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Anybody wanting to win a few bets from well-informed friends can probably do so by putting the following question: Within the lifetime of Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400), what was the largest independent European State? Answer: Lithuania, which stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and in depth extended from the Polish border to the east of Kiev. In 1386 Lithuania's Grand Duke Jogaila married Poland's Queen Jadviga and became the Polish King.

Last week it was reported that the Nazis intend to create another Great Lithuania.

Already set up in the capital at Kaunas is a government of five Lith puppets headed by husky, swart Kazys Skirpa, 46, Lithuania's former envoy to Berlin.

Newer, greater Lithuania will supposedly include all White Russia (48,494 sq.mi.; pop. 4,979,700; capital, Minsk), a part of northeastern Poland and former sister republic Latvia's harbor of Libau--if the Nazis win the war.

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