The Henson Journals

[271]

Tuesday, May 4th, 1926.

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The general strike began at midnight. Everybody, except Baldwin himself who is quite evidently sincere, played for tactical advantage in the squalid party game up to the last minute. The Trade Unionists, having finally succeeded in forcing the crisis, went home singing the Red Flag! This morning it is announced that the electrical engineering trades will stop all broadcasting of news at any of the hours instructed by the Government. We may learn next that the newspapers will only be published under "Labour" supervision. We have never before had experience of a general strike, & every hour discloses fresh disasters.

"The final editions of London's three evening newspapers did not appear yesterday owing to the workmen taking exception to the publication of certain articles or news items." It appears that the men objected not merely to expressions of opinion, but to announcements requisite for the direction of citizens in the new conditions created by the strike! [And this is the method to which Ramsay Macdonald, an ex–Prime Minister gives his sanction, & for which English Bishops find justifications! I get the impression from the official statements that the Government has by no means perfected its plans for organizing the Community, & that a total crash is not at all improbable.]

[272] [symbol]

I walked round to the County Court Office in order to offer whatever assistance I and mine can give to the Government.Major DewhurstandMr Proudwere in command, & neither seemed to have any very clear notion of his duty. However they agreed in thinking that there was no necessity for any interruption of my Confirmations. They seemed optimistic as to the temper of the population here. Offers of assistance are coming in well, and there is small enthusiasm among the strikers, but, of course, this will not continue if any measure of actual hardship has to be borne. I returned to my study, and sate at my table with the familiar symbols & instruments of my work at my hand, but I could not work. The utter futility of everything on which I had been engaged, and to which I am pledged, overwhelmed me. Who cares now what the Ecclesiastical Commission decides about Sunday Games? or, whether the Hereford diocese is, or is not, broken up? or, whether Hereford diocese is, or is not, broken up? or, whether Reservation is, or is not, authorized by the revised Prayer Book? All these, and every other question which has agitated the Church, fall into complete neglect when a great economic issue is raised, & the nation is obsessed with fear for its daily food.

[273] [symbol]

A general strike is the modern equivalent of a papal interdict, save that it is probably far more effective. It lies open to the same moral objections, for it also makes no distinction between the innocent & the guilty. It also overrides all the reconciling influences of neighbourhood and personality. The discredit of the medieval interdict did finally reach such a pitch that it worked a cure in the total defeat of the Papacy: Will a similar result foillow in the case of the general strike? Will the tyranny of the Trade Unions perish as that of the Popes perished under the disgrace of its own excesses? The servility of the working masses is not less than that of the medieval population, and, perhaps, it is even more firmly entrenched in the use & wont of life.

Captain Cartercalled to tell me that the "Bishoprick" would not appear, as the printers had struck work, and to ask what he himself ought to do. I said that he ought to close his office so far as possible, & place himself at the disposal of the Government. There is a melancholy interest in learning what are the actual consequences of a general strike. One cannot contemplate any result but its ultimate defeat at whatever cost.

[274] [symbol]

Meanwhile, that a humorous touch may not be absent from a situation which at any moment may become tragic, the local League of Nation ladies desire to take part in a gigantic "Peace Procession" to Hyde Park in June next! They wrote to ask for Ella's cooperation. I drafted a civil refusal, mitigating it with a hypocritical promise to contribute to the expenses! We certainly are, and never more plainly than now, a nation of Pecksniffs!

By way of occupying my mind, I read through carefully Bede's famous letter to Archbishop Egbert, written in 731. He draws the picture of a Church which was already in deep corruption. Within a century the vices of ecclesiastical senility were growing rankly in the all–but–virgin soil of Northumbrian Christianity.

Davison, the Vicar of S. Helen's, W. Auckland, told Lionel, whom he encountered in Bishop Auckland, that his parishioners had already given practical expression to Kirkwood's doctrine of plunder, by stealing a quantity of flour in the parish. 'If they do these things in the green tree, what will they do in the dry?' Miners, railway men, and dock–labourers form a very large part of the local population. If they become dangerous, we are certainly in a parlous state.

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I motored to Trimdon, and confirmed 76 persons in the little old church. Among them was a solid body of farmers, who made a brave show. Mr Davison, the Vicar, presented no less than 23 candidates, though the population of his parish is less than 800, mostly agriculturists. This is quite a remarkable proportion of candidates to population. The old man, who professes himself very happy in his work, has evidently got hold of the people, and, rather surprisingly, of the young people. From Trimdon, I motored to Wingate, where I confirmed 153 persons. Here again I was pleased by the satisfactory age of the candidates, by their reverent demeanour [sic], and by the close attention which they gave to my address. The parson, Bowman, has held the living for 7 years. A number of miners gathered about the entrance to the church, and watched the departure of the candidates. They were quite well–behaved, and returned my parting salutation. There is so far no appearance of excitement among the pitmen. The strike is not exactly popular, perhaps because it is really unintelligible. There has been much violent talk from some of the leaders, & this may bear fruit if the strike is protracted. I returned to the Castle after the service.

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