The Henson Journals

[194]

Wednesday, May 14th, 1919.

The Bishop of Manchester writes to me enclosing a copy of a letter which he has addressed to the Bishops of Birmingham and Southwark, inviting them to cooperate with him in a course of action in the House of Lords in respect to the Enabling Bill, which has been introduced into the House by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and which will come on for debate on June 3rd.

After lunch I took the ladies for a drive to see the works at Richborough, where a ferry across the channel to Havre was constructed for the better provisioning of the British Army on the Continent. We drove by a long circuit through Ash and Sandwich. The country was amazingly beautiful, the fresh green of the spring–time forming a back–ground for the most wonderful display of fruit–blossom. The old tiled and thatched houses, set in clumps of trees, are themselves congruous and pleasing. In Sandwich we had tea, and then having obtained an order for transit through "the prohibited area", we traversed the whole length of the Richborough works. Their extent, variety, and completeness were astonishing, and gave a vivid impression of the energy & resource of the British people, & a melancholy demonstration of the infinite wastage of War.

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