LORD GREY'S LETTER.

In his letter to the "London Times," Lord Grey has done much for the future of diplomacy. He has come to the United States, and after a careful non-partisan investigation of conditions and public opinion here in regard to the ratification of the Treaty has made a report in which one feels he has given us the benefit of the doubt. He has explained to the English people the causes underlying the deadlock between President and Senate. Nothing can make for future friendly relations between nations so much as an intimate understanding on the part of one of the workings of the national consciousness of the other.

Although he outlines the causes behind our apparent reluctance to enter the League of Nations, one feels Lord Grey believes these causes to be inevitable as a result of our history and institutions, not that they are inherently right. He outlines causes for the delay and points out that the majority of the American people are impatient for action.

It is almost as if he were telling the British of the results of a general election here on the Treaty when he says:

"In Great Britain and the Allied countries there is naturally impatience and disappointment at the delay of the United States in ratifying the Peace Treaty and the covenant of the League of Nations. It is perhaps not so generally recognized here that there is also impatience and disappointment in the United States. Nowhere is the impasse caused by the deadlock between the President and the Senate more keenly regretted than in the United States, where there is a strong and even urgent desire in the public opinion to see a way out of that impasse found which will be both honorable to the United States and helpful to the world."

Here at home Lord Grey's words should spur the country on to demand an end to the deadlock. In his criticism he has shown the greatest discretion in realizing that anything he might say to our discredit would soon be multiplied a hundred-fold. For nations are very much like individuals who do not understand each other, and gossip soon kindles into libel and hatred. By applying the highest principles of individual to national morality, Lord Grey has set a precedent which makes permanent peace less an idealist's dream.