engage to stand by while
French colonies are taken and France is beaten so long as
Germany does not take French territory as distinct from the
colonies.

From the material point of view such a proposal is
unacceptable, for France, without further territory in
Europe being taken from her, could be so crushed as to lose
her position as a great Power, and become subordinate to
German policy.

Altogether apart from that, it would be a disgrace for us to
make this bargain with Germany at the expense of France, a
disgrace from which the good name of this country would
never recover.

The Chancellor also in effect asks us to bargain away
whatever obligations or interest we have as regards the
neutrality of Belgium. We could not entertain that bargain
either.

Having said so much, it is unnecessary to examine whether
the prospect of a future general neutrality agreement
between England and Germany offered positive advantages
sufficient to compensate us for tying our hands now. We must
preserve our full freedom to act as circumstances may seem
to us to require in any such unfavorable and regrettable
development of the present crisis as the Chancellor
contemplates.

You should speak to the Chancellor in the above sense, and
add most earnestly that one way of maintaining good
relations between England and Germany is that they should
continue to work together to preserve the peace of Europe;
if we succeed in this object, the mutual relations of
Germany and England will, I believe, be _ipso facto_
improved and strengthened. For that object His Majesty's
Government will work in that way with all sincerity and
goodwill.

_And I will say this: If the peace of Europe can be
preserved, and the present crisis safely passed, my own
endeavor will be to promote some arrangement, to which
Germany could be a party, by which she could be assured that
no aggressive or hostile policy would be pursued against her
or her allies by France, Russia, and ourselves, jointly or
separately._

This letter will give Sir Edward Grey lasting glory in the history of
civilization. Its chivalrous fairness to France needs no comment, but
its most significant feature is the concluding portion, in which the
English Foreign Minister suggested to Germany t