SECRET DIPLOMACY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 24, 23 October 1917, Page 4

SECRET DIPLOMACY

MR. BALFOUR'S. VIEW

Mr. Balfour spoke for litalf an hour in the House of Commons on. August 11 on secret diplomacy and Balkjan affairs. In the course of his speech hie said: In diplomacy music be reticence. In private affairs, if everything were said everywhere by overybo cly, life would be impossiblo, and the domestic life 01 nations is quite as difficult ana delicate a matter to manage. All truth is desirable, but all truth ought not to be told at all times. If a Foreign Minister is to have free conimnnicati|on with the Ministers and Ambassadorsof other countries, tliev must bo sure that he will not come down to this Hous.B and blurt out things which are not inttilided to be blurted out. lord Grey emae said he could tell the House of Comn kons everything that went on in the Foreign Office; but he could do it only once.

It is said that if this House 1 had been taken into the confidence of th£> Government before the war the war wc*uld never have burst on the country libs a thunderbolt. I believe that to ',U9 quite wrong- I don't believe that jn June, 1914, the Government had the slightest notion thero was any danger aftiead. I don't believe we should have beetu better prepared for the great issue if 'we had had a daily lecture from tlio Secretary for Foreign Affairs and had been, shown every document that passed between him and any Foreign Chancellor. The; public has a profound illusion about eeciret diplomacy. It is not a criminal operation intended to cover lip transactions 'which lead to divisions among mankind. It is directed not to making quarrels lint to healing quarrels.