“Save me a seat.” Such was the unsettled nature of Poland on this day in 1945. The United Kingdom and United States were at loggerheads with the Soviets. The formers’ demands that Poland’s government-in-exile be represented at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco were countered by the latter’s insistence on a Polish delegation controlled by the USSR. As such, the UN Charter was signed on June 26, 1945, by representatives of 50 countries. An extra line on the signatory page was left blank for Poland to later sign. While Poland did become one of the UN’s original 51 Member States, Stalin kiboshed celebrations in the streets of Warsaw and London. Per the Cosmopolitan Review, “Poland was likewise not represented at the London Victory Parade in June 1946 due to the Soviet authorities’ protest to the participation of the Polish Armed Forces in the West and its demand that a delegate of the Polish People’s Army controlled by Moscow attend the parade. In effect, even though Poland was the only country that fought Hitler’s Germany from day one until the end of the war, not even one Polish soldier was present during the London parade.”
Last week, it was British bankers who weren’t celebrating in London’s streets.