The Henson Journals

[345]

Friday, 27th September, 1929.

The Vicar of Pallion gave me a horrifying account of the overcrowding which proceeds in demure little streets of neat new five–roomed houses, which the Sunderland Corporation has erected for the use of the 'slummites' evicted from the inner part of their city. He said that the rent – 17/6 per week (it had been reduced to that figure from 27/6) being altogether beyond the means of the tenants, they were driven to sub–letting, & that as many as 4 families were existing in a single house. This is very abominable, but the remedy is not so apparent as one could wish. The rent, though exorbitant, is probably not 'economic': and it is hard to see why the rate payers of Sunderland should be taxed in order to house a section (and that the least desirable) of the inhabitants. Yet the situation in Pallion is so revolting as to be properly intolerable. Unless we are to enslave the people, & house them on terms of slavery, it is not easy to justify the expense of housing them decently, and the coercive discipline necessary to make them keep the houses decent.

[346]

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"Tubby" Clayton, the organizer & prophet of "Toc H." was brought to see me by Slater, the local "padre". They both lunched here. What do I think of "Tubby"? Frankly, much what I thought before seeing him; & that is not much. In shape, type, & aspect he is not ulike "Gypsy" Smith. I cross–examined him rather closely about "Toc H.", and was not well impressed. He goes off in large & picturesquely phrased generalities whenever he is in a 'tight place'. And I did not succeed in gaining a clear notion of the methods & objectives of the movement. He claims that it has revolutionized the conditions under which young Englishmen go out to India to work: that it was ̭is̭ the main source from which Ordination candidates are obtained: that it provideds Scout–masters & C. L. B. Officers all over the country: and, in fact, that it was ̭is^ the hope of the future. Both he and his 'bear – leader' spoke of Pestle, whom they were evidently anxious to disavow. But I perceived that he had been more closely connected with 'Toc H' than they cared to admit.

[347]

I motored to Darlington, and 'opened' an Exhibition organised by the Colonial & Continental Church Society. I made a speech, and gave my notes to the reporters. Then Drury showed me divers "sites" which had been suggested for the new school, which is to be built in the town. I said that the matter was so important that a Conference with the Board for Religious Instruction ought to take place. Then I returned to Auckland, & found Ella's party in full swing. Joan Surtees, the High Sheriff's daughter, who divorced one husband, now designs to take another. She evidently asked to get speech with me: and I had much talk with her. Her father divorced his wife, so that the tradition of domestic felicity is not exalted. How woeful it is! And here is Inge telling the world that the church has no message ̭for̭ it, and another of his prating crew deriding the very notion of the 'spiritual' and the 'religious'. We live in strange times, & our worst foes are they of our own household.

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