SIR GEORGE GREY IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1163, 15 June 1894, Page 31

SIR GEORGE GREY IN ENGLAND.

London, June 11. The National Liberal Club give a luncheon to Sir George Grey on June 19. The Marquis of Kipon will preside. From Our Special Correspondent. London, April 27. Sir George Grey was kept in the house at the Hotel Metropole from Friday till yesterday by an attack of bronchitis, and saw no one except his private secretary (Mr Monnington), Lord Stamford and Sir W. Perceval. He has been of course compelled to decline all invitations, including one from the Premier and one from the Marquis of Ripon, and it is quite uncertain when he will bo able to go out in the evening. On Wednesday, when we called to enquire after Sir George, he was kind enough to relax the law forbidding visitors upstairs, and to see your correspondent for a few minutes. It then transpired that Lord Kosebery had jußt communicated to the veteran statesman Her Majesty's desire to call him to the Privy Council, and that he has been "commanded" to Windsor to dine and sleep and be sworn in on Monday next, the 30th inst. Needless to say I at once communicated this interesting item to your cable ' agents, and subsequently made a present of it to the press here, or rather to such parts thereof as I graciously approve. Sir George Grey found tto Metropole too

noisy, as from the first I fully expected he would, and how Lord Stamford came to select such harbourage for a venerable gentleman of 821 cannot imagine. Yesterday Sir George had sufficiently recovered to remove to 7, Park place, St. James, street, where he has taken quiet rooms, which are nevertheless very central. He will probably spend much of his leisure in -' the adjacent and reposeful precincts of the Reform Club, of which he haa been elected an honorary member, and where he will find endless friends and admirers. Callers at the Motropole during tho week comprise men of light and leading of all sorts—tho Premier, the Colonial Secretary, Lord Knutsford, Lord Onslow, Sir George Bo wen, Anglo-New Zealanders numerable, and a fine selection of scientific and learned notables. Their names would fill half a column. The press duly announced Sir George's arrival, but his visit being purely private, ho has not of course been run after as colonial Premiers like Sir George Dibbs and Sir Henry Parkes were. Last night's Pall Mall Gazette says:—" In calling Sir George Grey to be of her Privy Council the Queen has honoured both Great Britain and New Zealand, at a time when it is particularly desirable that there should bo a good understanding between ourselves and that col any. For even, if Sir George Grey's very great services be left altogether out of the account, there is no doubt that his advice will be sought on the proposal that Samoa should be administered by New Zealand, and such being the case, it is just as well that the title should go with the honour. The Radicals and the anti-Colonial Party in Germany have welcomed tho idea, but without a doubt tho Kaiser will refuse to consent until prolonged negotiations have determined what profit he is to make by the bargain. But if he can get anything by the deal ho is likely enough to agree, for he knows as well as anyone else that Germany is a failure in Samoa. The State* will agree, too, because they have designs of their own in the Pacific to serve ; and the step would be as popular in Canada as in New Zealand. It happens, too, that England would find Samoa a convenient station, and not at all troublesome if it were properly governed."