The Henson Journals

[269]

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Wednesday September 2nd, 1914.

The anniversary of Sedan! I read through a little book full of surprising information, & sinister suggestiveness – Cramb's "Germany & England". He states that very nearly 700 books dealing with war as a science are annually published in Germany.

I attended Evensong in the Cathedral.

After tea I motored to Houghton–le–Spring, & joined Lord Durham in a meeting held in the village square to assist enlistment. There was an assembly, as I judge, of about 2000 men. They received Lord Durham with much heartiness, & listened to my speech with much attention. At the close they even manifested some enthusiasm: & I left the place amid cheers like a prince!! It is perhaps unusual for a clergyman thus directly to associate himself with these warlike preparations, but surely it is not really unfitting. For there is no middle position possible on the question of individual duty. If enlistment is the duty of young Englishmen at this serious juncture, who could more fitly bid them enlist than the man, whose official character is precisely that of the advocate & exponent of human duty? Accordingly, I propose to exert myself as a recruiting sergeant!!

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