The Henson Journals

[151]

Friday, October 1st, 1920.

BERLIN

We are actually in Berlin – that City of Strife & Sin, of which the name for 6 years past has been the synonym for English people of all wickedness! Before getting up I wrote (1) to Mrs Söderblom. (2) to Linetta (3) to Carissima. The butler brought our belated luggage, on which I had to pay 25 marks. ^Our hostess^ [Angel] took us for a walk in the Thiergarten, which stroke me as a fine park. We called at the British pass–port office, and got our pass–ports stamped. I received a brief letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury acknowledging mine from Upsala. ^There was an^ [Angel held an] "at home" in the afternoon. The Chaplain attended. I had some conversation with him. The news from England is rather disconcerting. It seems probable that the strike will actually break out on Monday, in spite of all the efforts to avert it. The delay may not, however, be wholly without advantage, for in the course of these protracted negotiations an educative process has gone on, & the division between the muddleheaded moderates, and the red revolutionaries in the ranks of "Labour" has become clearer. I cannot doubt that every day's delay operates to the disadvantage of the "fire–eaters". It will, however, be an abominable nuisance to be forced to hasten back to England just now. However, I think it would be highly injudicious not to do so: for, though there is not the smallest probability of my being any use, it is yet evidently proper that I should be in my Diocese, & accessible for any useful purpose.

[152]

A young Russian, said to be just 17, came to tea this afternoon, named, I think, Bariatinski, & interested me. She is said to have been very wealthy, a favourite of the Russian court, & a play–mate of the hapless Tsarevitch. Now she is an exile, & stripped of everything. She carried herself with the reckless insouciance of a youthful cynic, who has already harvested the whole cycle of human disillusionment – while yet the vivacity of youth remains. There must be many such in Western Europe, & it is hard to conceive what their future can be. They do not present the appearance of poverty, while no one can discover the sources of the money which they expend so freely. In this respect they are unlike the victims of the French Revolution, who earned a precarious livelihood as music teachers, language teachers, secretaries, etc. From what these Russians exiles have to say about the Bolshevists, it is quite impossible to form any coherent opinion on Bolshevism.

The British officials here are evidently very angry with the French, whose arrogance & unscrupulousness offend the sense of justice, which no dislike of the Germans can extinguish in British minds. The question of Upper Silesia has exhibited the worse side of French policy. So outrageous has been the unfairness of the French commisioners that their British colleagues have resigned in a body as a protest. No belief in the stability, good faith, or competence of the Poles is found anywhere save among the French, to whom they are politically indsipensable. The broad result of French policy is to direct German hopes & aspirations towards the East, & greatly to increase the danger of an agreement between Germany & Bolshevist Russia. Such an agreement might be a formidable disaster to Europe, &, especially, to the British Empire.

[153]

The British chaplain, Pocock, has had an unusual training having gone succesively to Kelham, Oxford, Tübingen, & Wells! He seems a man of intelligence, & expressed himself in liberal terms. It is not without a certain suggestiveness that he had not yet read the Report of the Lambeth Conference! He said that the Protestant clergy in Germany were generally despised, and when I inquired what the reason might be, he replied that it was their rigid adherence to the orthodox doctrine. In England their rationalism is more generally held to be the root of their religious futility. Söderblom energetically denied that Lutheranism was dead in Germany. In his judgment the religions situation in Germany is esentially similar to that in other countries. In places, e.g. Berlin, the Church has lost hold, but elsewhere still commands the allegiance of the bulk of the nation. He is probably right. One cannot, to adopt Burke's phrase, draw a bill of indictment against a church.

I was careful to scrutinise the poor children in Thier–garten, & in the streets, & I certainly did think that they looked underfed and spiritless. Herein they compared ill with the children whom we observed from the train yesterday. But the country fares better than the towns in the matter of food–supplies. The prodigious prices must bear with cruel severity on the poor. Wages have increased in Germany but ^not^ nearly to the same extent as in England, where speaking generally, they have more than kept pace with the increase of prices. Trade can hardly revive while the exchange is in so disastrous a state: yet until Germany is again prosperous, there can be no improvement in the trade of her quondam customer Great Britain.

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