The Henson Journals

[150]

Tuesday, June 21st, 1927.

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Shall I seize this opportunity of speaking on a Temperance Bill to distinguish between the debased excesses of the illiterate multitude and the vicious drunkenness of educated individuals? With Lord Birkenhead's bloated countenance before me, and his evil repute in all minds, my words would assuredly give a personal reference, which might be equitable, but could hardly be conciliating or charitable.

["]My Lords, this phenomenon of drunkenness deserves a more careful analysis than it commonly receives. It may be no more than the result of discomfort and illiteracy, & then you can best remedy it by attacking the conditions. Educate the people, give them decent homes to live in, and fill their leisure with wholesome interests, & you will have destroyed drunkenness by destroying its principal roots. But it may be a more complex thing, the creature of morbid individual state & unfortunate individual experiences. We have all known men of brilliant powers, of winning disposition, even of notable achievements, who have fallen victims to this dark & disgusting vice. We censure, but we also pity, for we know ourselves to be in presence of forces, from the past, and from the present, against which the individual may be fighting a forlorn & desperate struggle, foredoomed to defeat, but never wholly accepting his fate. Against such drunkenness legislation is useless. It will remain until curative science can disentangle its causes, and disclose the means of removing them.["]

[151]

I called in Downing Street at 10.30 a.m., and had a short interview with the Prime Minister. I began by enquiring after his health, and he replied, "I'm quite fit: the doctors tell me that I have been suffering from a tired heart, but that I have the arteries of a child." He then said he was designing to speak freely about Russia in the North of England. I then asked him if he had seen Lord Esher's letter to the Manchester Guardian with his article about Gorleschakoff, and when he replied in the negative, I told him the story, & offered to send him the cutting from the M.G. He said he would like to have it. We talked of the ominous signs of an impending dark age in which civilisation would again perish. "I dare not think on those lines, for if I did, I would not go on in my place." Well, I said, we can only go on by knowing that the courses of the world are in the Hand of God, & that so long as we are serving righteousness, we are doing His Will". Yes, I believe that, he said. Then we came to the business of his interview. "Both the Archbishops have been pressing me to appoint the Bishop of Dover (Bilbrough) to the see of Newcastle. Did I object? I said that I should certainly have added the Bishop's name to the list which I had sent him, if I had thought he would accept a bishoprick. I thought he would do excellently. "Then you would not object to him?" "On the contrary, I shall welcome him". "Very well then, I shall offer him the see. He is older than I like, but I don't like to go against both Archbishops." Then we shook hands, & parted.

[152]

Mr Baldwin asked me about the impression which was made on the Lords by the Duke of Marlborough's speech yesterday. "I hear that he spoke like an utter cad and that the Peers could hardly refrain from hissing when he sate down." I said that the Duke's speech did undoubtedly offend and disgust the House.

I made my speech in the 2nd reading debate on the Liverpool Bill. Lord Buxton had preceded me, and, though he stated that he would vote in favour of the 2nd Reading, his speech was extremely damaging to the Bill. I called him "the Balaam of the debate". Lord Dawson of Penn made a long, important, and effective speech against the Bill. I spoke for about 5 minutes, and my speech was very well received. I introduced the substance of the passage on drunkenness (p150), and even had the audacity to quote Watson's lines, 'Great is the facile conqueror.' Lord Birkenhead was present, & sate with his hat over his eves. Many congratulated me in the lobby afterwards. The Bishop of London followed and I came away. I wonder what the newspapers will make of it.

I walked to the Athenaeum, and had dinner there. Then I walked back to Park Lane.

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