LITERARY NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2972, 8 December 1925, Page 4

LITERARY NEWS.

Plodder and Stoughton announce the publication in September of “Twenty-five Years: 1892-1916,” by Viscount Grey of Fallodon. Opening with Edward Grey’s entry into public life, and as Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs to Liord Rosebery in 1892, and closing with his retirement from office as Foreign Secretary in 1916, this highly important work comprises an account of the most momentous period in modern history by the man who was for a longer time continuously in charge of foreign affairs than any other minister.

Lord Grey traces the development of British foreign policy from the closing years of the era of splendid isolation, through the crises of Al-gec-iras, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Agadir and the Balkan wars, till the story comes to its climax in an account of the negotiations of July, 1911. Perhaps the most striking chapters of the whole book are those at the end of the first volume and the beginning of the second, in which Lord Grey records his own feelings and motives and the change of opinion in the Cabinet and country during the days that immediately preceded the final decision. There is also a detailed account of the course of allied diplomacy during the first two years of the war.

“Twenty-five Years” is by far the authoritative story yet written of the deeper and moxo immediate causes of the war, and also of its effect upon the relations of Great Britain with other powers. The work reveals not only the statesman, but the human personality, the lover of natural history and the countryside. Primarily a completely candid version of history by one of the principal characters on a famous stage, “Twenty-Five Years” is also a rich and varied portrait gallery of the famous jnen of the century, and among these the most interesting and the most stimulating of all is the clear self portrait unconsciously drawn by the distinguished author. This very notable work cannot fail to find a very prominent place in the permanent aehives of the war.