Mr. Shaw urges that we all armed together.  Of course we did.  When one nation publicly turns bellicose the rest must copy her preparations.  If Great Britain could live this century over again she would do over again what she actually did, because common sense would not permit her to do otherwise.  The admitted fact that some Britons are militarists does not in the slightest degree impair the rightness or sagacity of our policy.  If one member of a family happens to go to the bad and turn burglar, therein is no reason why the family mansion should not be insured against burglary.

Mr. Shaw proceeds to what he calls the diplomatic history of the war.  His notion of historical veracity may be judged from his description of the Austrian ultimatum to Servia as an escapade of a dotard.  He puts the whole blame of it on Franz Josef, and yet he must know quite well that Germany has admitted even to her own subjects that Austria asked Germany’s opinion about her policy and obtained Germany’s approval before delivering the ultimatum. [Official German pamphlet “Reasons for the War with Russia,” August, 1914.] There is no word in Mr. Shaw’s diplomatic history of the repeated efforts toward peace made by Great Britain and scotched by Germany.  On the contrary, with astounding audacity and disingenuousness, he tries to make it appear that suggestions for peace were offered by Germany and rejected by Great Britain.  Once more it simply was not so.

Defense of Sir Edward Grey.

Mr. Shaw’s paraphrase of Document 17 in the British diplomatic dispatches is a staggering travesty.  So far as I can see it bears no relation to the original.  Further, he not only deplores that a liberal government should have an imperialist Foreign Secretary, but he accuses Sir Edward Grey of sacrificing his country’s welfare to the interests of his party and committing a political crime in order not to incur the wrath of The Daily News and The Manchester Guardian.  This is totally inexcusable.  Let me not be misunderstood.  I am not a liberal.  I am an out-and-out radical.  I foresee a cleavage in the Liberal Party, and when that cleavage comes I shall be on the extreme left wing.  I entirely agree with Mr. Shaw’s denunciation of secret diplomacy and undemocratic control of foreign policy.  By every social tradition I should be in opposition to Sir Edward Grey, but I think Grey was the best Foreign Secretary that the Liberal Party could have chosen and that he worked well on the only possible plane, the plane of practicality.  I am quite sure he is an honest man, and I strongly resent, as Englishmen of all opinions will resent, any imputation to the contrary.