EXCHANGES OF POPULATION
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sta,—May I be allowed to comment on the concluding para- graph in the article "Germany's Misgivings," by Robert Powell? The Turkish eviction of the Greeks in Anatolia is by no means an exact parallel to the proposed removal of the German-speaking inhabitants of Alto Adige (South Tirol). In the former case there was an exchange of nationals between Turkey and Greece; in the latter there is to be an eviction of a compact native population which has been resident in South Tirol for over twelve centuries. The removal of these people has been arranged, so far as one can see, at the cynical dictate of power politics. Ge:many is now prepared to agree to the price which Austria refused to pay in 1915. That Signor Mussolini desires to rid himself of a people whom he has failed to bend or break—and no one can deny that he has done his best—is easy to understand; but that Hitler should abandon so thoroughly German a land as South Tirol for "higher national interests" depends on what is meant by the expression. As a Tirolese put it, "Es ist ja nur em n Kuh- handel" (It's only a cattle deal), and the question of friend- ship, as between peoples, can hardly be said to enter into
the matter at all.—Ycurs faithfully, D. E. INNES. St. Andrews.
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