WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Grey River Argus, 6 February 1931, Page 6

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

CLEVER WRITERS On Possibilities of History (Au*. :i*ul NZ. Cali-c Assn). (Received February 5 at 9 p.m.) LONDON. February 5. Mi- srs Longmans have published a reniarknl-le " J-u d«- Sprit.'’ entitled ..If it llaipened Otherwise —Or La'ses into Imagimiry History.” written by Messrs Winston Churchill, <l. K. Chesterton. Bev. Father Ronald Knox, nn<| others. Mr Chur.hill discusses what would have hrppened if the Oonfedernte Artnv of the Southern States of America won the Battle of Gettysburg. The American Union, he says, would have been broken, and .>0 years later the British Empire would have be come i ••united to American states. Mr Gilbert K. Chesterton speculates o. what would have happened if Don Juan of Austria hail married Mary Queen of Scots. Mr Harold Nicholson asks what would have been the consequences of Lord Byron becoming King of Greece. Mr Smire Wittiley inquires what would have been the results of a dis cowry : n 1930 that Bacon really wrote Shakes! eare. Thus the Dover Town Council wouM have renamed Shakespeare’s Cliff. Bacon’s Cliff. while Stratford-on Avon wou-d have been ruined as a place of pilgrimage. Finally. Rather Ronald Knox contributes an answer ta the question: — “What if the British gene al strike had succeeded?” The basic idea would have been that the newspapers would law passed under Trade Union censor ship. Father Knox parodies the news columns as they would have thus been produced.