The Polish II Corps was instrumental in the Allied defeat of the Germans in North Africa and Italy, and its members hoped to return to Kresy in an independent and democratic Poland at the end of the War.

But at Yalta, Churchill agreed Stalin should keep the Soviet gains that Adolf Hitler had endorsed in the Nazi-Soviet Pact, including Kresy, and carry out Polish population transfers.

Consequently, Churchill had agreed that tens of thousands of veteran Polish troops under British command should lose their Kresy homes to the Soviet Union, with the implication that relatives including wives and children would be at the mercy of the NKVD.

'[4] During the debate, 25 MPs risked their careers to draft an amendment protesting against Britain's tacit acceptance of Poland's domination by the Soviet Union.

These members included Arthur Greenwood; Sir Archibald Southby; Viscount Dunglass; Lord Willoughby de Eresby and Victor Raikes.

[3] After the failure of the amendment, Henry Strauss, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Town and Country, resigned from the government in protest at the British treatment of Poland.

[6][7] At the same time, Britain's social and economic areas had been hard hit by the Second World War, and to rebuild itself physically and financially it required a workforce to do it quickly and effectively.