Might-Have-Been

Many Britons think that if Britain had been invaded in World War II, its Government might have a different outlook on the practical business of the liberation of Europe. Last week, in the London Observer, earnest, imaginative Commander Stephen King-Hall, M.P., for the benefit of Britons (and Americans) pictured a passage in history as it might have been. The liberation of Britain, after King-Hall:

"In 1946 the vast American armada which seized Eire in 1945 invaded Britain and liberated the island from the Nazi domination. . . . The Chamberlain Government returned to London from its exile in Ottawa. . . . The old Parliament reassembled for the first time since that day in 1942 when Hitler had sat in the Speaker's chair and Mr. James Maxton [sharp-tongued Labor M.P.] had been shot dead as he rushed forward to brain the Fuehrer with the Mace.

"The survivors of the British resistance movement were in their places. Aneurin Bevan, bearing the marks of torture [he had been captured while leading the famous attempt to rescue Winston Churchill from the death cell at Brixton Prison], had come back from the Welsh hills. . . . Megan Lloyd George [daughter of David Lloyd George], La Pasionaria of the British resistance movement . . . was in her place, and by her side sat the aged Lord Winterton, who had organized and conducted the resistance movement among the ruins of London for three years."

By Government in Exile. The reply to a speech by Chamberlain, conveniently resurrected, was given by Lord Winterton, "supported by disorderly cheers and a playful shot toward the ceiling by an enthusiastic resister." Said he: "He [Chamberlain] has spent the last five years in Ottawa and Washington. We have heard his voice on the BBC. It was indeed a voice from afar! I rise to say with respect that his speech shows he is just a little out of touch with public opinion here (cheers and shots from the galleries). . , . We must now entrust to untired minds and fresh bodies the duty of rebuilding the future of our country."

King-Hall ended with an imaginary New York Times editorial: "The unprecedented scenes of violence which took place yesterday in the House of Commons at its first meeting, when the announcement was made by the Government that the resistance movement would be dissolved and that its leader would be offered the post of Postmaster General in the cabinet, are an outstanding example of how even British Parliamentary democracy can lose its grasp of realities. American democracy will applaud the action of the American Commander in Chief in responding to the appeal of the British Government for an armored division to ensure order in the capital."

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