The Henson Journals

[68]

Saturday, July 19th, 1919.

[symbol]

The weather was not kindly to the national thanksgiving for victory. It did indeed abstain from rain for the earlier part of the day, so that the gathering of children in the Cathedral went off without difficulty, and also their singing on the Castle Green: but rain began to fall early in the afternoon, & continued to fall for the rest of the day.

I went across to the Cathedral, & gave the Blessing to the children. The Dean addressed them from the pulpit, and conducted the service himself. It interested me to see the Salvation Army band with its banners standing at the west end of the Cathedral. Is there any other country save England, where such a spectacle would be, not merely possible, but natural?

The popular festivity has a strangely hollow character; for the papers announce the addition of 6/– per ton to the price of coals, & the miners in Yorkshire, not only remain on strike, but threaten to flood the mines. The N.E. Railwaymen are on strike, and are inflicting immense discomfort on the population. Ireland is simmering with sedition, & rudely refuses to join in the Festival! Canada is half–ruined: & Australia is on the verge of anarchy. The outlook is as black as possible, look where one will. None the less, we hang out flags, & make a show of festivity!

---