The Henson Journals

[116]

Saturday, July 21st, 1917.

1083rd day

The evil news, which I have been dreading for some while, appears in the "Times" this morning – Brussiloff's soldiers are infected with the revolutionary feeling, & are refusing to fight: Kerensky's life has been attempted. The Germans are striking hard, & have already scored some considerable successes. After lunch I went to Margate, where I had undertaken some engagements. I drove to the vicarage of Holy Trinity, where I was received by the Vicar, Canon Prior, an elderly Evangelical. The General and some of the officers came to tea in order to meet me. Rather to my alarm, mine host called on me to speak to them, & I had no power of declining the task. I spoke for a few minutes, & then we settled down to an informal discussion of two difficult subjects – conscientious objectors and reprisals. Some of the company including myself accompanied the Vicar on a visit to the remarkable caverns, which have been excavated in the chalk under the vicarage garden. These caverns may have been originally dug out by some primitive people, possibly for religious purposes: they have certainly been adapted & utilized by the smugglers, who carried on a very active business on this coast: now they serve to provide secure & commodious refuge for the neighbours during air–raids. The Vicarage house forms part of what was once the residence of the Duke of Northumberland, but at what time, & for how long mine hosts could not tell me. The remainder of the house is now occupied by a private school. After dinner we walked on the sea–front with Colonel Bousfield, who had resided for some while in the Yukon district. He says that Dawson City, the capital, is a well–ordered, & well–equipped little town: that the 5 months of summer are delightful, but the 7 months of winter very severe: that he saw no reason why in that northern latitude a healthy European population should not settle & propagate itself. He describes the children born there as unusually strong & well–grown.

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