The Henson Journals

[90]

Thursday, December 30th, 1920.

A beautiful mild day. I frittered away the morning in letters &c. After lunch Ernest & I went out to Escomb, & visited the Saxon Church. The parson – Revd Wm Hodgson – joined us, & acted as guide. He walked with us some way on our way home, dilating on the ill effect of Mrs Asquith's silly book on the miners. "It will make the country more difficult to govern" was a phrase he used several times, & it is probably as true as it is striking. For the artisans will naturally assume that the wife of the Prime Minister writes with plenary right of that hitherto hidden world, in which the great folks who rule the world 'live, & move & have their being". They do not understand that Mrs Asquith represents a disgraceful aberration from the decent tradition of good society.

There was some heated talking at the Labour meeting held in London last night to consider the very difficult matter of unemployment. A new and dangerous factor in the situation is the presence of a large & embittered multitude of worthless soldiers. These are probably not the best specimens of the ex–service men, but the residuum of undesirables whom nobody is eager to employ. Unemployment is a trying condition of life in the best of times but, in present circumstances, it must needs bring a severe strain on character, a strain too severe for such characters as these discharged soldiers in many cases possess.

---