GRAVELY ILL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 204, 30 August 1933, Page 7

GRAVELY ILL.

VISCOUNT GREY OF FALLODEN (Received 12 noon.) LONDON, August 29. Viscount Grey of Fallodon, the notec British statesman, Is gravely ill. Lord Grey is lying very ill at his home at Fallodon, Northumberland, and hif ■ condition is described as serious. He is • 71 and has been almost entirely blinc t for some years, the strain of the eai lj l war years having affected his eyesight i " ! Secretary for Foreign Affairs for elever years (1905-16)— the longest term in th< i history of the office—Sir Edward Grey, at he was known to Europe before kein£ . raised to a viscounty in 1916; moulded the ' destinies of Europe in the years leading up to the Great "War, and by severa. masterly diplomatic moves succeeded 11 removing the tension that arose between Germany and France over the Algeciras and Agadir affairs, without in any waj morally or strictly binding Britain tc either side in the event or. war Germany wanted a definite promise of British neutrality in 1912, but Grey succeeded in satisfying the Kaiser's Government without granting the undertaking. He struggled valiantly to avert a conflict atte y t '„ c , Austrian ultimatum to Serbia 1914, seeking an extension of the time ! limit, and when his efforts were, fruitless ■ threw himself into the conflict witli ■ enormous energy. He .retired ra 11916, 1 although he still sat in the House oi Lords In 1927 he broke with the Libera: leader, Mr. Lloyd George.