| First Inter-Allied Conference Declaration of St James's Palace | |
|---|---|
| Host country |  United Kingdom |
| Date | 12 June 1941 |
| Cities | London |
| Venues | St James's Palace |
| Participants |
|
| Precedes | Atlantic Conference |
| Key points | |
Noseparate peace with theAxis powers, commitment to a peace based on "willing co-operation of free peoples" | |
TheDeclaration of St James's Palace, orLondon Declaration,[1] was the first joint statement of goals and principles by theAllied Powers duringWorld War II.[2] The declaration was issued after the first Inter-Allied Conference atSt James's Palace inLondon on 12 June 1941. Representatives of theUnited Kingdom, the four co-belligerentCommonwealthDominions (Canada,Australia,New Zealand, andSouth Africa), the eightgovernments in exile (Belgium,Czechoslovakia,Greece,Luxembourg,the Netherlands,Norway,Poland,Yugoslavia) andFree France were parties to the declaration. It stated the Allies' commitment to continue the war against theAxis Powers (Germany andItaly) and established principles to serve as the basis of a future peace.
After theBattle of France, the exiled governments ofPoland,Belgium,the Netherlands, andLuxembourg established themselves in London and began to work with the British to coordinate resistance activities and carry on the fight.[3]Charles de Gaulle'sAppeal of 18 June likewise signaled the beginning of theFree French movement. By 1941, the Czech National Liberation Committee underEdvard Beneš also won recognition as the Provisional Czechoslovak Government as it cooperated ever closer with Britain.[3]
TheBalkans campaign ended on 1 June 1941, leaving bothGreece andYugoslavia under Axis occupation. Both of their governments went into exile;the government ofPeter II of Yugoslavia joined the Western Allied exiles in London, while theGreek government ofGeorge II set up in Cairo.
London, as the capital of the only belligerent power in Europe not under Axis occupation, became the center of Allied diplomatic activity.[3] By June 1941, the city had already been subjected to 11 months of combat in theBattle of Britain and subsequentLondon Blitz.[2]
The Declaration of St James's Palace made three resolutions. In the first, the parties affirmed their alliance, pledging to assist one another in the war against Germany and Italy and committing "the utmost of their respective capacities". The second pledged that the Allies would enter into noseparate peace, stating that there could be no peace until the threat of Axis domination was past. The third resolution committed the Allies to the principle of a peace based on the "willing cooperation of free peoples" in which "all may enjoy economic and social security."[4][5]
The declaration was the first statement by the Allied Powers expressing a vision for a postwar world order.[2] In August of 1941, Britain and theUnited States laid out this vision in a more detailed form in theAtlantic Charter. In September, asecond Inter-Allied meeting, which now includedSoviet ambassadorIvan Maisky following theAnglo-Soviet Agreement, issued a resolution endorsing the Charter. In January 1942 a still larger group of nations issued theDeclaration by United Nations, endorsing the same principles initially put forward at St James's and pledging to jointly resist the Axis Powers.[6][7]
Works related toDeclaration of St James's Palace at Wikisource
