The Henson Journals

[277]

Friday, July 16th, 1915.

347th day

I spent the morning in the Athenaeum writing letters, and revising the sermon which I mean to preach in the Abbey on the 25th July. On my way I sent a telegram of condolence to the Bishop of Durham. Lord Muir Mackenzie lunched with the Pearces to meet me. He told me this story. Lord Rosebery being asked whether he proposed himself to follow the King's Example, & become a total abstainer, replied that he was a sound constitutionalist, & preferred to follow the example of the Prime Minister! I attended Evensong in the Abbey. I looked in at the Athenaeum, & found Lord Bryce, with whom I had some conversation. He said that the Commissioners had found some evidence that the Germans in destroying children had the notion of destroying potential conscripts! It is a horrible extension of the militarist system. I also had some brief conversation with Lord St Aldwyn. He said that the terms of the War Loan were unnecessarily favourable, & might bear hardly on the tax–payers of the future. Charlie Parker entertained Ella & me to dinner at the Carlton Restaurant, & afterwards at an amusing play. It is only at very long intervals that I visit the theatre, & then (though I am vastly amused at the time) I never escape a sense of extreme incongruity. Assuredly tonight was no exception. Indeed, the presence of khaki–clad officers in the stalls intensified my normal disquietude, for it forced on my thoughts the immense tragedy, which is being played on the stage of the world. But life has become a continuing paradox.

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