The Henson Journals

[159]

Friday, July 31st, 1925.

A letter from Lord Londonderry reaches me this morning. It contains the following reference to the mining crisis:–

"The coal situation, I fear, is bad, & must be faced: & for this reason I hope the Govt will not try and postpone the evil day".

That is the mine–owner's view, & regards solely the economic aspect of the crisis.

The 'Daily Mail' announces that a settlement has been reached.The terms appear to be a frank surrender to the threat of the Trade Unions. The industry is to continue on the existing uneconomical conditions, & the Government will re–imburse the mine–owners for their losses up till next spring. Meanwhile, there is to be a Royal Commission to investigate thoroughly the whole state of the Industry, in order to discover whether economies are possible. The mine–owners are willing to withdraw their proposals, and the men are to continue in work.Mr Baldwin must either be a weaker man than a Prime Minster ought to be, or, he has information about the state of the country which makes surrender to the Trade Unions unavoidable.

160]

Denis Webster with his Spanish wife & her cousin came to lunch. It was odd to hear from the lips of a pretty young Spanish female an energetic defence of bull–fighting. She admitted that football was coming into popularity in Spain, and was tending to oust the bull–fight. We all motored to Gawdy Hall, at Harleston, and had tea with Mrs Sancroft–Holmes, a widow lady, whose husband was the direct descendant of the nonjuring Archbishop's elder brother. After tea she showed us the Treasures of the house. The Sancroft relics – a fine portrait of the Archbishop when he was Dean of York, his chair, clock, and common–place book – were perhaps the most interesting. But there was much else – furniture, vestments, and china. A curious object was Oliver Cromwell's shaving bason – a fine Chinese bowl improvised for the purpose of shaving the Protector! After seeing the garden we returned to Bramfield. The House, largely refaced, is a fine Elizabethan mansion, standing on the site of a yet older house. Mrs Sancroft–Holmes is childless. What will be the destination of her treasures?

The 'Times', which has throughout taken up a position of marked hostility to the mine–owners, professes to hail the settlement as the most satisfactory mode of averting a formidable crisis. But its leading article is curiously feeble, and can only be explained on the supposition that it has ben, directly or indirectly, inspired.

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