The Henson Journals

[180]

Friday, September 24th, 1926

So long as the practice of benevolence had regard only or mainly to the personal salvation of the benefactor, the choice of method was easy enough. But when the interest of the beneficiary became the dominant consideration, a new element of complexity entered into the question. When, moreover, the salvation of the soul was the paramount object, and not the improvement of secular condition, the whole problem of benevolence had a different aspect. It was simplified into providing the authorized means of salvation.

I worked at the Lock lecture, but with curiously small success. A number of people came to have tea and play tennis. Among them was young Pease, a son of Lord Daryngton, a lad of 22 who is in his 2nd year at Cambridge. He was at Geneva recently, and witnessed the historic scene when the German & French representatives indulged in demonstrations of amity. He said that, though he is not a good French scholar, he understood M. Briand's speech, & was thrilled by it.

Poole & his wife came from West Hartlepool. He says that a resolution was introduced to the Hartlepool Chapter thanking the Archbishop for his action during the General Strike, and that it was postponed. But he thinks it would have been carried if it had been put to the vote. The Industrial Christian Fellowship caused the matter to be brought forward. This is a significant indication of the real opinions of the Durham clergy. They are throbbing with Socialistic sentimentalism. My line of action towards these "Labour" conflicts is partly unintelligible and wholly repugnant.

A correspondent, John Smith, refers me to Lord Rosebery's "Pitt" where, he says, I shall learn "that the policy of 'three acres and a cow' originated with William Pitt". Bishop Barrington may have suggested it. He was certainly interested in social reforms, and a man of initiative and energy.

---