The Dominion. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1912. THE NEW GARTER.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1364, 15 February 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1912. THE NEW GARTER.

The admission of Sir Edward (Trey to the great Order of the Garter is a remarkable and dramatic event. No other honour in the gift of any monarch is comparable with this: it is the envy of every King and Emperor, and many a King and Emperor has begged and intrigued for it. It is the greatest honour that the King can bestow upon any of his subjects—by far a greater honour, even, than a Dukedom. "Why has his Majesty given to Sir Edward GnEY.this great reward just at this time? The Baihj Graphic, often extraordinarily well informed as to the higher movements in politics, suggests that the new Garter preludes the retirement of Mr. AsQUtTH from the Premiership, and tho elevation of Sir Edward Grey to that post. This may or may not bo correct; but of greater interest and importance than the effect of a Grey Premiership is, just now, the meaning of this emphatic crowning of tho Minister for Foreign Affairs. Before noticing that, however, we may briefly consider the political significance, and the political consequences, of the substitution of Sir Edwapd Grey for Mr. Asquith as the head of his Majesty's Government. Nobody who has closely followed British politics since May, 1909, would be surprised to hear that Mr. Asquith has grown weary of it all—weary of the dominance of Lloyd-Gcorgisin, of the stooping of Liberalism to the gutters of Limchouse, of the eating of liadienlism into, the body of Gladstonian principles, of the surrender of the Liberal party to the yoke of the Nationalists. In our own small way we have constantly expressed our difficulty in understanding how tho one-time colleague, of Gladstone could continue to ally himself with a policy that runs at almost every point away from the Liberalism of Gladstone.

Should Sir Edward Crky assume command of the Government, the internal difficulties of the Cabinet over the women's suffrage question will be softened only by the disappearance of the strongest force against the innovation, namely, Mr. Asquith himself. Such comfort as the Radicals would obtain from this change— Sir Edward Grey is himself a suffragist—would be far more than nullified by the blow that would be given to Radicalism in other directions. Sir Edward Grev is instinctively anti-Radical. It was he who insisted upon the preamble to the Parliament Bill, and who declared on March H, 1910, that if the Liberals abolished the '"Veto" without, adopting n definite plan of Upper House reform they would be marching to "disaster, (loath and damnation." 11 iiL it is ehielly as master of the foreign policy of Britain that he has come most seriously into conflict, with the Radicals. Setting himself to carry on the Laxxdowxk foreign policv, in which he has had (Inmost lnval and unquestioning support, of file Unionists, he lias for two or three years had In endure the steady attack of Ihe liadical '.wdioii (if his parly, headed by such inlliiential parly papers as t.lm Dfiili/ Xcirx and tin , .Vntitw. In Ihe Frirlini/lil 7y ft/rii ir fur .January, Mil. Sidney Low frames an indictment of what he calls "fnrcicn nflire n\.it.ot;ra(;,v""--iin ijirlirttnpnt. shot through and tLrough hy fa-Ua.cics—

on (ho general ground that no ileniueratic cuuntry should consent, to remain in the dark with Parliament concerning the reasons Why Britain makes this or that foreign engageiiient. But it is not in this spirit that tho reckless Jacobin section of the Liberal party have attacked Sn: Ed\\\U!D Grey. They are bitter against him for his refusal to adopt their theory of foreign policy, which, stated broadly, is the policy of climb-down. They hate the idea of war, they hate the thought that the Navy should lie kept efficient, they hate anything and everything liiiit is not Ij.if-i'd on the assumption that everybody loves everybody. They hate supremely the doctrine that Britain should command the world. They hate, therefore, the Anglo-French Enlrnlc and the Anglo-Russian understanding, and are bitter again&t the policy that

denies the obligation of Britain to consult the Hindu fanatic, the backveld Boer and the German in the

framing of British policy. The Radical campaign against Sir Edward Grey has sprung from that spirit of "human brotherhood , ' which has inspired the odious disloyalties of such persons as Mr. Kkir Hardie and the fellow who was imprisoned for slandering King George.

The bestowal of the Garter upon Sir Edward Grey is plainly a mark of the King's gpen'nl approv.il of his conduct of foreign affairs. That Sir Edward Grey has been wise in every direction most men will stoutly affirm. But what is the special significance of the supremo honour conferred upon him? Is it his Majesty's way of telling the world that the best brains of Britain favour the Declaration of Delhi and the repartition of Bengal I h

it his Majesty's answer to the general opposition of the Radicals to Britain's policy in Persia? Or is it the reward of some as yet unpublished success in the thorny field of Anglo-German relations ? To think about the Anglo-German situation is to plunge into a dust-storm, but it is possible to surmise that Lord Haldane's visit to Germany may be the end, or the beginning of the end, of the Anglo-German tension, and may be one of the results of Sir Edward Grey's handling of the Morocco affaire. At the back of, and behind, all the acute Anglo-German difficulty of the past five years there

has been an enormous frame of "bluff." Sooner or later, if Germany were ready to accept the inevitable —which is, and which always will be, the determination of Britain to dominate the European situation — some, such peace as Lord Haldane's visit appears to presage, is bound to come. It will be splendid news if the new Garter means that it has indeed come.