AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION
SIR,—I wonder whether Mr. Harold Nicolson would accept an emenda- tion of one sentence in his admirable article in last week's Spectator and allow it, instead of reading "Those were the days before either the United States or Russia had come to our assistance," to read " before either the United States or Russia had been drawn into the conflict." The assistance our great allies have given us is, in fact, inestimable, as is the assistance we have given them, but it is not the case that either of them " came to our assistance." What would have happened if Hitler had not attacked Russia in June, 1941, or declared war on the United States in December, 1941, is problematic. But nothing can alter the fact that it was German action, not solicitude for our welfare, which brought both the United States and Russia into the war. There is no need to over-emphasise that, but it is not well to ignore it completely.—
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