TRIBUTE TO VISCOUNT GREY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16641, 25 January 1922, Page 2

TRIBUTE TO VISCOUNT GREY.

MR ABQUITH’S SPEECH. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, January 23. Mr Asquith and Viscount Grey were the chief speakers at a demonstration in Central Hall, Westminster. Mr Asquith declared that Viscount Grey, for a decade in a precarious and ever-menacing international situation before the war, bad been responsible for the maintenance of peace in Europe. His return to politics was the restoration of an incalculable national asset. The Coalition had dropped the immediate election plan because it would split the Coalition into fragments. Coalitionists now claimed they had become ruthless economists though, before the war, they had indulged in tlio costliest futile adventures. Mr Asquith said : Liberal principles have not changed, 1 have not changed, yet tho Prime Minister on Saturday thought it seemly to indulge in a number of personal gibes directed at me. They are the sort of stuff which appeared in the leaflets and broad sheets of the less scrupulous Tory candidates at the general election of 1910. These stale jocularities which my old colleague and fellow-fighter has brought to life again were received with appreciative laughter by so-called Liberal delegates. T am sorry for my old friend but I am too old perhaps to be too disillusioned to look for gratitude in politics, nor unhappily is it possible to teach some people good taste and good manners.” Viscount Grey said ho had returned to public life because since th© last election the House of Commons had allowed any apparent scandal to remain unexposed, had allowed policies however extravagant to continue unchecked, and allowed inconsistencies, however flagrant, to occur without calling tho Government to account and, because they had had a Government which has taKc/i full advantage of th© license allowed by th© Commons, it was absolutely essential to restore wholesome, straightforward politics. The first need was that the Coalition should b© brought to an end. Mr Lloyd Georg© seemed to think be had invented a method of transacting foreign affairs by conference. “ That was practised before the war and would have been practised on th© eve of th© war if our advice had been taken,” declared Viscount Grey.