Evening star., 1925-11-17
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
l. G. NJ.

FIVE YEARS. Viscount
Grey of Falloden. Frederick A.
Stokes.
In the middle months of 1914, just
before the end of the world, when
the long rivalries and animosities of |
Europe so suddenly speeded up and
turned definitely upon the 1rremedl-
able catastrophe of war, there was
among the European leaders or
thought one of outstanding activity IN
an unalterable passion Tor peace. |
Long after the others, hope aban- !
doned, had settled to an acceptance |
of the inevitable, this man, persistent
and unshakable, still sought honorable |
means of rescuing civilization from
the barbaric settlements OF war II
was in these anxious ana married.
months that the average press reader
came to know Grey of Falloden, Great
Britain's foreign secretary, as tne
most inspired and tenacious OF all the
leaders in his many-sided oVertures
toward an accommodation OF the con
fiicting claims of Europe.
1t is, therefore, with sense OF per
sonaI acquaintance and confidence
that one takes up the memoirs OF
Lord Grey. More than this, 1t IS win
sense of keen expectation that one
approaches Sir Edward Grey's 25-year
record of public service in the inter
est of England's foreign relations.
X X X
Within the history of later civiliza-
tion there is no period more impor-
tant in it's true significance than that
included by Lord Grey'S chronicle,
period extending from 1892 to 1916 A
time of national outreaching, this.
The leading countries of Europe are
here engaged in an aggressive colonial
expansion, with it's unavoidable Sc
quence of overlapping claims and dis
puted points of common occupation.
The whole Eastern Hemisphere lies, at
this time, thick-sown, with causes and
occa sionS of war.
And in this common outgoing of the
nations of Europe toward greater and
ever greater empire. Great Britain has
an active part. Motivated by the gen
eral spirit of expansion, by the need
also of safeguarding earlier acquisi-
tions and possibly by a dim prescience
of danger to England itself, certain it
is that Great Britain was not idle in
this competitive race for place and
power.
X X X K
Lord Grey's "Twenty-five Years"
drawn from the watch tower of his
official place as foreign secretary for
England, lays out the greatest of these
European copvergences upon ultimate
disaster. A sense of composition and
proportion here draws the whole tur-
moil Of competition into an intelligible
and comprehensive outline of events.
Designs that. upon the surface, lie
apart and unrelated, trace back to a
common source of bitter emulation in
the field of political ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
JealousleS grow as ambition grows.
France is perturbed over England in
Egypt. Kitchener and Marcia nd
meet at Fashoda, each making claim
TO the Sudan-and war is just around
the corner. France and Spain to-
gether in Morocco are met by an in
furiated war lord who thunders a
mighty verboten unless he, too has
some place in this particular sun of
imperial expansion. France and Rus
sia combine against the triple alliance,
the subsequent entente drives the
triple alliance to frenzy. The Orient
Is filled with claims and wars and
alliances and makeshift accommoda-
tions to the voracity of an expanding
Europe. Finally the mad race of
Germany for feet to match her su-
preme army is the last blow to any
possible peace.
x X ~
man of fair mind. Grey of Fallo-
den. Always for England, it is true
usually equipped. however, with an
explanation for the good intent and
honorable behavior of Great Britain,
equipped with legitimate explanation.
lie Is fair to other peoples than his
own. For instance, among many in
stances, he talks of Germanys ambi-
ton. Much vague talk in Germany
about "a place in the SUM- and some
equally vague sympathy in England
with this aspiration of Germany. But
If, by place in the sun tropical Africa
was meant, Germany already had her
place in Southwest Africa, East Africa.
and Cameroons and Togoland A place
in the sun was not what Germany
wanted The tropics do not provide
an outlet for a white race. What Ger
many really wanted was a place in a
temperate climate and a fertile land
which could be peopled by her white
population and be German. part of the
German Empire and under the Ger
man flag. All the temperate
lands of the world. however, not popu-
lated or overpopulated by yellow races,
were already taken up by and be-
longed to white races, who were in
possession of them. Germans could
go there and did go. notably to the
United States; they had to become
one with the other white inhabitants
and accept the separate government
of those countries" And this, to be
sure, was not part Of the plan of the
Kaiser to pepper the round world
with little Germans
Lord Grey has this important thing
to say about the causes Of the World
War: 1T seemed to me at the time.
and still seems to me, that the mill
tary power in Germany chose the time
and precipitated the war and that had
there had been a real will for peace in
Germany. there would have been no
great European war arising out of the
Austro-Serbian dispute. But, though
all this be true, 1t it not, in my opin-
ion, the real and final account of the
origin Of the great war. The enormous
growth of ornaments in Europe, the
sense of insecurity and fear caused bv
them-it was they that made war in
evitable. This, it seems to me, Is the
truest reading Of history, and the les
son that the present should be learn
ing from the past in the interest of
future peace, the warning to be hand
ed on to those who come after u.s.
This opinion of the causes Of the
war, generally accepted as both rea-
sonab1e and sound, found an echo in
the United States when President
Harding in 1923 invited foreign ma
tions to send representatives to Wash.
ington for conference on the subject
of limitation of armaments Lord
Grey, Great Britains official rep
reSentative, was present at that con-
ference. And within the full period of