. As an Australian citizen (although not one who would describe himself as Australian, my having Australian citizenship is purely an accident of birth) I would like to apologise to Poland for the disgraceful sell-out of Poland by Australian proposed by the elected leader of Australia.


fpp.co.uk/online/01/04/SMH190401.html

No doubt Australians members will post here also apologising for the actions of Australia.

yeah, as an accidental australian i too am really really sorry for what this guy menzies said.

its obvious he had no idea what he was talking about - you just have to look at the speed that england went to poland's aid to see how much we cared

Britain was giving Poland aid even before the first shots were fired (cf. the Polish navy's heroic 'run to the safety of the nearest British naval base' Peking Plan which took place at the same time as the Royal Navy was moving British forces into positions closer to German forces). And the first mission against German was launched by British forces one hour and a few minutes after war was declared.

It is also interesting to note the differences in the declarations of war.
Britain: "This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final Note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany."

i.e. We're going to war because Germany won't get its troops out of Poland.

Australia:"Fellow Australians, it is my melancholy duty to inform you officially, that in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her and that, as a result, Australia is also at war. No harder task can fall to the lot of a democratic leader than to make such an announcement."

i.e. We're at war because Britain is.

The ending paragraphs of the announcements are also of interest:
Britain: "Now may God bless you all and may He defend the right. For it is evil things that we shall be fighting against, brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution. And against them I am certain that the right will prevail."

i.e. We're going to win!

Australia:"I know that, in spite of the emotions we are all feeling, you will show that Australia is ready to see it through. May God in His mercy and compassion grant that the world may soon be delivered from this agony."

i.e. Who cares about Poland?! Let's just hope this damn war ends.

Odd that after all this time not one single Australian member will post here and offer an apology to Poland.

Maybe the lack of response is because so many of the Polish and pseudo-Polish members who discuss this sort of thing make comments like "Why didn't Britain immediately drop bombs on Germany (with Britain's then tiny airforce) and send in troops to rescue Poland from the German forces (probably by means of magic and miracles because there was no such army capable of doing this) and that Britain, including all those alive today who were born decades later) are guilty of invading Poland themselves due to their lack of action against Germany in September 1939, and finally, that it would have been better to do nothing because an unfulfilled promise made in good faith is worse than colluding with an enemy or ignoring the evil that that enemy perpetrates. Sorry, but I've seen too many threads about subjects like this.

Another thing is that Australia is probably a bit too far off the radar of many here, whereas the UK is still Poland's evil enemy that welcomed Poland into the EU and opened its borders to Poles and others when other countries offered no such priviledges (or EU rights, if that's what they are) and kept their borders closed to eastern European workers. Of course, that's just cynicism. But it's good that Australia can look back at things like this and do something to show that it made mistakes.

Polish soldiers remember Aussies as a good colleagues. always ready to drink and to kick some british asses.

This is precisely the kind of level of idiocy I have come to expect on Polish Forums.

Just what I thought, osiolku :-)

and what exacly are you talking about? in books with the polish doctor - soldier Adam Majewski memories among others there are nice stories about polish-australian (good) relations during the 2WW. guy wrote about how aussies sincerely disliked brits and how they provked them ( sometimes with a little help from polish soldiers-comrades )to start a tussle. when i bring the book with me to Krakow ill post some quotes especially for you.

ww2australia.gov.au
This next bit i thought was interesting.
ww2australia.gov.au/wardeclared/ - Australia at war 3 September 1939


There could well have been, of course.
Plenty of "prisoners" hated Britain.


It strikes me as strange that you are looking for an apoligy from Australians.

These forces were working together on the same side. Your post makes it look, not like there was friendly rivalry between allies, but like something as idiotic as the idea that Poles were on the same side as Germans or something. There has been antipathy between Britons and Australians. Read what has already been written about the two countries' responses to the war against Germany. Shall we all start rewriting history now?

and some of them still dislike each other


cooldown your hormones osiol cause you are starting to sound like a overexcited sissy. we all know that everyone in the whole world loves you brits.

Stop talking about people as though their opinions and their culpability for wrong-doings of the past are dictated by what country they happen to come from. I'm not here to be liked or hated for my nationality. It's irrelevant. You just keep repainting the picture.

Maybe a little less drinking and a bit more fighting germans next time eh?


zzzzzzz and i'll post quotes where( english) Paras kicked (english)commandos butts,speaking of butts,stop talking through yours,maybe a spell in the armed forces might teach you that soldiers of different units always have and always will get pished and fight each other,usuall keyboard warrior crap again.

As for the other stuff, Donkey puts it so well :)

Thats rubbish, Austrialia supported Hitler.

Osiol, is this a response to Harry's thread?.


I have to ask, were you ever stationed in Ireland?.
There was a thread, when I first started this forum, and some guy went on about Ireland, the north to be exact.
I was just wondering if it was you?.

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I have come to expect, nationalism/patriotism from a forum that has a nation in it's title.

im not suprised why people describe you as boring

No. Im sure Ive said it before but just to be clear the most Ive served is 4 years with the air cadets and 7 tuesdays and a long weekend with the TA (reservists) :)


Lol, Was that bcause hitler was born there?


oh,dont pick on me,I dont want you to go and get a few lines from a book to hit me with....

