The Henson Journals

[127]

9th Sunday after Trinity, August 17th, 1919.

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A great stretch of sand meets the eye this morning where last night was a mass of water. The tide runs out quickly & far. The morning presents everything in new lights and shades. On the whole, though the scene is magnificent always, I confess a primacy of loveliness in the evening views. Evelyn Parker has built himself a house on the island of Little Cumbroe. It was an astonishing achievement to get the building carried through in war–time.

We all attended the "forenoon diet" in the parish church. The service was conducted, and the sermon preached, by what in England would be called a "locum tenens", the parish minister being absent on holiday. As usual I found the extemporaneous prayer well–nigh intolerable. The interlarding of the lesson with a running commentary, expressed in colloquial speech, was also offensive to me: but the sermon did not seem to me bad of its kind. It was probably both interesting & edifying to the people. After lunch we walked for nearly 2 hours, & came home for tea. There came to tea an interesting little man, the Editor of the Glasgow Herald, Sir Robert Bruce. We had much talk on politics. He says that the Socialist Sunday Schools, which contain as many as 50,000 children, are largely responsible for the seditious virulence of the labour agitations on the Clyde. It is the custom in many working class families for the husband [128] [symbol] & wife to come to an agreement with respect to their children – the boys being sent to the Socialist Sunday School, & the girls to the Christian. He had seen the catechism used in the former. It included a series of pledges e.g. "I will call no man "Sir", "I will take off my hat to no man", & such like poisonous balderdash. These Socialist Schools are having their effect, most of the labour leaders having belonged to them. The elementary school teachers were also a pestilent influence. Bitterly discontented with the small wages which they had been receiving, many of them were ardent Socialists, and they had used (or abused) their situation in order to spread Socialism. Numbers of the Scottish artisans were well–read Socialists, & owned small libraries of Socialist literature. In London, on the contrary, most men who called themselves Socialists, had no knowledge of more than a few phrases. I inquired what was Sir Robert's opinion on American Prohibition, & he replied that he thought it would fail, & that speedily. He did not agree with Lord Strathclyde that Scotland would generally vote itself "dry" under the Liquor Act which comes into effect in 1920. He gave a vivacious account of Lloyd George's denunciation of Lord Northcliffe, which he had himself heard in the House of Commons.

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