Sir Edward Grey was the guest of the " Eighty
" and "Russell" Clubs at Oxford last Saturday, and in replying to the toast of the "Liberal party" devoted himself mainly to an analysis of the party differences over the Egyptian question. The evacuation policy advocated by Mr. Scott he described as intelligible but impossible. The real difference of opinion rested on a different basis,—whether the Soudan Expedition could have been avoided. He, and others of the party, not only held that it was bound to come, but that things would have been worse without it. On the other hand, they were all agreed against further expansion in Africa. The sole question which remained was : Were they prepared to accept the obligations they had already incurred ? "If they accepted the result of the expedition, then the differences of opinion in the party would become less and less till they disappeared altogether." Turning to home politics, Sir Edward alluded to the Death-duties Budget as a practical illustration of the application of Mr. Chamberlain's doctrine of ransom in a refined and humanising form, and summed up the financial situation by Baying: "The country had been living up to its income in exceptionally good times : what would it do in the bad times ? " As a profitable, and, in his opinion, legitimate, source of revenue he strongly advocated the taxation of ground values.
Previous page
