Munich 1938: an unsolved puzzle | thearticle

According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, a puzzle is a problem that tests knowledge or ingenuity. This puzzle is indeed in the same class, but it is related to the politics of appeasement

some 85 years ago. The original was actually not in the form of a puzzle. It was published in the Sunday supplement of a Hungarian newspaper whose title I do not remember. The date must

have been in early October 1938. The puzzle was intended as light entertainment and to show how good the author was at playing with words, but it also made a political point. It consisted of

six lines, written in capital letters, one below the other, all of them concerned in one way or another with the Munich conference that had taken place just a few days before, concluding

with the notorious agreement on September 30, 1938. Let me give those six lines: MUSSOLINI HITLER CHAMBERLAIN DALADIER THE PUZZLE LINE MUNICH The first four can be recognised as the names of

the prime ministers or leaders who took part. The sixth line is Munich, the venue of the conference. The fifth line had also something to do with the conference. I knew it at the time. I

still know that the third letter was “i”. The author’s own explanation for the piece was rather terse. “If you want to know who will benefit from all this, read column 3 down.” It reads, of

course, “STALIN”. Ever since, every 20 years or so (I could call it a twenty-year itch), I wake up one night burning with desire to find out what line 5 might have been.  Then, for the next

few weeks, I bombard historians with letters asking for a solution. So far, I have never received a credible one. Now I am turning to the readership of TheArticle. PLEASE HELP! You can

either post your proposed answers as comments below, or email the Editor at the following address: [email protected]. We will report back on the most interesting suggestions in due

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