SYLVIA Noble (Letters, April 1) is either reading the wrong history books or allowing her imagination to run away with her. I remember the governments of the 1920s and 1930s and not one of them ceded any countries to that 'barbaric and militaristic Soviet Union.'

In fact, it was quite the reverse. It was that bloodthirsty guttersnipe Hitler (Churchill's words) who was given carte blanche to go on the rampage through Europe because of Prime Minister Chamberlain's misguided appeasement, encouraging the aggressor at the expense of others.

He was compelled to resign in 1940 because of his stupidity.

The invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was the prelude to the invasion and subjugation of the people of Britain. Had the Soviets been defeated, we were next on Hitler's list, with the slave camps and crematoriums that went with Nazi rule.

LESLEY JONES, Aviemore Close, Audley, Blackburn.

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