The Henson Journals

[441]

Wednesday, October 13th, 1915.

436th day

Mine hostess addressed to my [sic] quite a serious homily on the point of my duty to accept a bishoprick, if & when one should be offered, in order to lead such elements of liberalism as linger in the Anglican Church. I observed that as the prospect of such a contingency was sufficiently remoted, it hardly seemed useful to discuss it! But I [symbol] agreed that it was very desirable that somebody should be in the next Pan–Anglican Conference willing & able to 'bell the cat', i.e. to stand up to Gore & Winchester. The dear lady was very insistent, & evidently the idea has taken strong hold of her. We left Canterbury by the 10.4 express, and arrived in Victoria shortly before noon. We drove at once to 16 Elvaston Place, Queen's Gate, where we were the guests of Miss Mundella.

After lunch I went into the City, & changed a cheque for £5. This done, I walked to Westminster, where I was shampooed, and then went to the Athenaeum, where I had some talk with Buckle. I asked him whether the heavy suspicions under which the 'Times' now lay were really justified. He replied that in part they were, but not wholly. To some extent the features in the 'Times' which were objected against arose from the new circumstances in which it had now to be conducted. He said that Lord N. had even in his day begun the process of limiting the Editor's control of the contents of the paper, & trying to confine him to the leading articles: & that since he had retired, the process had gone on. But he still hoped that the position & character of the paper might to some extent be restored. Herein, however, he was plainly consulting rather his friendship for the present Editor than his true mind.

[443]

He talked much about the War, & rather depressingly. At the Dardanelles, so great was the discontent of the troops, British & Colonial, with the Staff, to whose incompetence the failure to get through was ascribed, that, when the Turkish Artillery found the range of the Staff quarters, & began to drop shells thereupon, loud cheers broke from the British and Colonial soldiers. This odd story, he said he had received from what he believed to be a sure hand. On returning to the house, I found that Goudy had arrived, & with him I sate talking until dinner time. The dining party consisted of Lord Haldane, George Prothero & his wife, Ralph & Kitty, Mr George Trevelyan, Lady Emmett, Ker & Goudy, ourselves & our hostess – a round dozen. In the course of the meal some of the party said that they heard the anti–Zeppelin guns, & this being confirmed by the butler, we hastened out of doors to see what might be seen, but saw nothing. I had much talk with Lord Haldane, who had just returned from France, & was most interesting. He said the contrast between the atmosphere of victory which reigned at the front, with the pessimism at home, was most astonishing. Since Sept: 25th not less than 200,000 Germans had been put out of action in the West. The War would be determined by the measure of wastage in man–power, & in this vital particular the Germans were wasting much faster than the Allies. He should think it satisfactory if the War ended about July 1916. He spoke much of the superiority of the German General Staff: and ascribed the inefficiency of the British operations to the lack of an adequate staff. He expressed himself very kindly to me, & pressed me to stay with him.

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