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December 18th 1930
Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland.
My dear Buchan
I must send you a few lines of hearty thanks for your share in securing so generous a benefaction to the Durham Castle Fund from the Pilgrim's Trust. It has lifted a great anxiety from my shoulders, and does now make it reasonable to believe that the worst disaster has been averted. I think this action of the Trustees will be generally approved, & here in Durham it will be specially
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welcomed as a "gesture" of sympathy.
May I take this opportunity of saying also how thoroughly I approve & endorse what you & your colleagues have said about the present situation of the country in the document which appeared in yesterday's Times. The situation is far, far more serious than the Tapers and Tadpoles realize: indeed, I find it hard to avoid a total despondency when I consider it. The interchanges of untimely jocosity reported in the Parliamentary intelligence as passing from Churchill to Lloyd George & re-passing create a repugnance such as might be moved by the spectacle of children playing cards on the corpse of a mother.
And at this juncture I must needs think that it is a crowning calamity that a Socialist Government should be in office. The personnel is untrustworthy: & the
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principles and policies are pernicious. I cannot see in any part of the world any sure indications of recovery. But enough: it is something that men of faith & courage like yourself are still in public life.
With all good wishes for Christmas & the New Year.
I am
ever sincerely yours,
Herbert Dunelm:
[ST: Bishop of Durham]
John Buchan, Esq., M.P.
