THE MAP OF EUROPE
Sta,—In your last issue you produce, for the convenience of readers of articles on foreign affairs, a map of Europe, and I write to utter a protest against the form in which the map is drawn.
Not only is Austria shown as incorporated in the German Reich, but also most of the territory of Czecho-Slovakia.
Such a drawing of the map may only represent a de facto recognition of the position ; but even Germany does not yet admit having incorporated Czecho-Slovakia!
In my opinion, our politicans and the Press, in their, insist- ence upon the necessity to resist further aggression, have failed to stress adequately the necessity of restitution of the inde- pendence of the countries conquered ; and I am the more glad to read recently, in The Times (a journal which, as you say, is so " free from suspicion of anti-Nazi bias ") that the restoration of the independence of Czecho-Slovakia is an indispensable condition of any final settlement with Germany.
The publication of this map may be a small matter ; but it plays into Hitler's hands by contributing, in some small measure, to influence the acceptance by the British public of the present situation, and by rendering more difficult the return to the status quo ante, both in the case of Austria and of Czecho-Slovakia.
In .other words, it might be regarded as useful propaganda for Germany and an aid to Hitler in his designs ; a result which, I am sure, The Spectator and its readers would ardently [Our map represents facts as they are, not facts as we should like them to be.—ED. The Spectator.]
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