The Henson Journals

[156]

Wednesday, April 28th, 1920.

I walked from Fulham Palace to Westminster, a distance of about 5 miles, and arrived after the proceedings in Convocation had begun. I found a discussion of Divorce in progress behind closed doors. Several bishops having spoken strongly on the assumption that there was unanimity on the subject among the Bishops, I thought it well to point out that this assumption was false, and that no less than 3 opinions were represented on the episcopal bench. Also I urged that the reporters shd be admitted, for since many of the bishops had no seat in the House of Lords, they could only express their mind in convocation. Furse, the new bishop of S. Alban's, made a very fanatical speech, in which he described the shocking state of affairs in the Transvaal, where great facility of divorce obtains, and exalted the rigid attitude of the S. African Church which insists on the absolute indissolubility of marriage. It is sufficiently plain that in his Lordship the obscurantists have gained a recruit. All the morning was taken up by this private discussion. After lunch we discussed dilapidations, and the desirableness of setting the subject Christian races of the Turkey Empire free from the Turk. I spoke on both subjects. Then I walked to Queen Anne's Street, and saw the dentist. I took a taxi back to Fulham, as the rain had returned. I wrote to Ella and, the Bishop & his other guests having gone to the play, I read quietly in his Lordship's study.

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