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GREY OF FALLODON

the spring of 1878. It was at first announced that he had been returned by two votes; but a scrutiny eventually seated his Conservative opponent, who became afterwards Mr. Justice Ridley. However, he won the seat by a large majority at the General Election in 1880 and, after the Reform bill of 1884 had altered the constituency, sat for Tyneside for a few months in 1885-6. The Liberalism which he displayed as a member of Parliament and developed greatly in a crowded after-life was unlike the conventional Radicalism of the period. He was an enthusiastic social reformer, and a passionate imperialist. It was inevitable that he should follow Hartington rather than Glad- stone over Irish Home Rule. He was one of the 93 dissentient Liberals who by voting against the Liberal Government decided the fate of the Home Rule bill of 1886.

Standing as a Liberal Unionist, he lost his seat at the General Election of that year, and did not reappear in Parliament till he succeeded his uncle in the earldom in 1894. The interval had been largely filled with travel chiefly along the byways of the British Empire. He was in S. Africa when his uncle died, and his knowledge of, and interest in, that country led to his appoint- ment in 1895, after the Jameson raid, as administrator of Rhodesia in succession to Dr. Jameson. His difficulties were great. The settlers were still few and scattered, and were re- garded with jealousy and mistrust by their neighbours, the Trans- vaal Boers. In 1896 there came the second Matabele War, only brought to a close by Cecil Rhodes's personal intervention. Racial, administrative, and economic problems of an intricate kind pressed upon him and were not always wisely decided; and it says much for his personal charm that he carried away with him on his retirement the warm affection of the Rhodesians. He had become himself a close friend and ardent admirer of Cecil Rhodes; and it was natural that on returning to England he should join the board of the Chartered Co. in 1899, a director- ship which he held until he went to Canada. He visited Lord Milner in S. Africa after the Boer War; and returned once more in 1912 to unveil the Rhodes memorial on Table Mountain.

Canada, however, where he went as governor-general in 1904, was the part of the British Empire to hold the first place in his affections. He was no stranger there, but had visited the dominion twice already, being a brother-in-law of his predecessor, Lord Minto. His enthusiasm for the land and the people, his idealistic outlook, his bright but simple manner, his utter lack of conventionality and stiffness, his fondness for travelling and nature and sport captivated the Canadian heart. He formed a firm and cordial friendship with the Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier; but that did not prevent him from welcoming and winning the attachment of Sir Wilfrid's successor, Sir Robert Borden. Similarly he was able to celebrate worthily, in the presence of the then Prince of Wales, the acquisition by Quebec of the Plains of Abraham for public purposes, without hurting the susceptibilities of the French-Canadians. His term of office was twice prolonged; but Canada was loth to see him go in Oct. 1911, even though his successor was to be the Duke of Connaught.

Never much of a party man, he was still less so after his return to public life in England. He devoted himself to the causes which appealed to him. Of these, the federation of the Empire was the first, and he would only contemplate Irish Home Rule as part of a Federal scheme. State liquor control was another of his pet ideas; and he helped greatly towards licensing reform by the institution of the Public House Trust, in which he took a leading part. He worked hard also for Proportional Representation. Perhaps the good of agriculture came next in his affections to the claims of empire; and he forwarded all promising schemes for its betterment and organization. He died at Howick, after a serious operation, on Aug. 29, 1917.

Lord Grey married Alice, daughter of Robert Stayner Holford, and had, besides daughters, a son who succeeded him in the earldom and who married the daughter of the and Earl of Selborne. (G. E. B.)

GREY OF FALLODON, EDWARD GREY, 1ST VISCOUNT (1862- ), British statesman (see 12.588), had given public notification, in a speech in the City of London in Oct. 1905, that if, as seemed probable, the Liberal party regained power in the near future, they would maintain the national foreign policy pursued by Mr. Balfour and Lord Lansdowne. He mentioned as the three cardinal points of British policy: (i) friendship with the United States; (2) the alliance with Japan; and (3) the Entente with France; all three were matters, he said, of cordial congratulation. Could British relations with Russia and Germany be improved ? As to Russia, he held that the roots of estrangement lay solely in the past, and that it should be the business of both Governments to encourage the growth of mutual confidence. As to Germany, it must be a condition of any improvement in relations between her and Britain that the relations of Germany with France on all matters coming under the Anglo-French Entente should be fair and good also.

The programme thus laid down in advance was faithfully observed by Sir Edward Grey (as he then was) during a tenure of the Foreign Office which lasted exactly n years, from Dec. 1905 to Dec. 1916. He had great hesitation originally in accept- ing office under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman; but after a short interval of negotiations he was included in the new Liberal Cabinet. In office the relations of the two men were cordial, and the Prime Minister gave his Foreign Secretary steady backing. It was needed at the very outset. During the general election of 1906, as Sir Edward told the House of Commons in his famous speech on 'Aug. 3 1914, Germany was pressing France about Morocco, and he was asked by France if, should a Franco-German war break out, Britain would give her assist- ance in arms. He replied that he could promise nothing which would not be fully endorsed by public opinion, but that, if war were forced on France through the Entente respecting Morocco, British public opinion would rally to her support. The French Government then suggested conversations between naval and military experts. After consulting the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the War Secretary, he agreed, on the understanding that such conversations should in no way bind the British Government. The Algeciras Conference on Morocco followed in the spring of 1906, and the constant support which, on his instructions, the British representatives accorded to the French helped to produce a satisfactory result, and to strengthen the Anglo-French Entente. He had also in this first year to take a firm attitude towards Turkey, who was making difficulties about the delimitation of the Turco-Egyptian fron- tier. In 1907 he forwarded Anglo-American friendship by send- ing a distinguished public man, Mr. (afterwards Lord) Bryce, tc Washington as British ambassador; and, it may be added, he succeeded, during Mr. Bryce's term, in settling the outstanding questions of difference between England and America. He concluded an agreement in 1907 with Spain, which pledged both Powers to maintain the status quo in the waters adjacent to southern Spain and north-western Africa, and which incidentally involved Spanish recognition for the first time of the British position and rights at Gibraltar. In that year he also fulfilled his hope of coming to an understanding with Russia. He con- cluded a convention with her about Persia, in which both Govern- ments recited their desire to maintain the integrity of that country, but stated that in certain parts of it Russia and Britain had special interests. Accordingly Britain recognized Russia's rights and interests in the northern zone and Russia recognized British rights and interests in the southern zone, the central zone being treated as neutral ground. Sir E. Grey asserted, and the Russians did not deny, the special rights of Britain in the Persian Gulf. Other questions which pressed on him in these early years of his foreign secretaryship were the state of Macedonia and of the Congo. He disappointed the humani- tarians -by declining to pose as a knight-errant. His prudence led him to be chary of burning words, but to promote interna- tional action to benefit Macedonia, and to forward the trans- ference of the Congo State from King Leopold to Belgium.

In 1908 the year in which Mr. Asquith, an intimate friend of Sir E. Grey, became Prime Minister the European situation was considerably modified by several striking events. First came the Young Turk revolution, which Sir E. Grey, no wiser