Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/109



Of Sir Edward Grey's speech of the 3rd of August, 1914, Lord Loreburn says:

"This remarkable speech began with an elaborate ef- fort to prove that the House of Commons was perfectly free to determine either for peace or war. It ended with a passionate declaration that this country would be dis- graced if we did not declare war, and the reasoning of the speech proved that Sir Edward Grey had committed himself irretrievably. It left the House of Commons convinced that it had in honor no choice but to join France in arms. It is an epitome of the reasoning by which Sir Edward Grey had been brought to believe that he could say and do what he said and did without limit- ing his freedom of action. But if this is legitimate we ought not to keep up the pretense that we are a self- governing nation in foreign affairs."

Thus a minister, to whom national intrigue and duplicity were essentially foreign, who was trusted by his country and who wanted peace, was brought by the methods of secret diplomacy into a position where he had actually incurred the moral obligation to assist another country with- out having the power for peace which the ability to avow that relationship openly, to take the re- sponsibility, and to confront Germany therewith, would have given him.

As early as November, 1911, Lord Lansdowne, one of the founders of the Entente, in speaking of the secret agreement of 1904 concerning Mo-