SIR E. GREY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12707, 9 March 1912, Page 3 (Supplement)

SIR E. GREY.

. Here are some conflicting opinions about the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey:— The Spectator says : "It is at any rate satisfactory to know that we have ?t the Foreign Office a statesman, who will not make things worse through panic or through violent action fry yielding to the temptation to make some sensational stroke of high policy. Sir Edward Grey is certain to be reasonable , and moderate, and not to exasperate the situation by ill-judged or aggressive action. Whatever may be the criticisms made upon him at ,home by certain Radical politicians, he has undoubtedly not only gained the confidence of his colleagues, but also that of foreign statesmen. They know that his word is to be depend tv< upon, that l*e is not a mischief-maker, and that he has the interests of peace steadily and sincerely at heart, though he does not indulge in the conventional rhetoric of the professional pacificist." The Nation says : "The morals of the jungle and the rattle into barbarism are tho direct consequences of the policy of 'preoccupied animus which Sir Edward Grey has steadily followed against Germany. He "has sacrificed everything but prejudice, tolerated everything save a pacific approach, paid the debts of every European appetite and shrunk from no bargain except the indispensable adjustment of accounts with Germany. We have,. -no Senate Committee to unravel recent history, j There is crowing, none the less, a public opinion that demands a new Foreign Secretary, and feels, as- .the ■> risk increases, that the peace of. \ the Europe of the future and every reform at homo depend upon tho change." . AFTER SIX YEARS. "What is the position after six years , f. Sir Edward Grey?'? asks the Daily -sews. "The understanding with France lias become the 'triple v- entente' ; the 'triple entente' is* pitted, against the Triple Alliance ; Europe is divided into opposing camps arming against ono another with feverish haste . and incessantly intriguing against one another. We support France m Morocco in direct opposition to our own interests ; we help Russia in Turkey, Persia and China to undermine or overthrow vital bulwarks of Imperial defence and Imperial industry ; and we oppose Germany where Germany is incidentally fighting for British as well as German industry the battle of the free and open market. We have no written alliance with Russia and France — or at least if, written alliances .exist they have not been made public — but Sir Edward Grey has forced upon this country liabilities which are not the less stringent and are only the more perilous because they are not written. " 'We are embraced in the midst of the Continental system'— that is the result of Sir Edward Grey's revolution in British policy." ■