NEVILLE Chamberlain has taken a lot of stick for his policy of appeasing Adolf Hitler.

Winston Churchill’s reputation has survived unscathed in spite of his policy of appeasing Joseph Stalin. Chamberlain took us to war, not to save mankind, but to preserve the independence of Poland. Churchill consented to the carving up of the Polish state after the war.

The splendid service and sacrifice of Poles during the Second World War deserves special recognition (Letters, June 13). They fought valiantly in the belief that their country would be restored to them. Instead, they returned to a communist client state of Soviet Russia or remained as resented refugees. Their exclusion from the victory parade was an act so servile and so demeaning that it is difficult to imagine how the wrong can ever be expunged.

I hope Roy Powell’s letter will encourage those celebrating the courage of our veterans to remember this shameful episode and strive to set the record straight.

William Dixon Smith, Welland Rise, Acomb, York.