"I should like to say a word to those who regard the Far Eastern question as a test case, and say that by it the League of Nations will stand or fall. In my opinion, it is a matter peculiarly unfitted to be a test case... There are people who ask, could not the League of Nations have done more? I will ask what more could it have done. The League of Nations is not a separate entity, but it is composed of the Governments of those countries who are members of the League and it cannot act unless those Governments are all in agreement that action should be taken. Does anyone suppose that those Governments would be in favour of going to war in this case, or, if they had been in favour of going to war, that they would have been successful? I do not like the idea of resorting to war to prevent war. What we wish is to prevent war. War is a disagreeable thing, even if it is to be resorted to in order to prevent a war. It is too much like lighting a large fire in order to prevent a smaller one. Anyhow this instance seems to me peculiarly unsuitable for any action of that sort on the part of the League of Nations."
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Members of the Parliament of the United KingdomAmbassadorsGovernment ministersSecretaries of State for Foreign Affairs of Great Britain and the United KingdomBritish Ambassadors to the United States
Original Language: English
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On the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in a speech to a meeting held by League of Nations Union in the Albert Hall, London (7 March 1932), quoted in The Times (8 March 1932), p. 16
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Grey%2C_1st_Viscount_Grey_of_Fallodon
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Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon
Sir Edward Grey, 3rd Bt., 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon (25 April 1862 – 7 September 1933) was British Foreign Secretary from 1905 to 1916.
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