Studies of British foreign policy during the First World War usually refer, often only in passing, to the problem of national self-determination. Behind these references lies a complex and intriguing history hitherto concealed by the inaccessibility of official records.

In 1914 the British government was not interested in national self-determination in eastern Europe. By November 1918 it was deeply involved with various eastern European subject nationalities and was committed by implication to their independence. The government was not formally committed to national self determination, but it could not have abandoned the subject nationalities without being subjected to accusations of bad faith against which it would have had the greatest difficulty defending itself. This study attempts to explain that evolution in policy by analysing the British reaction to nationality problems in eastern Europe and to the desire of the subject nationalities for self determination. It concentrates on policy during the war, not on the origins of any future policy. It is based primarily on the official records of the British government which have been supplemented with correspondence from private collections. Most of this evidence has never been used in a thorough analysis of this subject. It concentrates on the evolution of the government's relations with the Poles, Czechoslovaks and Yugoslavs because they were the only eastern European nationalities to conduct, throughout the war, an extensive campaign in Britain for national self-determination. Among the émigrés they alone had meaningful relations with the government.