ABSTRACT
Having described the Cabinet’s attitude to Lloyd George’s policy on Poland and Bolshevik Russia, Nowak looks at British public opinion and voices of discontent arising from the suspicion that the British government was sending aid to Poland, “perceived as the aggressor, with an offensive against Soviet Russia in late April 1920 in order to achieve its execrable, iniquitous, imperialistic goals.” The anti-Polish campaign was conducted under the auspices of several centers: opposition political parties, notably the Labour Party and some Liberals; the trade unions; and certain newspapers, especially those representing socialist views, such as The Daily Herald, which later turned out to have been financed by the Bolsheviks. The trade unions effectively blocked the export of munitions and other goods to Poland, while anti-Polish politicians expostulated in the House of Commons and rallied the masses with zealous rhetoric. The chapter includes a brief account of the pilgrimage of Lenin’s British sympathizers who set sail from Newcastle in April 1920 to see the Russian “social experiment” for themselves. “They did not take a liking to the bleak reality of Soviet Russia, although they saw it as the dawning of a ‘new civilization’.”
