The History of the Civil Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland in Exile between 1939 and 1945 (the Outline of Problematic Aspects)

Abstract

In autumn 1939 the new Polish authorities, with the president at the head of them, were formed in exile. The office created for organisational and legal support for the head of the country was his Chancellery. Up to this day the extensively preserved archives of the Chancellery have been gathered at the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum (Instytut i Muzeum Polskie im. Gen. Władysława Sikorskiego) in London. Thanks to them we can recreate the most important moments in the functioning of this administrative structure, evaluate not only its personnel’s composition and the means of acting, but also its effectiveness in foreign surroundings.   
The Chancellery was a place where the decision regarding the dismissing and conscripting of a new government was made. It deserves our attention even if for this reason. Its organisation, based on former bureaucratic models, was an example of modesty and administrative solidarity, even though it was not free from mistakes. The Chancellery saw political meetings, sometimes harsh discussions, it also came to blows upon the head of the country!
Although the Chancellery was not a pivotal place in terms of the structural authorities in exile, significant political decisions were in fact made there. It is necessary to consider its purposes, bring closer the careers of people who formed it, and describe the relations between the employees and the head of the country. In the times so difficult for Poland, it was a place in a sense unique. The Chancellery still functioned in nearly unchanged work-group even after the Allies had cancelled the support for the legal Polish authorities in July 1945. It is an almost symbolic fact that some of its employees still served publicly for the next dozen of years next to the successive presidents in exile, searching at the same time for the sources of income in a hard labour-work abroad. Although the functioning of the Chancellery was not free from mistakes, the guiding motif for the involvement of its employees was undoubtedly the loyalty to independent Poland.