The Henson Journals

[366]

Tuesday, September 19th, 1916.

778th day

The papers report the death of Raymond Asquith, killed in the recent fighting in France. I wrote a short letter to the Prime Minister expressing my regret and offering my sympathy. This I did rather reluctantly as there always seems a risk of being misunderstood when a clergyman addresses himself to the Source of Patronage!!, but perhaps, the circumstances may be allowed to minimize the risk! The last time I met Raymond Asquith was in the corridor of the Houses of Parliament when I went to witness the proceedings of the Parliamentary Inquiry which was inquiring into the Putumayo atrocities. Raymond was acting as counsel for the incriminated company. I spent the morning in writing letters and talking with mine host. After lunch we were motored to the Forth Bridge where we visited the Naval Hospital, and gazed on the warships lying off Rosyth. These grey coloured monsters give an impression of reserved power, capable of being exerted with murderous effect. Certainly we are very far from the millennium, when such tools can be the favourites of the people called Christian. After tea Kathleen took me to see the lake etc & then, feeling somewhat neuralgic, I returned to the house, and wrote a 'Collins' to Sir Charles Renshaw, a civil acknowledgement to a stranger named Tenneck who had written to express agreement with me on the Somme films, and a lengthy letter to Jack Boden, who has now become a licensed lay reader in the diocese of Lahore. After dinner there was much playing on the "Pianola", and much discussion of its merits. The physical exertion involved in playing the instrument is considerable, and the attitudes necessarily adopted by the performers are extremely ungraceful. I doubt whether the result is at all adequate to reward the labour & condone the distortions!

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