21 MAY 1977, Page 17

Churchill and Germany

Sir: I read Sir Oswald Mosley's letter in your issue of 14 May with a certain degree of surprise.

At no time did anyone (certainly not Churchill) canvass the policy that we should go to war with Germany because that country was persecuting a minority, nor today is anyone anywhere suggesting making war on Russia for a similar reason.

Churchill's argument is clearly set out because he committed all his opinions to paper. It was that we could not accept the control of Europe by one single military power and that step by step Germany was moving towards that particular aim. To stop that was the sole reason for war. That there may have existed an alternative strategy to that successfully urged by Churchill, namely to permit Gejmany and Russia to destroy each other, is of course altogether another matter.

Today many of us lament the lack of freedom in Russia but I have never met anyone who thinks we should go to war about it.

If Russia continues to build up everincreasing offensive armaments and employs them anywhere-in such a manner that it becomes manifestly clear she means to attack areas vital to us as soon as convenient, then we shall go to war to stop it. But only for such precise reason.

Kenneth de Courcy Yeomans Cottage, Longborough, Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos.