Sir Edward Grey spoke at a meeting at North Shields
on Wednesday, and thus was the first prominent member of the Opposition to deal with the crisis. Nothing could have been in better taste or more tactful than Sir Edward Grey's words, but he was not able to throw any real light upon the situa- tion. He praised Sir William Harcourt warmly for his great qualities as a Parliamentary statesman, but he went on to point out that if Sir William Harcourt had difficulties as a leader of the Opposition, Lord Rosebery had encountered difficulties no less great when he was Prime Minister. Sir Edward Grey's language was a little ambiguous; but we presume what he wanted to say politely to his two chiefs was that "it was six of one and half a dozen of the other" in the matter of undermining and cryptic workings. Sir Edward Grey ended by saying that if the party could not agree unanimously to settle the leadership question altogether, it had better be left alone, meaning, of course, that the party should be ccntent to choose a leader in the Commons to do the necessary work, but without making him the head of the party.
