The question of Eastern Galicia in the parliamentary debates in Great Britain in the early 1920s

Abstract

In this article on the basis of the analysis of the digitized editions of the official records of debates in the British Parliament and with the involvement of published and archival documents from English and Polish foreign ministries, English journalism and other sources the cases of Eastern Galicia status question appearance on the agenda of the House of Commons of the British Parliament in the early 1920-ies the are analyzed. It is shown that the content of the speeches on this issue was closely connected with the criticism expressed by the opposition-minded MPs to the government in the relation to the British policy in the Eastern European region, namely in connection with the undefined status of Eastern Galicia, transferred during the Peace conference in Paris under the Polish occupation, but not included in the Polish state. This situation has actualized the issue of compliance in the region of the right of Ukrainians to plebiscite. It was revealed that the awareness of parliamentarians in this matter is connected with the periodic statement of the League of Nations, including representatives of Canada, where a significant number of Ukrainian population lived, as well as with the information activities of a number of public organizations that raised the issue of the Jewish population situation. Economic interest is also noted as an incentive to raise questions on the Eastern Galician problem. It is established that the emergence of the Eastern Galician issue in the context of criticism of the policy of the British government, stimulated the latter to search for an acceptable formula for its solution: as a condition of the transfer of this region to Poland, the requirement of providing evidence of ensuring its autonomy within the Polish state was set.