Well, well, Wells
Sir: After reading John Colvin's review of Did Marco Polo Go to China? by Frances Wood (Books, 18 November), I recall a passage from H.G. Wells's A Short History of the World which claims confirmation that Polo did in fact visit China.
To quote from Wells: 'Chinese records mention a certain Polo attached to the Imperial Council in 1277, a very valuable confirmation of the general truth of the Polo story.'
Wells may not have been the most truth- ful historian but there seems little reason for him to invent this source, whatever it is.
By the by, we would not know this if Aya- tollah Khomeini had picked on Wells's book rather than the relatively harmless Satanic Verses. Here goes Wells on Mohammed, the founder of Islam: 'He seems to have been a man compounded of very considerable vanity, greed, cunning, self-deception and quite sincere religious passion. He dictated a book of injunctions and expositions, the Koran, which he declared was communicated to him from God. Regarded as literature or philosophy the Koran is certainly unworthy of its alleged Divine authorship.'
Hugh Joseph
10 Carleton Road, Islington, London N7
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