Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2010
Let X be a compact metric space. By an invariant measure on X we shall mean a finitely additive non-negative real-valued function μ. on the Borel σ-algebra in X, such that μ(X) = 1 and Borel subsets of X have equal measure if there exists an isometry from one onto the other (not necessarily extendable to the whole of X). We note in passing that an isometric copy of a Borel set is necessarily itself Borel, by a well-known theorem of Souslin (see [3], §39. V). In Problem 2 of the Scottish Book (17. VII. 1935; see [2]), Banach and Ulam asked whether every non-empty compact metric space admits an invariant measure. This problem remains open; we give a positive answer in a veryspecial case.