IAN Johnstone (Letters, October 16) is correct to state that the history of the western Allies during the Second World War is not unblemished. However, his attempt to make an equivalence between failure to send armed forces to the aid of Czechoslovakia and Poland and the Soviet failure to support the Warsaw uprising is surely a step top far.

Yes, they could have done more, but the western Allies had no base or troops in eastern Europe and were in no position to get them there quickly. The mighty Soviet army were a stone's throw from Warsaw and in a position of great strength.

Michael Rossi,

66 Canalside Gardens, Southall, Middlesex.

IAN Johnstone writes: “… both Britain and France did nothing when Hitler’s Third Reich forces overran Poland….”

Almost immediately the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain delivered the following broadcast to the nation on September 3, 1939:

"This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that, unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us.

I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.”

Hugh Boyd,

65 Antonine Road, Bearsden.