The Henson Journals

[34]

Wednesday, July 7th, 1920.

I spent the day at Lambeth where we discussed Foreign Mission Problems. On the whole 'twas a very dull day. [I was most interested by a speech which was made by the Bishop in Jerusalem. He denounced Zionism with much vigour: said that the whole country was longing for a restoration of Turkish rule: & that the appointment of Sir Herbert Samuel had given the coup de grace to British credit.] The Bp. of Calcutta (Westcott) described the difficulties which had arisen between missionaries & the Government. He acquitted the German missionaries and the Government. He acquitted the German missionaries of any active agitation against British rul, but said that of necessity they carried their national feeling & sympathies with them. Some of them objected to taking the pledge wh. the Governt of India exacts from alien missionaries, viz: that they will make their converts good citizens of the British Empire. Azariah, the Tamil bishop of Dornakal, made a striking speech about nationalism in India. There was a general expression of disgust & contempt for everything specifically Anglican (Prayer Book, 39 Articles, etc.). We must be "Catholick" or nothing! Bishop Root of Hankow pointed out that the position of the English & American missionaries in Corea with respect to the Japanese Govt was precisely identical with that of the alien missionaries in India with respect to the Government of India.

[35]

The speeches of the Bishop of Zanzibar are somewhat perplexing. He speaks contemptuously of the Conference, & all its ways: tells the Bishops to live among the poor in the slums, & ask them to dinner: describes the episcopal character very grotesquely, & is treated as "a chartered libertine". He is elaborately polite to me. I doubt whether he is taken seriously by anybody, though he is generally popular.

Bishop Palmer (Bombay) seems to regard himself, and to be regarded, as a highly important member of the Conference. His stutter obstructs his eloquence, but he speaks often. I find it difficult to understand his drift, but he is bitterly contemptuous of everything distinctively English, & evidently an ardent advocate of disestablishment in India & in England. The American bishops so far have made no figure. Even Brent was disappointing. Bp. Roots of Hankow is the best of them.

I dined at the Mansion House. Ralph & Welldon went with me. There were no ladies. I sat between the Bishops of London & Bristol. The American Bishops, so far as I could perceive, were all drinking wine freely, in spite of Prohibition. Their oratory after dinner was characteristically bombastic, & the Bishop of Tennessee (Gailor), who acts as their leader, ascribed to Lanfranc Langton's performance in the matter of Magna Carta.

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