The Henson Journals

[12]

Friday, June 25th, 1926.

[']It is not as a rule wise to offer physical violence to "blacklegs": but there is nothing wrong about it, except in the eyes of the law and the middle class. The only argument against it, and also against militancy of other sorts, is that they do not pay.[']

v. The World of Labour by G. D. H Cole. p.379

I received this morning a long and important letter from a clergyman in New Zealand, named Bullock, who has been reading my "Notes on Spiritual Healing", and has been moved to write to me on the subject treated therein, or rather on Mr Hickson's Mission of Healing, which is discussed in the book. He denies that any genuine cures were effected, and challenges the trustworthiness of the evidence which Mr Hickson offers to prove his (Hickson's) case. The writer expresses himself well, and gives me the impression that he is both an honest and an intelligent man. Moreover, he refers me to Bishop Knight, "one of my assistant bishops", by whom, I suppose, he indicates the Bishop of Jarrow. The newspapers announce the death of Dr Lowther Clarke, sometime Archbishop of Melbourne.

[13]

Mr J. E. Thornycroft, a member of the well–known firm, John I. Thornycroft & Co. Ld sends me a copy of the letter which he has addressed to some political magnate, urging the Govt to repeal, or at least modify, the Trades Disputes Act.

During the afternoon I sate in the garden, & watched the young people play lawn–tennis. Sir Alfred Palmer sate & talked with me for some while. He is by no means cheerful about the future. He is a magistrate of long–standing in this county, and chairman of the Gateshead Bench, before which the Chopwell rioters were brought to trial. He told me that the ex–officio magistrate, who hails from Chopwell, assured him that all the trouble in that parish was the work of less than a dozen individuals. If they were removed, Chopwell would be peaceful enough. This illustrates the success of the Bolshevick method of propagating revolution by creating cells or nuclei of Communist zealots in every district or association. Macdonald, the Vicar of Chopwell, bears the same witness to the fewness of the Chopwell incendiaries, who yet are able to carry the whole parish into courses of violence. Sir Alfred Palmer approved highly of my letter in the Times. Dr Mackintosh, who has charge of the "Infant Welfare Work" in this district, tells me that there are not yet any note–worthy signs of distress, but that another week of the Strike will surely bring them.

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