24 MARCH 1939, Page 21

JOURNALISTS AS PROPHETS

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—When so many politicians are expressing their shocked amazement at Germany's new annexation it may be worth noting that had they taken the advice of several British Press correspondents, published as long ago as 1934, they could have forecasted all the sudden coups.

John Gunther's Inside Europe and John Brown's Road to Power foresaw the sequence of moves by the Fascist Powers because their authors know Europe much better, apparently, than the majority of the political figures. John Brown's books were banned in Germany, Russia, and Italy by the dictator Governments—this itself was significant and a testimonial to the high accuracy of reporting events maintained by the British