In 1961 Cyprus joined the Commonwealth.
In 1959 the 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) arrived in India seeking sanctuary after the Tibetan Uprising which started on the 10th of March 1959. The uprising started in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, against the Communist Party of China. The Dalai Lama was the spiritual and political head of Tibet and in 1951 his government signed the ‘Seventeen Point Agreement’ with the newly formed ‘People’s Republic of China’. This agreement (which the Dalai Lama maintains was signed under duress) gave China control of Tibet. After the uprising the Dalai Lama headed to India across the Himalayan Mountains with cabinet members, fearing reparations from China. They left in secret on the 16th of March and many feared he had been killed but today they arrived safely in India and were granted asylum. 80,000 more Tibetans have settled in India, following their spiritual leader and the Tibetan Government in-exile was run from India. From India the Dalai Lama has been fighting to preserve the culture of Tibet as well as publicising their plight to the world. He had attempted to make dialogue with China which has broken down on several occasions and received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in advocating ‘the middle way’ which consists of genuine self control of Tibet by Tibetans, within China. He officially retired from the head of the Tibetan Government in-exile on the 29th of May 2011, passing control over to the democratically elected heads of the Central Tibetan Administration.
In 1939 Britain and France pledged their support for Poland in the event that Poland was invaded. This came when the threat of invasion by German forces was proving inevitable since Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia on the 15th of March that year. The declaration was made to Poland in the event of an invasion by any force but had been drawn up with Hitler specifically in mind. On 26th of August the ‘Polish-British Common Defence Act’ was signed pushing back Hitler’s planned invasion date. But it didn’t deter Hitler entirely and on the 1st of September 1939 he invaded Poland. In response Britain and France declared War on Germany, on the 3rd of September 1939.
