[David O. McKay Office Journal] [Meeting of General Authorities at Grosvenor House, London, during which the apostasy of the French missionaries is discussed, noted here in part:] [Part of Hugh B. Brown's comments:] "Well, while in Basel, President Milton L. Christensen of the French Mission called me on the phone and said that there was very serious trouble, and asked me if I could come over. I was just leaving for Rome, but I flew to Paris and he told me the nature of the trouble when I arrived. He said that there was a group of missionaries who were preaching polygamy and a lot of other things, denouncing the Manifesto and circulating literature sent to them by the Fundamentalists.
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I sat down and talked to Tucker for three hours. I talked with him and used every method I could think of, persuasion and prayer. I wept with him. He sat there looking me in the eye. He did not take his eye off me while I talked with him. I said, "Do you accept the Manifesto?" He said, "I do not." "Do you believe that polygamy should be practiced now?" He said, "I know that there are righteous men who are practicing it with the knowledge of the General Authorities." "Do you believe that President McKay is two-faced and is talking out of both sides of his mouth and not telling the truth?" "I believe just that. But I do not and I would not know until the Lord reveals it to me." I said, "I am here representing the General Authorities looking into this matter, and I am telling you that you are wrong." He said, "I do not accept you as an Apostle. I take my direction from the Lord and only from him."
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There were two other men who had talked the same way. One was stony- faced. I asked when they got their first impressions and they refused to answer. They said they would not implicate anybody . . . . There were two other ladies in the French Mission--American missionaries-- who I think will have to go home. I think someone must see them individually and decide each individual case on its merits. They are saying there are two Priesthoods, and John the Revelator is the man who presides over you and he has given them instructions through this man Tucker that he does not need to ask for instructions from you or me or anyone else. I have never in my life run into anything quite like it. I had all those cases in Granite Stake under Dr. Talmage. We handled cases of those polygamists, including John Burt. Tucker is a missionary from home. He is a brilliant young man, too brilliant for his own good. He is the most defiant, self-opinionated person I have ever met."
[Part of remarks of Henry D. Moyle:] "When I got to Stuttgart, I felt the very devil himself was there. There was not anything I could pinpoint, but I think a feeling that there might be some relationship between the feeling I had at Stuttgart and in the French Mission. "I am sure that is the French situation. The first thing after I talked with the Elders, instantly they started to ask me about the Manifesto and Brother Taylor and Cowley. I cut them off pretty short. I told them that they were not in their missions to discuss that question. I am afraid it has affected some others. It is pretty hard to keep in confined. They correspond with one another."
[Source: McKay, David O., Office Journal]
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