To the Editor:

Timothy Garton Ash quotes the Polish consul in New York referring to phone calls from "a couple of Jewish groups" and others, after which a speaking engagement featuring the historian Tony Judt was cancelled at the Polish consulate in New York City.

He mentions the Anti-Defamation League among those groups. Yet we were as surprised as Mr Judt to learn that his talk was cancelled. There was, in fact, no pressure on the ADL's part to cancel the event, and Polish consular officials have publicly made clear that the decision was theirs and theirs alone.