The Henson Journals

[23]

Saturday, November 25th, 1922.

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I offered Ushaw Moor to Welby of Hunstanworth, and St Ignatius, Sunderland, to Campbell of Hertford. Then I walked in the Park with Fawkes for more than an hour with the dogs. He went off before lunch. I presided at a Conference of C.L.B. in the large dining room. About 30 officers including half a dozen chaplains attended. Canon Cosgrave introduced the subject of the "spiritual possibilities of C.L.B., and Mr Rogers from Head–quarters addressed us. After the conference we all had tea.

Carnegie Simpson has an excellent letter in the "Times" supporting my proposal for a Conference on Divorce. The danger is that, if a conference were arranged, it would be composed on the ridiculous principle of representing all the interested parties apart from the properly indispensable condition viz. that there is a subject matter for discussion. What would be the use of "conferring" with Lacey, Gore, Ingram, Hoskyns, & all that tribe, when it is notorious that they have already & in the most aggressively public way "burnt their ships" on the main issue of indissolubility? For my part, I am determined not to enter into any Conference until certain preliminary assumptions are agreed upon eg. that the 'principles' disclosed in Christ's teaching are paramount & unalterable, that there is a new situation undetermined either by scripture or by ecclesiastical decisions, & that we are morally free to settle the practical questions.

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