POLISH POLICY IN 1938
SIR,—I think Mr. Crosfield's letter in The Spectator of September 17th on the attitude of the Polish Government towards the Czechs at the time of Munich requires some supplementary explanation. For my part I am quite certain that it was not the intention of the Polish Government to co-operate with the German armies against the possible Czech defence. This Government, however, demanded from Prague the return of that part of Teschen Silesia which was taken over by the Czechs in 1919 when Poland was engaged in a struggle against the Bolesheviks ; that small territory—according to pre-war Austrian statistics—had a high proportion of Poles in its population. The demand was made only after the Great Powers had put every possible pressure on the Prague Government to currender—in the interest of peace—the whole Sudetenland to Hitler's Reich. And, let me add, it was this pressure which was primarily responsible for the Czech decision not to fight. It is, moreover, clear that if the above-mentioned strip of Teschen Silesia had not been ceded to Poland, it would have also been annexed by Hitler, like the rest of the former Austrian. Silesia.
Nevertheless this action of the Warsaw authorities met with strong criticism among large sections of the Polish people. I remember well myself how warm the sympathies for the Czech cause against Nazi aggres- sion were at that time throughout my country, and how enthusiastically the Czech refugees were greeted in Cracow after the German seizure of Prague in that ill-fated spring of 1939. This spirit of friendship has surely lost nothing of its power now when Poland and Czechoslovakia are again under an oppressive totalitarian rule, imposed from outside. Let us hope that it will yield rich fruit in the future when the peoples of Central
Europe are once again free.—Yours faithfully, H. WITECHI. 20 Queen's Gate Terrace, S.W.7.
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