The Henson Journals

[71]

Wednesday, December 15th, 1920.

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After a vast expenditure of time I got off a letter to Lee about the Income Tax papers. If I get through these dismaying formulae without disaster, I shall have a Thanksgiving Service in the Cathedral! After lunch we ̶ Ella, Clayton, and myself ̶ motored to Sunderland, and there I distributed prizes at the Girls' High School, which is an Anglican institution. I found myself in a clerical atmosphere, but not clericalist. Miss Ironside, the Head–mistress, read a report in which she addressed the parents very sensibly. She impressed me as emphatically the right type of woman for a Headmistress. Of course, I made a speech, though the subject of female education is one on which I have no conceivable title to speak. However I "talked large", and it served well enough. We dined with Gouldsmith afterwards. I was glad to introduce him to Clayton. He is, I fear, entirely devoted to C.M.S., a society which, in the concern & services of its supporters, appears to hold the place of the Catholic Church in the view of another set of fanaticks. Everything is subordinated to C.M.S., which keeps on enlarging its expenditure while the Church at home drifts through penury to disaster. I am "a fish out of water" on a C.M.S. platform, for I am not very confident as to the soundness of the methods of the society, and I am wholly destitute of the enthusiasm which sways its members. We motored back to Auckland, arriving at the castle about 10 p.m.

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