The Henson Journals

[43]

Monday, April 22nd, 1929, Biarritz.

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Rain, and a dull outlook, but the mosquitoes more active than ever. Unquestionably, if we had attempted to enter France with our present appearance, the French authorities would not have lacked primâ facie evidence on which to sequestrate us as probably infected with smallpox!

I wrote to Archbishop Söderblom, suggesting that he should return with me from the General Assembly in Edinburgh on the 27th May, attend the Installation of the Duke of Northumberland as Chancellor of the University at Durham on the 28th, and leave for Sweden on the 29th. That indefatigable ecclesiastic wrote to me on the 9th April, and expresses, rather to my surprise, his agreement with my attitude on the question of Establishment. He expresses himself, indeed, with something less than his usual facility with the English tongue, & with some lack of lucidity, but his general meaning appears to be evident:–

[44]

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My dear Bishop & Brother,

Thanking you heartily for your kind letter of Sept 20th, I was struck by the fact that the way, in which you with your long and deep experience, consider the Prayerbook [sic] situation in the Church of England, is such that it seems most natural to myself, and, I dare say, other Churchmen in our country. At the annual Festival of the Swedish–British Society in Stockholm, January 15th, the birthday of our late saintly Crownprincess [sic], I ventured to express about the same ideas. Anyhow, it seems impossible that a church could acquiesce in the actual situation without undertaking anything in any direction . . . . . . .

brotherly yours

Nathan Söderblom.

That enterprising Swede, in his ardour for uniting the churches, has probably tied himself by so many mutually conflicting "understandings" with "the Churches", that he is finding his position ambiguous.

[45]

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I wrote to Hudson Barker, commissioning him to express my condolences to whatsoever relation of the late Vicar of Holy Trinity (Steggall) was the suitable recipient of such a message. Also, I wrote to Rainbow, returning to him Gerald's school report.

I bought yesterday's "Daily Mail", and I read the following

EVANGELIST "TALKIES"

"Billy" Sunday's new way of making converts.

"Billy" Sunday, the famous evangelist whose spectacular methods of securing converts have gained him world–wide fame, confirms that he is considering making a "talkie–movie", says an agency message from Sterling (Colorado).

"A talking film", he declares, will enable him to carry the Gospel message throughout the world, but especially to England Australia.

"I have always been a booster for the proper kind of movies", he declared, in announcing his intention.

Let this be placed in the scale against Lourdes, and which kicks the beam? "It must needs be that offences come", said the Master of us all.

[46]

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The rain continued steadily, but I was bored indoors, and, donning my mackintosh, walked on the cliff for nearly an hour before lunch. Biarritz is ill–looking under rain. Its soil holds the water, so that the roads become very miry.

Such observations as I have been able to make during a short spell of hotel life lead me to divide men into two classes – those who are waiting on women, and those who are waiting for them. The first are commonly young unmarried: the last are almost invariably elderly and married. Neither are contented or dignified.

The more I reflect on the episode of Pollock's presentation car, his speech in accepting it, the more astonished I am that he should have lowered himself th to receive the one or make the other. The inscription on the car is an insult to the Bishops, Convocations, Assemblies of the Church of England whom it plainly affirms to have been false to the Faith as it has been set forth in the Prayer–Book.

[47]

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'He (the Bishop) had always been in favour of the publication of the new Prayer–Book, as it was a book of immense historic importance. But he never envisaged the fact that it would come out in a large number of editions bound up and sold in a manner which almost indicated that he ^it^ carried that very validity which its front pages denied it.' What kind of publication did the good man think appropriate for 'a book of immense historic importance' which the authorities of the Church of England have compiled for the Church's use? The 'historic importance' can only attach to the book as an authoritative statement of the actual mind of the Church of England in the XXth century. If it be not that its importance is slight: but if it be that, then no emphasis of publication can be excessive. The truth is that the Bishop of Norwich is in an impossible position. He accepted (as the Abp. of C. was careful to insist) the platitudinous resolution adopted by the Assembly as a protest against the action of the House of Commons, now he seeks to identify that action with the true mind of the Church of England.

[48]

Ella and Fearne went out to buy presents for the servants, and I remained in the Hotel, wrote to Cecil Ferens.

We made a start at our packing and then I wrote to Kenneth.

So we have completed a week at Biarritz, which we have seen in fine weather but 'in undress', that is, without the fashionable crowd of English folk Americans, which makes it famous. The mosquitoes have worried us at night, and will, I suspect, become more formidable as the weather gets warmer. The sea is very magnificent, but the town is nothing more than a collection of hotels, villas, parasitic shops c. Such residential population as there is lives on the visitors, whom they regard with the interested concern with which the Cornish fisher folk are said to have contemplated wrecks, treasure–trove sent to their shores by a benevolent Providence for their comfort and enrichment.

[49]

To all the above named I have, during the last three weeks, written at least once.

̭ob̭	Archbishop Davidson		Lord Scarbrough
	Archbishop Temple	̭ob̭	" Darling
̭ob̭	Archbishop Söderblom		" Charnwood
̭ob̭	Bishop of Worcester		Robin Castlereagh
̭ob̭	Bishop of Chester	̭ob̭	Sir Walter Raine
̭ob̭	Bishop of Jarrow	̭ob̭	J. G. Wilson
̭ob̭	Dean of Westminster	̭ob̭	J. K. C. Bayley
	Archdeacon Rawlinson	̭ob̭	Dr McCullagh
̭ob̭	Canon Vernon Storr		Cecil Ferens
	Canon Lillingston		Radcliffe Cock
	Revd Hudson Barker	̭ob̭	Arthur Rawle
	" Lionel Trotman	̭ob̭	" Henson
	" Jimmie Dobbie		Gilbert Henson
	" Harry Dobson		John Radford
	" D. J. Dick		Gerald Rainbow
	" Laugton Heaver		William
	" Jack Clayton		Leng
	" A. Rainbow		Alexander
	" Alfred Fawkes
	Mrs Spooner
	Kitty Wilson

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