ABSTRACT
Together with Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary, and Richard Haldane, who moved from the War Office to the Lord Chancellorship in 1912,. By the time that Sir Edward Grey took office, concern at Germany's growth as an economic competitor had been reinforced by a keen sense of rivalry in naval building. After a cabinet meeting on 27 July Lloyd George told a confidant that 'there could be no question of our taking part in any war in the first instance. He knew of no Minister who would be in favour of it.' Sir Edward Grey himself told the French Ambassador, Paul Cambon, that Britain was 'free from engagements, and we should have to decide what British interests required us to do'. Grey's lament for the passing of the pre-1914 world is well known: 'the lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime'.
