APOSTLE OF PEACE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7446, 22 May 1911, Page 2

APOSTLE OF PEACE

SIB EDWARD GREY'S PROPOSAL. (By It. W. Massingliam, in the Loudon "Leader.") How great is fho force of character! There ia an old proposal, which, has been debated from time to time lor tho last hiteeu years, at least, and once came very near realisation. It is revived bj a powerful and very representative man, tho President of tne United S.ates, iu a speech delivered at one of the most memorable and interesting gatherings ol American celebrities that nave ever been held, let it does not seem to attiact a very remarkable degree of attention. Suddenly it is taken up by Sir Edward Urey, who, though a very important member of his Uovornment, is not its head, and who actually spoke in the absence of bis chief. And in a tew hours the whole world is reverberating with, the echoes of his speech, and with passionate applause of it. The waole cause of international amity is advanced. Ideas and projects that were coldly waved aside seem practical, and, indeed, inevitable. The nations whion seemed forced to incessant talk of armaments, "inevitable wars, menacing conflicts of interest and diplomacy, seem all tho , while to have been only longing for this exposition of their true wilt and intention. Thus do events move. Thus arc sane men liappy in being the fit instruments of the purpose of the Will which moves the world. “What a splendid fellow Grey is," I heard one of his most distinguished colleagues say of him the .other night—a colleague who had often had sharp and seemingly irreconcilable differences with him on critical points of policy. "What a noble, sincere character! How trustworthy, how disinterested 1" And a little time ago I had a similar account of him through a German source, not, one would say at a venture, tno most sympathetic. ‘ The great merit that all these critics of our Poreign Secretary discovered in him was that his word was as good as his bond. If ,be made a statement, or gave a promise, it was known to be a "firm" statement, a redeemable promise.

CONFIDENCE AND CHARACTER, In this age of extreme subtlety, of fins criticism, of the nice interpretation of words, this quality of Sir Edward Giey’s was ■ held to have produced a very considerablo amelioration of tho always difficult situation between Germany and ourselves. I have always had, the same impression about Sir Edward Grey. And I have never been able to realise fully the influence he has exerted over the House of Commons. and nearly all his contemporaries. To me and to others he has always been something of a mystery. I have often disagreed wim him. 1 have often thought him over-cold, over-shy, and perhaps—if I may so —insufficiently equipped, both with original qualities of intellect and with those derived powers of mind which come from high training and wide knowledge. In such, equipment. for example, lie was markedly inferior to tho man whom nearly all foreign observers thought to be, an ideal Fort-gn Secretary—l mean Sir Charles Dilke. And yet—aud yet—there are times when one thinks Grey, better, than them all. The secret of this power is three-narts moral, the other part intellectual. Grey ie‘ a transparently upright man. And this probity of character produces in the modern world of diplomacy something like tho effect which Bismarck produced, though ; from .a very different' . set of causes. Bismarck often told the truth because he thought it was the .best and roost plausible kind of Be., He held to tho facts because he conceived that no one' would believe him, and. therefore that .ho obtained the great diplomatic of deceiving the other side as to his poliev. He "thus directed a vast machinery *of Machiavellian diplomacycarried ' into all departments of public life—for the purpose of convincing his enemies and rivals that things were not 'as he stated i them, though in fact they were. With him ‘'faith unfaithful kept him falsely true." THE GLADSTONIAN TRADITION. This demoniacal element is completely absent from Sir Edward Grey’s diplomacy. One often thinks it hard and unimaginative. But it is impossible to say that it is uncaudid. Truth, one feels, retains with him as high a value in the sum of human affairs as, lot us say, it carried in tho mind of John Mill. What a gain is this! What a help to tho simplification of life, to tho attainment of file end which idealists have iu view, tne setting up of a standard of international morals, in some way comparable to that which governs individual relationship! In that sense .Grey, does undoubtedly carry'on tho Gladstoniiaii, legacy, and tradition, His positive . ideas often seem to run on different lines to those of Gladstone and his school. But when a sincere mind applies itself to the problems of international polities, it is always possible to believe and to hope that It may'come out on the side of the true and permanent interests of humanity. And that is precisely the effect of dir B. Grey's declaration on tho allied pioblems of peace and armaments. There is yet another side to the character of our Foreign Secretary. His is a cautions, tentative mind. It does not easily accept the implications of the peace movement. It is not especially quick in accepting any suggestions or proposals which oven seem to affect in the smallest, degree the defensive 1 powers of this country. It is not originative. It takes tho world as.it.finds it, and when a powerful antagonism, like that of England and Germany, arises, it tends to accept tho situation, and .to approve at sight the,measures which the war services adopt for meeting it. But there is another side to Grey’s nature. It is by no means without a touch of idealism. And if it is convinced that a move forward ia possible, it would bo difficult to suggest any figure in contemporary politics more capable of advancing it. THE SECRET OP SUCCESS. Here, indeed, resides the source of his groat strength in Parliament. He is [opulnr witli both sides. All men like a truthful man. All men, like a man who is without "side,” who, when ho speaks, gives you the simple effect of his mind and temperament, sincerely at work on a problem, and giving you the results of his thought upon it. For such a purpose the really "advanced” thinker is qf no great service. Ho is suspected, (.specially on the Tory side. If. for example, any other man than Grey had the task of carrying . through tho Declaration of London he would probably tail. Grey will sulceed because he is known to he a zealous nationalist. And, therefore, when he sets up tho idea of world-peace, and is careful to divest it—as ho lias done in his speech to the members of the International Arbitration Association—of the clement of offensive alliance. he of all men has the best chance of securing a national, non-party atmosphere.' . Let ns, therefore, be thankful that, often as we Radicals disagree with onr Foreign Secretary, we have such a talent and suoh a personality at the disposal of the-causes in which we are interested, whenever we can convince him that these causes are sound, and that they have a reasonable chance of success. We need not quarrel with such a distribution of functions in this imperfect world. On the contrary, we ought to be thankful for it. Suddenly the thought of the world has taken a fresh and happy turn. Such movements are always mysterious and unexpected. But when they occur, the world is happy to find an appropriate instrument in the men who have their finger, not on the quick flight of the great thinkers and prophets of tho world, but on the slow levers of diplomacy.