A curious mixture

Thursday, March 15th., Yacht Club, London.

H. L. Rothband, the Manchester manufacturer, lunched with me yesterday at the Reform, about his scheme for employment of disabled soldiers. Curious mixture of ingenuousness and acuteness.

Sir Henry Lesser Rothband, 1st Baronet, was a British public servant. Rothband was the author of the Rothband employment scheme for sailors and soldiers disabled in the war, published in 1917. 

Mr. Rothband proposed is that a Royal appeal should be issued, preferably by the King, but if not, then by the Prince of Wales, to all employers of labour throughout the country. They were to be invited to say whether they were willing to provide places for disabled soldiers and sailors ; and if so, to give promises of employment for at least one or more. He was created a baronet, of Higher Broughton, Salford, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, in 1923, in recognition of his "public services". He died in November 1940 when the baronetcy became extinct.

I missed the beginnings of a shindy between Spender and Massingham. Masterman brought this safely to an end by leaving the smoking room with Massingham and sitting in the gallery. Spender was with Buckmaster.

Henry Massingham (born 1860) joined the Labour World in 1892 until becoming editor of the Daily Chronicle in 1895. After four years , Massingham resigned in November, 1899, over his unwillingness to support the Boer War. For the next eight years he worked for the Manchester Guardian and the Daily News. In March, 1907 Massingham became editor of The Nation. In the First World War Massingham used the journal to campaign for a negotiated peace. During this period Massingham changed his support from the Liberal Party to the Labour Party. He held the position until April, 1923 when Joseph Rowntree decided to sell the journal to a group headed by John Maynard Keynes. Aware that Keynes was a supporter of the Liberal Party, Massingham decided to resign. Henry Massingham contributed articles to the New Statesman until his death in August 1924. For Harold Spender see 'Writing for Victory' Sept. 3rd.

I wrote another 1,100 words of novel yesterday after another very bad night, and I was so exhausted in the afternoon that I could scarcely even walk.

Percy Williams told me on Monday that he had his beagles with him at Bournemouth. They raided a butcher's shop. The dog-master asked butcher what the damage was. The butcher said £6. The dog-master said: "I'll toss you for it." They tossed and the butcher lost. This is a good sporting-military story.