The Henson Journals

[190]

Tuesday, October 15th, 1918.

1534th day

We left Canterbury after breakfast, and returned to London. The Dean of Canterbury travelled with us, and talked very interestingly. He is excellent good company. As we waited for a taxi, Bob Bineham accosted me. He is home on leave for a fortnight. We went to Garlant's, and identified our room. Then we lunched at Gatti's Restaurant in the Strand. After this we went different ways. I went to the Hair–dresser, & then to the Atheneum, where I read Wells's "Joan & Peter" all the afternoon. We dined very pleasantly, and agreed that the cooking was unusually good.

The President's answer to Germany appears in the evening papers. It is admirable both in form & in substance. If we may assume that its main lines were agreed upon in consultation with the allies, it will have decisive importance, for it amounts to a categorical demand for unconditional surrender. Its educational value for our own people will be very great, for it is couched in simple yet vigorous & dignified English, & is suffused with that moral enthusiasm which seems to be essential in all aspects of democracies. Besides, as it is the work of a Republican President it will not be exposed to the belittling suspicions which go so far to invalidate in the eyes of English working men every statement of their own political leaders. What a singular position President Wilson has come to hold! Perhaps, in view of the character which the War has taken, there is a certain fitness in his being the recognized mouth–piece of the whole alliance, though the American share in fighting is too petty really to justify such supremacy.

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