The Henson Journals

[183]

Tuesday, October 19th, 1920.

Marion accompanied me to the station, when I left Birchington by the 8.15 a.m. train. There is always now the sombre reflection that I shall probably not see Carissima again in the flesh. I travelled comfortably to Cannon Street. Then I went to the Athenaeum, & deposited my bags. I walked to Westminster & called on the Dean. He told me in the course of conversation that the Bishop of Winchester receives £1500 yearly from the diocese in order to make it possible for him to go on living at Farnham. There are clearly advantages in being a recognised "Catholick" leader! I went to Hugh Rees, and bought a novel of Wells to beguile my journey. It just lasted me from Euston to Carlisle. I found a room reserved for me in the Station Hotel.

The procession of unemployed men which marched yesterday to Downing Street included an element of revolutionaries, or at least of rowdies. There was something which nearly amounted to rioting. I noticed broken windows in Whitehall as I passed by this morning. The papers still speak of mediation as possible, and an early ending of the Strike: but the miners themselves are in a truculent mood, and it is quite impossible to believe in the good faith of any of the Labour leaders. The next move will be made by Parliament which happily has resumed sitting. Probably a Committee will be appointed.

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