Those new and better relations, based in the first instance
upon business principles of give and take, matured into a settled temper
of confidence and good-will. They were never in any sense or at any
time, as I have frequently said in this hall, directed against other
powers. No man in the history of the world has ever labored more
strenuously or more successfully than my right honorable friend Sir
Edward Grey [cheers] for that which is the supreme interest of the
modern world, a general and abiding peace. It is, I venture to think, a
very superficial criticism which suggests that under his guidance the
policy of this country has ignored, still less that it has counteracted
and hampered, the concert of Europe. It is little more than a year ago
that under his Presidency, in the stress and strain of the Balkan
crisis, the Ambassadors of all the great powers met here day after day
curtailing the area of possible differences, reconciling warring
ambitions and aims, and preserving against almost incalculable odds the
general harmony. And it was in the same spirit and with the same
purpose, when a few weeks ago Austria delivered her ultimatum to Servia,
that our Foreign Secretary put forward the proposal for a mediating
conference between the four powers who were not directly
concerned--Germany, France, Italy, and ourselves.
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