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[Page 452]

5.

to the Empire at a time of crisis like the present, it would be worth while doing anything for the sake of getting a united people, but I fear it is no use hoping for the millenium. Every concession will be accepted & no concession will be made in return. Dr. Mannix flatly refuses to appear on a recruiting platform, & though in this he is within his rights, he is merely linking himself up with all the influences which are to my mind the most poisonous in the land. There is no denying that he has grown to be a power in Victoria & some other parts of Australia, & has many followers.

Talking of him reminds me that a couple of weeks ago Harry Austin felt moved to write to the press & to abjure the political views of so many of our clergy at the present time. His letter was right enough, but only about six months late, & while he protested as a loyal son of a loyal English Catholic father, he added that he too had Irish blood in his veins (of course he had. His mother was all Irish!) but he had never felt any temptation to disloyalty on that account! Dashed funny, isn't it?

Louis Francis Heydon M.L.C., the Judge's brother, & one of my old masters in the firm of Slattery & Heydon where I served my articles, died suddenly a few weeks ago, & I went to his requiem & funeral at Hunter's Hill. Poor Father Hassett S.J. died a few days later, & Mother & I went to his requiem at St Mary's, North Sydney. He

 

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