The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1920-02-16

Grey of FalIodon, list viseount, bet
ter known as Sir Ed w a
Grey: English statesman: b. London'
rs April 1862. His father, Col.
George H. Grey I'd. 1874? served IN
the Crimea and in the Indian munity;
his mother was the daughter of Lieut.
Col. Charles Pearson and his grand
father the well-known statesman sir
George Grey, a nephew Of Earl Grey,
the great Wing leader and reformer,
On the death of his grandfather ne
succeeded to the baronetcy and be-
came Sir Edward.1 Three years Ia
ter he was elected Liberal M, +. for
Berwick on Tweed; which, constituent
cy he represented for 81 years. till his
elevated to the peerage of 1915.
When the Gladstone became Prem
Ter for the fourth and last time IN
1892, he appointed Sir Edward un-
der-secretary for foreign affairs Lord
Rosebery was the foreign secretary,
and as his by virtue Of his title he
necessa riiy sat in the house Of lords,
1t fell to the under secretary to rep
resent the foreign Office in the com
mons---a delicate and responsible
task During the short lived Rose
berry administration lS9i-95). Slr
Edward continued his post under
Lord Kimberley. The foreign policy
pursued by Lord Rosebery marked a
profound change in British political
history. Hitherto there had been two
distinctly different policies, according
To whether the conservatives or the
liberals were in power--that of the
former being invariably energetic and
strong; Of the latter, yacillating ana
unreliable. Lord Rosebery had twice
succeeded Lord Salisbury as foreign
secretary (tS86 and 1920, ana on
each occasion continued the policy Of
his conservative predecessor.
! Thus it may be said that Sir Ed
ward Grey studied diplomacy under
these two excellent masters, diametri-
calIy opposed on perhaps every ques-
ton of the days excepting only that
of British relations with other coun-
tries. After the resignation OF the
Rosebery cabinet in 1895 the liberals
wandered i'll the wilderness" for 10
years until the resignation Of Mr.. Bal
/ four in December 1905, when Sir Ed
ward Grey became secretary of state
/ for foreign affairs in the Campbell
Bennerman administration. Long re-
garded as a man of infinite POSSIBLE
tiles in the future" by his colleagues
his accession WAS marked by no little
curiosity and speculation in the chan
celleries of Europe.
1 The government was certainly lib
eraf' in the widest sense of the word
even radical, socialstic. revolution
ary BY far the bulk of the govern
ment's overwhelming majority was al
the little Englander" or antrim
perialist type, imbued with '''milien-
mum" theories born of the Isar's
peace proposals Of 1898. Reduction
in naval and military expenditures
was an important item in their pro
gram. The extreme section, indeed
favored gradual disarmament, since
+ democracy was now supposed to be
firmly established in the world anc
Russo apanesc war was regarded a;
the last conflict among the great ma
tons. The vision of the new Utopia
had hypnotized not only the rank and
Ale but almost the entire cabinet
with two notable exceptions: Mr.. AS
quith, then chancellor OF the ex
checker e'si Sir Edward Grey. The,
were rega, ded by the conservative el
emtn OF British opinion as the stahil
izing froces OF the government
Neither was dreamer nor an idealist
each was practical and businesslike
Sir Edward Grey took up thu
threads OF the British foreign polio,
at an epochal moment. The polio.
Of splendid isolation was dead
. from his predecessor Lord Lans
downe he inherited the Anglo Jana
nnse alliance and the Entente Cor
dale" with France. which later h
strengthened by concluding the An
glo- Russian agreement (3l Aue
. 1000, thus completing that tripi
bond to which German opinion sough
to ascrihe the origin of the European
war. The German emperors pilgri
mage TO Tangier in 1905 had alread
raised the spectre of war; the subse
r quent conference at Algecras an
the Aga dir incident were general
+ recognized as German attempts I
break up the coalition. Certain ele
r ments in the British cabinet wer
suspected of trucking" to German
r at the expense of France: Sir Edwar
Grey happily. stood firm and imper
!. vious to the pronptings Of his col