The Henson Journals

[156]

Thursday, February 7th, 1924.

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I reflected much on yesterday's proceedings in the Convocation, and I still find it impossible to deny the essential soundness of my case. On the view of the Archbishop and the Bishop of Ripon I do not understand for what purpose section VI was included in the Appeal. It does not appear to me to be true that the Protestants stand on the same footing as the Papists, for there is nothing in their position which precludes them from giving a professional acceptance of section VI. The Easterns are in a somewhat different case, but even they do not present the same obstacles to discussion as the Romans. Nor do I see what "the lines set forth in the Appeal" can mean, if section VI is not taken at the basis.

Of course the Abp. had an easy triumph in Convocation yesterday. His carefully prepared statement is printed at length in most of the papers. I am badly reported, & exhibited in the humiliation of a naked solitude! It is difficult to see how this could have been prevented for the bishops were all silenced by their previous acquiescence: the Nonconformists had been dealt with privately: and the press was manipulated in advance. But what will be the next developments?

Convocation sate all the morning. I lunched at the station & then returned to Auckland. My chill which was contracted on Monday hung heavily on me, & I was not equal to anything more than a few indispensable letters.

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