The Cossacks
Sir: It is so important that we should all keep a clear head when attempting to disentangle the complex and murky story of the handover of the White Russians in 1945 that I must correct the various points made by Mr David Summers (Letters, 5 September).
Firstly he claims that, as BGS to General Keightley's V Corps, Brigadier Toby Low was not in a position to advise but 'responsible only for staff work'. Not true. An important part of Brig. Low's responsibility was 'policy advice and co-ordination'.
The fact that Mr Summers recalls many telegrams from that time referring to 'the handing over of POWs to the Russians' is quite irrelevant. The point is that no telegrams emanating from V Corps, either to F-M Alexander or anyone else, referred to the all-important presence of White Russians among those POWs — i.e. 'nonSoviet nationals', explicitly excluded by the Yalta agreement from handover. The fact that the telegrams refer only to 'Soviet nationals' is one of the most important indications that the truth of what was going on in V Corps area was being concealed from those higher up.
Mr Summers suggests that `the truth could be discovered from Foreign Office, Chiefs of Staff and War Cabinet minutes of the time'. Again he has completely missed the point. There is no reference to the White Russians in those minutes, precisely because these bodies were never informed of the problem.
Finally Mr Summers claims that V Corps War Diaries would never have included references to the White Russian problem, because it would not have fallen into their field of reference. Again not true. We know that certain documents referring to this matter were submitted for inclusion in the War Diary. They are not there. It is therefore a fair supposition that they were either removed, or not included in the first place. However and by whomsoever it was organised, there is no shadow of doubt that there was a 'cover-up'.
Christopher Booker The Old Shop,
Lamyatt, Nr. Shepton Mallet, Somerset
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