Poland

Press, 4 March 1982, Page 16

Poland

Sir,—M. Creel’s letter of February 27 omits the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact which resulted in their invasion of Poland. In 1945 the Polish Resistance rose against the Nazis as the Russians were approaching Warsaw, but Stalin callously refused to help the Poles who battled alone for 60 days, despite several appeals by Churchill. He later wrote in his “Second World War,”. “When the Russians entered the city three months later, they found little but shattered streets and the unburied dead. SuCh was their lib-

eration of Poland where they now rule.” Eastern Europe did not choose communism. Native communists, Russian trained, infiltrated the Governments and seized control with Russian help. After the war, Stalin’s attempt to grab all Germany was foiled by the Allied air lift to West Berlin. Then came the Berlin Wall. Perhaps M. Creel will tell us who built that, and why. — Yours, etc., F. MORRIS. March 1, 1982. Sir—ln attempting to prove that Russian behaviour is always perfect, M. Creel has entangled himself in a briar bush of contradictions. He maintains that “the Soviet Union has never imposed its kind of government on people who do not want it.” He also maintains that when Russian tanks reimposed the Russian kind of government on Czechoslovakia in 1968, this was because “the very term 'socialism with a human face’ exposed DubceK’s treacherous duplicity.” This statement is unclear and M. Creel needs to try again if he is to get his meaning across to others. On one point I can agree with M. Creel. Just as he attacks the policy of appeasement which led to “the shameful Munich betrayal of 1938,” so I am advocating a'limited, defensive war in Afghanistan instead of the shameful policy of empty words with which present politicians are trying to cover their inaction—Yours, etc., MARK D. SADLER. March 1, 1982.