The Henson Journals

[133]

Tuesday, February 16th, 1926.

The smart young footman, who is looking after me, became conversational when he brought me my tea. He told me that he was 26; that when he left the Army, he entered service because there was nothing else for him to do, & he had a horror of being "unemployed": that he thought "being in service wasn't a man's job": & that he aspired to entering the police force. How far is the difficulty of recruiting for the ministry explicable by the growing opinion, that "being in service is not a man's job"?

I walked into the City, and called on Messrs Hodder & Stoughton in Warwick Square, where I talked for an hour with Mr Arthur Hird. He was almost embarrassingly civil, & presented me with several volumes, including Grey's "Twenty–Five Years".

After lunching at the Club, I attended a meeting of the Ecclesiastical Courts Commission. The draft of the Report was under consideration, & I made a statement as to my intentions, viz. that I would not sign the recommendation as to the Final Court.

Then I picked up my bags at the Athenaeum, & betook me to King's Cross. My journey to Darlington was relieved by reading Grey's book – an absolutely honest statement. Lionel met me at Darlington with the car.

[134]

The talk of Mr Arthur Hird was illuminating. After the manner of sectaries, he was grossly flatterous to me, but I let him talk on in the hope of discovering what he might be driving at. He said that the Bishop of London's recommendation of a book for Lenten reading would ensure a circulation of 30,000 or even 40,000 copies, for the "religious public" was extremely conservative, and, having once decided to read the book so recommended, would go on doing so year after year. We spoke of the future of Religion in the Schools. He said that it was essential that any conference should include, besides Churchmen & Noncons, representatives of the N.U.T: that there was a hard "Bolshevick" temper spreading among the male teachers: that thousands of Noncons: were growing alarmed at the situation, & if driven to a choice, would prefer the full C. of E. teaching than secularism.

Scott Lidget was in the Athenaeum, & he also spoke about the religious education question. He said that Bishop Knox had been convening a meeting of Sectaries, but that he himself had refrained from attending. The school–teachers, he said, were "going over to the Labour Party in shoals". This is the really hopeless factor in the situation.

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