Pole position
From Tan Kowalski Sir: As Simon Hefter says (It's time to move on', 7 August), there is no earthly reason why Britain should apologise to Poland for not doing more to help the Poles during the Warsaw uprising. Nor could Britain's ally the United States have done anything.
Prime Minister Belka thinks that Churchill should have dispatched Free Polish troops to help the insurgents under Komorowski-BOr. I knew General Komorowski in exile and he never expressed such nonsensical views. Only a defective Communist education could have concealed from Belka the fact that Free Poles were already engaged on other fronts: in the Netherlands and in Italy, where they had very recently stormed Monte Cassino as part of two Polish corps under the great General Anders, whose very name was forbidden under the Communist regime.
As Heffer suggests, Belka's request for an apology could more appropriately be directed at Russia, as successor to the old Soviet Union.
Jan Kowalski
London NW2
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