The Henson Journals

[47]

Tuesday, 3rd February, 1931.

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I took my Greek Testament, which was given me at my Ordination to the Diaconate in 1887, and which is coming to pieces, to Hugh Rees for re–binding. Then I walked to Westminster, and attended the Church Assembly. Everything was mortally dull until that absurd person, Heawood, came to the platform, and moved an amendment to the Cathedrals Measure with the laudable object of excluding Durham from the general scheme. He is an absurd person, & he spoke absurdly. Nevertheless, I did not think it right to leave him to his fate. Accordingly (since his seconder was absent) I came to the rescue, & made a short speech, which was well–received, and which had the effect of securing a partial acceptance of the amendment. I lunched at the Athenaeum, where I shared a table with the Bishop of Norwich. I went to Adeney, & procured a rochet for use in the House of Lords, and then returned to the Assembly, which, however, soon bored me. I went over to the House of Lords, and had tea. There I wrote to Charles and Derrick, and then walked to D Park Lane.

[48]

I dined with the Club at the Café Royal. There were present the following viz:–

1.	The Bishop of Oxford
2.	Lord Hugh Cecil
3.	Lord Dunedin
4.	Lord Macmillan
5.	Lord Crawford & Balcarras
6.	Sir George Murray
7.	Sir Austen Chamberlain
8.	Sir John Simon
9.	Sir Henry Newbolt
10.	Sir Frederic Kenyon
11.	Sir William Bragg
12.	Rudyard Kiplling
13.	John Buchan
14.	John Bailey
15.	Bishop of Durham

I sate between Buchan and Macmillan, & had some excellent good talk. Both said that they could not have brought in a verdict of "Guilty" against Rouse in the Burning Car case. The proper verdict would have been the Scottish "Non–proven". But they thought that he would certainly not be hanged.

[49]

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Buchan spoke very interestingly about Simon. He said that his visit to India had greatly widened his (Simon's) views on many subjects: That he had admitted in conversation that Free Trade could no longer be maintained: and that in his own (Buchan's) opinion, Simon would be included in the next Unionist cabinet. This would be an interesting development. I was struck by the unsympathetic even unfriendly tone of the references to Lang, which marked both Buchan's and Macmillan's language. They told stories illustrating his inveterate fault of "snobbery": but allowed his astonishing capacity for adorning ceremonial occasions.

Buchan said his copy–rights were steadily waxing in value, and that even his earlier novels sold more than 10,000 copies yearly. I observed that this fact did at least indicate the good taste of the reading public. He said that Ld Birkenhead had always lived beyond his means: that he was heavily in debt when he died: and that, after everything had been cleared up, his family had about £ 2,000 per annum to live upon. He said that Snowdon had said that he had no intention of adding to the Income tax in his next Budget. May this be true!

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