Back on topic (for me).

I would not blame one man's ill informed message on the nation.

A few times,the old Chipmunk,you know,the aeroplane that looks like it belonged to the pre war Polish airforce(see,back on topic) all white and red and was ,I think,made under licence in Austrailia ;)

It comes across like this:

Dave is my enemy.
Steve and George are my friends.
I had a bit of an argument with Steve. Not a bad argument or anything.
I tell you all about the minor argument with Steve, but neglect to say anything about Dave.
Who looks like the enemy?

By the way, Steve and I have settled out differences and decided to settle down for a beer.

i think I understand your point but as an English man, is your disagreement with McCoy's, Harry's opinion or both?. That was the bit, I found unclear.

This is a very accurate statement, and should be taken in context, The Australian soldier was a happy go lucky type of person and resented the strict discipline of the British. The Australian soldier believed the British to be inferior soldiers made worse by the fact that the British made the major military decisions. They made fun of Officers and all the crap associated with the war.

The Australian soldier had a very high regard to Polish soldiers in the WW2

For a reason behind this,a real reason,not some whingey jingoistic guff as spread by some just google "Galipoli"


No,the austrailian soldier felt the british OFFICERS were inferior,relations between the diggers and the poms were fantastic in the Far East where they often but not always worked in mixed units. But hey,who on Polish forums is interested in the war in the Pacific seeing as no Polish forces turned up for that show or made any attempt to defend their allies Australia against the Japs.....

Sure I meant the British officers.

so, being an australian citizen but whose polish grandprents/parents migrated after the war, who am i to apologise to?

The "blackfellas" ? ;)

Well, he was basically right. With no TV news 24 hrs/day and the distance, and of course much longer travel time (still by ships) and no real attachment to Poland (unlike to the UK), what an average Australian could have known about Poland - absent on the maps of the world for over 100 years - nothing.

It was just an empty name, a spot on the map, with no real meaning to Australians.

Of course we can laugh now or criticize him to no end, because he was a political fool (what Hitler proved by invading France and trying to conquer Britain and Russia), but politicians are not clairvoyants and most of them fail in predicting the future anyways.

As a Polish citizen, I'd never expect from today's and Australians (or even from people who lived in the 30's and 40's) any kind of apology, after all Australia DID fight on the right side, but even if they remained neutral (like Sweden or Switzerland) or allied with Germany (like Romania or Hungary, even like Italy) it's not a problem for Poles, really and I doubt that people in Poland hold some WWII grudges against any nations other than the Germans and the Russians.


So was it Poles who first used those terms:


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoney_War

Of course the communist propaganda used this fact many times and with pleasure to compromise the image of Poland's Western allies - they needed this after cutting Poland off with the Iron Curtain, but for anyone who knows anything about history the biggest "sins" of Britain, France and USA happened at Yalta. And that's the only thing about WWII Brits could be ashamed of. At least those who care about such distant events (i.e. a small percentage).

maybe you didnt read what i posted, my family migrated here after ww2.

am i to apologise for something that happened 160 years before they set foot on australian soil?

I'm Australian and I am not too sure about any apology to Poland for those events.

Unlike Britain and France we had no treaty with Poland so no obligation to go to war when Poland was invaded. So yes we only joined because Britain did. Furthermore, unlike Britain and especially France, we had some pretty genuine reasons for doing nothing to assist whilst Poland was being invaded. We were too far away (and besides which for the first two years of the war Britain pretty much decided when and where Australian soldiers would fight)

So whilst Menzies words were indefensible, his actions (joining the war when Britain did regardless of the reasons) were not.

Now when Poles talk about British and French "betrayal", I'd agree to some extent that they are going over the top when talking about Britain but France really should have kept it's treaty obligations and invaded Germany whilst there were so few German divisions bothering to defend their border.

As for Poles having to "thank" Britain and France for going to war for them, I also think that this is over the top. Britain and France were simply following their treaty obligations and if they had no treaty with Poland in the first place, then the Polish government would have had no choice but to make pretty big concessions in being prepared to make an alliance with either Germany or the Soviets. Had they done so they probably would have had a less brutal occupation as a result.

Thank you Harry - coming from someone who said words to the effect that "the only good Pole is a dead Pole", it appears you are redeeming yourself - have you yet placed flowers on the graves of Polish soldiers (INCLUDING JEWISH ONES because you refused previously on this basis) in Warsaw who you see fit to defame and mock? You've avoided this about 4 times now, so please do it.

I recommend you place red and white flowers and utter a few words of thanks to the many who fell trying to save the city you live in, my ancestors included. It would be appropriate to take a few digital photos of your pilgrimage to share with the forum. There's a good lad...


I think we're well past that old chestnut now aren't we? Perhaps review some of my latter posts on my thread about what Poland got out of wars etc for others. The issue in a nutshell was not telling Poland that they had been sold out and continuing to use Polish soldiers thereafter in a forlorn hope.

Your little story fails to mention that Steve and George got a new friend, Ivan. Steve did a shady deal with Ivan... care to finish the rest...