Edward Grey fishing in Hampshire (from Punch) Extracts: "I cannot give a fair presentaion of the events that led to the War, prolonged in its duration, and aggravated and extended in its desolation, without a candid picture of the personalities who controlled and directed these events. Their charachteristics were responsible for much that happened - for better or for worse. It is a mistaken view to assume that its episodes were entirely due to fundamental causes which could not be averted, and that they were not precipitated or postponed by the intervention of personality. The appearance of one dominating individual in a critical position at a decisive moment has often generated the course of events for years and even generations. A gifted and resolute person has often postponed for centuries a catastrophe which appeared imminent and which, but for him would have befallen. On the other hand a weak or hesitant person has invited or expidited calamity which but for him might never
Left wing commentary from the heart and the head