In preparation for an expected attack by the Germans on Greater Poland, the Commissariat of the Supreme People’s Guard passed the command of the Greater Poland Army to Józef Piłsudski. The decision was justified as follows: “The war with Germany may soon spread to all the western borders of Poland. We are therefore ready to offer our country the dearest treasure that we hold - the sons of Greater Poland, Prussia and Silesia, organised under the command of General Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki into independent military forces into your hands, as Chief-of-State and Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces chosen by sovereign parliament.”