I SEE the Diplomatic Correspondent of the News Chronicle claims
that Stalin directed his `How many divisions?' sneer at de Gaulle, as well as at the Pope. Is there in fact any first-hand account of his doing so? Remarks of this kind tend to get attached to a number of different occasions; to how many generals has been attributed the phrase —following a review of the troops-1 don't know what they will do to the enemy, but by God they frighten me!'? It is normally attributed to the Duke of Wellington, but when did he say it? And was it not said, or written, earlier—by General Abercrombie (if memory serves) about the Irish `Yeos'? I would be interested to hear any evidence that Stalin did in fact ask the question about de Gaulle's divisions at Yalta. Come to think of it, what is the evidence that he ever asked it about the divisions deployed by the Pope?
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