VISCOUNT GREY'S MESSAGE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2911, 25 October 1916, Page 5

VISCOUNT GREY'S MESSAGE

NO PEACE WITHOUT FULL

GUARANTEE

TEMPER OF THE ALLIES

Australian-Sew Zealand Cable Association. London, October 23. Viscount Grey (British Foreign Minister), replying to the toast of his health at the Foreign Press luncheon, said that M. Briand's recent speech in the French Chamber of Deputies, Mr. Lloyd George's recent interview given to the American Press, and Mr. Asquith's speech in the House of Commons gave the world the note and tone of the feeling of the Allies. Ho endorsed all that had been said. The Allies must succeed in this war; they must not forget how the war originat-. ed. Germany's statesmen talked of peace, and said Germany must have guarantees against future attacks. If Britain had .forced the war on Germany that would be a logical state- 1 ment; but, precisely, because the war was not forced on Germany, but upon Europe by Germany, the Allies must have guarantees for future peace. _ Viscount Grey reviewed the negotiations before the war, showing that Germany alone refused a pacific conference. All efforts to avoid war had failed because the will for war existed at Berlin. "It is because we have had this experience," he said,- "that we are determined that the "war: will not end. until we are sure that the future generations shall not be subjected to such' a terrible trial again." Don r t Forgot the Threats of 1914. ; "We should not think of what Germany is saying to-day, but of what her Government and people expected when the war started. Eminent Germans then avowed that Germany's object was to dictate peace to Europe, and that! the individual nations must surrender their sovereignty. Germany's efforts to separato the Allies have only confirmed their resolve to go through, to the end." Neutrals, lie added, could do good work in the direction of preventing a recurrence of such a war, but the belligerents were engaged in a life-and-death struggle, fighting for a victory, the prospects of which, for us,; were daily improving, and could not he expected to spend their time in developing ideas for after-war measures. "If the nations desire to .do something more effective than was done before the war in order to maintain peace by common' action,' they should undertake only, what they are prepared to upKold by; force. Wo all-favour peace safegnaxds, but we say to neutrals: We shall aste you, when tho time comes, for you. td make demands on _ us—will'you also play up when the time comes? Something more thaii the signatures of sovereigns'and presidents are needed to make a thing like that worth while. It must have behind it Parliament and national sympathies."