The Henson Journals

[182]

17th Sunday after Trinity, September 26th, 1926.

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A beautiful morning with bright shining of the sun transforming the frost with diamonds. But winter is in the air, & there is no coal in the houses of the people. There is no sign of any lack of money. Theatres & cinemas are crowded, and the drapers' shops still do business. The children, fed regularly in the schools, look healthy & vigorous. How will their mothers relish the return to normal maternal duty when the "stoppage" comes at last to an end? Clothes are wearing out, and not being at least in many cases replaced. This operates as a hindrance to church–going, and is offered to the clergy as an excuse for absenteeism. One poor woman told Prideaux that she had borrowed a skirt and hat from a neighbour in order to bring her baby to Baptism, but had been unable to repeat the process for church attendance, as on Sunday the neighbour herself required them! Such are the problems of the poor. Meanwhile there are 2,600,000 men & lads on the list of unemployed, and we import bad coal at vast cost for the indispensable purposes!

I celebrated the Holy Communion at 8 a.m. in the chapel. We numbered 8 communicants including Lionel and James.

I wrote to William, addresing the letter to P. O. Box 5105 Johannesberg. I finished reading Ralph's "Lay Thoughts of a Dean", and then wrote to thank him for the volume, most of which was entirely new to me.

I wrote to George Nimmins, asking him what truth there is in the statement that the Bolshevist propaganda is making headway in Java.

My limitations are brought home to me when I have to take part in a Mission. Not only is my inexperience of that kind of work a grave disadvantage, but also the whole habit and temper of my life are incapacitating. "Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Bishops are very far from the Kingdom!

[183]

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I motored to Darlington in order to take part in the closing service of the Cambridge undergraduate Mission. The number of people who desired to take part was so great that no less than five meetings were arranged. I went to three of them – in the Hippodrome, in the Theatre, & in a Congregational Chapel. – and gave three short addresses. Everybody seemed to think that the Mission had been very successful, but, of course, the only real proof of success must be found in the permanent effects, and these are as yet unknown. We got back to the Castle shortly after 10 p.m.

I read through about half of Ralph's book, "England", on which he has certainly bestowed much thought and labour, and which must be allowed on any showing to be a powerful & immensely disconcerting book. He has, perhaps, undertaken to do more than any man, even though as acute and widely–read as himself, could reasonably hope to perform: and he has not avoided some pitfalls into which his temperament & prejudices have brought him. The proportions of the book are unsatisfactory; some subjects of large importance are dealt with in a lop–sided way; and there is an excessive indulgence in scornful & denunciatory epithets. The general effect is too gloomy, and important elements of an adequate discussion of futures are omitted. On the other hand, the book has great merits. It emphasises many facts which are too commonly forgotten, and directs attention to tendencies, equally potent & sinister. It is full of wise & striking obiter dicta, and discloses a range of interest & information which is truly astonishing. Add that it is eminently readable, & it needs not to offer any other explanations of its rapid sale. It must have much influence, & would have had more if it had not been marred by temperamental faults.

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