The Henson Journals

[145]

Wednesday, July 16th, 1930.

I spent the day at Lambeth. We continued our discussion of the South Indian Scheme of Reunion. The old Archbishop of the West Indies led the opposition, not ineffectively. There can be no doubt that the scheme lends itself to effective criticism: but if the proposals of the Conference of 1920 are not to be shown to be utterly unmeaning, the scheme must be generally approved. I think that this is becoming evident to the bishops, & that it will finally determine their decision: but there is plainly a considerable and determined opposition, which will not be easily defeated. The Bishop in Persia, (Linton), had some talk with me. He is said to be the most successful evangelist of Moslems that our church possesses. I asked him what he found to be the element in Christianity which appealed most to the Mohammadans in Persia, and he replied that it was the Person and Character of Christ, not conviction of sin. The sense of sin developed in the converts, but it played no part in their conversion. The Bishop of Leicester (Bardsley) said that precisely the same was true of the Japanese converts.

[146]

[struck through] I dined with Grillions. There were present:

1.	Earl of Midleton
2.	Viscount Fitzalan
3.	Lord Dunedin
4.	Lord Darling
5.	Lord Ullswater
6.	Marquis of Lansdowne
7.	Lord Eustace Percy
8.	Bishop of Durham

We had much pleasant conversation, but I remember little of it. I asked Lord Fitzalan whether he thought the Treaty between Italy & the Vatican would be permanent, and he replied, "It will last until there is a revolution". You mean, I said, until the death of Mussolini. And he agreed. Old Lord Dunedin spoke of Westcott, who was a master at Harrow, when he was a boy there. He said that he was not successful as a schoolmaster because he was sarcastic and severe. This accords with what I have heard from others. It is reported that warships have been sent to Egypt.[end]

[147]

[struck through] The House of Lords discussed the admission of peeresses. Lord Birkenhead re–appeared after his recent severe illness, and led the opposition to Lord Astor's motion. He seems to have been lengthy, discursive, and curiously ineffective. Lords Darling, Fitzalan, & Dunedin, all of whom had been witnesses in the House of Commons of Lord Randolph Churchill's miserable ^[tragic]^ collapse, compared Lord Birkenhead's performance with that melancholy precedent. He is said to be really ill, but he will take no advice, & follows no prudent rules. His age is stated to be no more than 58, but he has lived hard, & done great violence to his magnificent constitution.

Lord Eustace Percy told me that his brother, the Duke of Northumberland, was still extremely ill. He had suddenly developed appendicitis on the top of the duodenal ulcer, from which he was suffering. An immediate operation had been necessary, and he had survived. That was the most that could be said for him.

I received pleasant letters from William and from my godson Gilbert.[end]

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