Pamiętny dzień przy bulwarze Quai d’Orsay, czyli początek politycznych zmagań o granice II Rzeczypospolitej na forum paryskiej konferencji pokojowej w 1919 r.
A Memorable Day on the Boulevard Quai d’Orsay, or the Beginning of the Political Struggle for the Borders of the Second Republic at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference

Summary/Abstract: When military operations on the fronts of the Great War ceased, the attention of international public opinion shifted from military commanders to politicians. During numerous meetings and conferences, it was they who were to determine the new postwar order. Among the victorious superpowers, the leading roles were played by the American President Thomas Woodrow Wilson and two Prime Ministers – Georges Clemenceau of France and David Lloyd George of Great Britain. Their most important meeting, which lasted several months, took place in Paris in the first half of 1919 and was one of the most important in the history of the past century. Its participants included the Polish delegation, in which the leader of the National Camp and the Polish National Committee in Paris, Roman Dmowski, played a key role. The Polish position on the future borders of reborn Poland had to be presented by him 29 January 1919, i.e. several days after the official opening of the debates (18 January). The text refers to his speech. It went down in history not only because of its length – Dmowski spoke before the afore-mentioned leaders for nearly five hours, which was influenced by the fact that he had translated the original French version of his speech into English himself – but above all because of its quality of content. It included statements by Dmowski himself as well as by other participants to the meeting. This article aimed not only to present the arguments used by the Polish delegate during his speech but also the atmosphere and mood that accompanied it. There is no doubt that the meeting, which took place in the office of the French Foreign Minister Stephen Pichon on the Quai d’Orsay, was one of the first essential chords of the political struggle for the borders of the Second Republic.

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