In June 1941, the situation for the Allies was bleak. Most of Europe aside from Britain was under Nazi domination. The UK had escaped German invasion but was suffering relentless bombing raids by the Luftwaffe. The US had yet to enter the war.
It was in that grim context that representatives of 14 Allied countries came together in London’s St James’s Palace to issue a statement. When victory seemed distant, the London Declaration proclaimed the Allies’ willingness to fight on. Crucially, it also set the parameters of a future peace. The signatories declared “that the only true basis of enduring peace is the willing cooperation of free peoples” in a world “relieved of the menace of aggression”.
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