Billy Hughes increasingly dominant in public affairs with the rise of Fascism in Europe and militant Japan in Asia. From 1938, Prime Minister Joseph Lyons had Hughes head a recruitment drive for the Australian Defence Force. On 7 April 1939, Lyons died in office. The United Australia Party selected Robert Menzies as his successor to lead a minority government on the eve of World War Two. Australia entered the Second World War on 3 September 1939 and a special War Cabinet was created after war was declared – initially composed of Prime Minister Menzies and five senior ministers including Hughes. Labor opposition
British and French declaration of war on Germany propaganda to justify German expansionism). Two Western powers, the United Kingdom and France, gave guarantees to Poland that they would declare war if Polish independence came under threat, as presented in a statement to the House of Commons by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain 31 March 1939 (formalized by the British 6 April 1939; not ratified until 4 September 1939 by the French): Although they honoured these guarantees by declaring war soon after Germany's Invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, and although the dominions of the British Empire quickly followed suit, so little practical assistance was given to Poland,