"If we alone, among the great Powers, gave up the competition and sank into a position of inferiority, what good should we do? None whatever—no good to ourselves because we cannot realise great ideals of social reform at home when we are holding our existence at the mercy, the caprice if you like, of another nation. That is not feasible. If we fall into a position of inferiority our self-respect is gone, and it removes that enterprise which is essential both to the material success of industry and to the carrying out of great ideals, and you fall into a state of apathy. We should cease to count for anything amongst the nations of Europe, and we should be fortunate if our liberty was left, and we did not become the conscript appendage of some stronger Power. That is a brutal way of stating the case, but it is the truth."
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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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Speech in the House of Commons (29 March 1909)
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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