Statement in House of Commons, July 27, by Sir Edward Grey, Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs.
The House will, of course, be aware from the public press of what the
nature of the situation in Europe is at the present moment. I think it
is due to the House that I should give in short narrative form the
position which his Majesty's Government have so far taken up. ["Hear,
hear."] Last Friday morning I received from the Austro-Hungarian
Ambassador the text of the communication made by the Austro-Hungarian
Government to the powers, which has appeared in the press, and which
included textually the demand made by the Austro-Hungarian Government
upon Servia.
In the afternoon I saw other Ambassadors, and expressed the view that as
long as the dispute was one between Austria-Hungary and Servia alone I
felt that we had no title to interfere, but that if the relations
between Austria-Hungary and Russia became threatening, the question
would then be one of the peace of Europe--a matter that concerned us
all.
I did not then know what view the Russian Government had taken
of the situation, and without knowing how things were likely to develop
I could not make any immediate proposition; but I said that if relations
between Austria-Hungary and Russia did become threatening, the only
chance of peace appeared to me to be that the four powers--Germany,
France, Italy, and Great Britain--who were not directly interested in
the Servian question, should work together both in St. Petersburg and
Vienna simultaneously to get both Austria-Hungary and Russia to suspend
military operations while the four powers endeavored to arrange a
settlement.
After I had heard that Austria-Hungary had broken off diplomatic
relations with Servia I made, by telegraph yesterday afternoon, the
following proposal, as a practical method of applying the views that I
had already expressed:
I instructed his Majesty's Ambassadors in Paris, Berlin, and Rome to ask
the Governments to which they were accredited whether they would be
willing to arrange that the French, German, and Italian Ambassadors in
London should meet me in a conference to be held in London immediately
to endeavor to find a means of arranging the present difficulties. At
the same time I instructed his Majesty's Ambassadors to ask those
Governments to authorize their representatives in Vienna, St.
Petersburg, and Belgrade to inform the Governments there of the proposed
conference and to ask them to suspend all active military operations
pending the result of the conference.
To that I have not yet received complete replies, and it is of course a
proposal in which the co-operation of all four powers is essential. In a
crisis so grave as this the efforts of one power alone to preserve the
peace must be quite ineffective.
The time allowed in this matter has been so short that I have had to
take the risk of making a proposal without the usual preliminary steps
of trying to ascertain whether it would be well received. But, where
matters are so grave and the time so short, the risk of proposing
something that is unwelcome or ineffective cannot be avoided. I cannot
but feel, however, assuming that the text of the Servian reply as
published this morning in the press is accurate, as I believe it to be,
that it should at least provide a basis on which a friendly and
impartial group of powers, including powers who are equally in the
confidence of Austria-Hungary and of Russia, should be able to arrange a
settlement that would be generally acceptable.
It must be obvious to any person who reflects upon the situation that
the moment the dispute ceases to be one between Austria-Hungary and
Servia and becomes one in which another great power is involved, it can
but end in the greatest catastrophe that has ever befallen the Continent
of Europe at one blow; no one can say what would be the limit of the
issues that might be raised by such a conflict; the consequences of it,
direct and indirect, would be incalculable.
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