The Henson Journals

[215]

Wednesday, May 19th, 1915.

289th day

I made some notes for my speech, & then we motored to Hartlepool, where I was pledged to open the extension of the Public Library. We lunched at the Grand Hotel as the guests of Mr Horsley, & then performed the function. There was a considerable gathering of invited guests. I made a speech which took about half an hour to deliver, & was very well received. Then we had tea in another room of the library, and this finished, motored back to Durham, where we arrived about 6 p.m. Then I walked with Fawkes along the river–bank. We encountered a good many soldiers, among them three of the wounded from the little Red Cross Hospital in the Bailey. Of these two had been poisoned by the German gas. I promised to shew them over the Cathedral. The Hartlepool Committee presented me with a copy of a book on Hartlepool with a suitable inscription. The papers are full of political reconstructions. Winston Churchill, Haldane, & McKenna are said to be the Ministers whose removal is to be arranged.

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