THE SOVIET SYSTEM
SIR,—The Duchess of Atholl, in your last issue, wrote: "The Russian Army, from 1942 onwards armed mainly owing to American and British aid." My brain reels anew at this misconception, though I know that by now it is held by countless British people. Late in 1943 a prominent London journalist printed the statement that our contribution of war- material to Russia up to then had been " not more than 1 per cent. of their own (the Russian) output." Having returned from the Russian front, being a serving officer, and being official Air Ministry lecturer on Russia to my own Service, I found it vitally important to know the truth or otherwise of this figure, as I had continually to answer questions about it. I immediately applied to the member of our own Foreign Office who was supposed to have the best knowledge on these matters, warning him that I was an official lecturer and that any answer he made would be frequently quoted. Almost to my own surprise, he did not disagree with the one-per-cent. estimate. He added, " In some items of equipment it is more, in some less. Remember also that it is more than x per cent. of our own output—and the frightful difficulties of getting it through by convoy. But with the general truth of the figure I'm not going to disagree." (He was one of the few Englishmen who had been taken over the Russian war-factories in the Urals.) In the face of this, complacently to believe that it was " mainly " British and American tanks and guns that won those hideously costly victories for the Russians—that incidentally cost the Russians 7,000,000 dead—is to believe a travesty of history. And does nothing to improve international relationships at the
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