#59: 3 August 1914 III - House on Fire

When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Zack Twamley

19th Century, 20th Century, International Relations, Politics, Thirty Years' War, Korean War, 18th Century, First World War, Phd, 17th Century, European History, History, War

4.8 • 773 Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Finally, Sir Edward Grey was ready to make his case to the House of Commons. Parliament had been starved of news for a week, and the press had done their best to fill in the gaps, but the whole country was desperate for an update. What would the government do if the rumours were true, and Germany had invaded France? Was neutrality on the table? And what of Belgium, who was protected by a treaty? How would Grey rally the House to his side, and did it even matter if he could not, since the Cabinet had already been convinced of the need to act thanks to various pressures?

Grey was tasked with answering many of these questions, but there were many that he did not answer, and a surprising amount that he did not say. In this episode we give Grey's speech in the Commons - and the subsequent reactions - their proper attention. In a day suffused with monumental, watershed moments, not limited to Germany's declaration of war on France, Grey's speech represented the public culmination of a struggle which had gone on in private for several weeks. His seventy minute speech set the tone for what was to come, and effectively spelled out that Britain was bound to transform this European war into a world war.

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Transcript

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0:54.4	In summer 1914, the world went to war.
0:59.3	Now 110 years later, we go back to those figures, to those debates, to those questions,
1:06.9	in the greatest failure in the history of diplomacy.
1:11.0	I am Dr. Zach Twomley.
1:13.4	You're listening to When Diplomacy Fails,
1:15.8	and this is the July crisis.
1:18.4	This is the July crisis. The Since Gray made his statement in the house today that we should not allow Germany to pass through the English Channel, and that we should not allow her troops to pass through Belgium, public opinion has entirely changed,
2:01.9	and now everyone is for war and are helping our friends. King George V writes in his diary
2:08.5	3rd of August 1914. Sir Edward Gray's journey through the July crisis was far from straightforward.
2:19.8	He had spent the bulk of the month removed from its covert struggles,
2:23.7	before the ultimatum to Serbia and Vienna's declaration of war
2:27.2	snapped him and his colleagues out of their focus on Ireland.
2:31.4	From there, as we've covered in exhaustive detail, Gray served as the leading
	...

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