37 DAYS SUBTLY ACCUSES GREY

37 Days is the docudrama shown on the BBC in March last year based on the international debacle of the 37 days between the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and Britain declaring war on Germany.

The European powers had 37 days to stop the war but somehow were unable to do so. Until recently, because to the victors the spoils, history has been written to accuse the madmen of Austro-Hungary and Germany. But it is now becoming clear that Great Britain shares a significant amount, if not all, of the responsibility for the war.

37 days shows Grey generally as the mediator, seeking peace and proposing peace talks. But there are also indications of Grey's duplicity.

In the last of the 3 episodes Grey is forced to reveal the extent to which he had conspired with France to defend French ports in the English Channel. Not even the Cabinet was aware of the extent. They all believed that he was referring to a 1904 treaty, but Grey had updated this in 1912 but had not revealed the details. In the second episode Lord Morley challenges Grey to reveal the details of any treaty between France and Great Britain, but Grey just smiles without reply. Morley also remarks that Grey had stated in Parliament several times that there were no treaties that could drag Great Britain into any war subsequent to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.

But the killer is in the first episode. Just a few days into July 1914, Max Lichnowsky, the German Ambassador to Great Britain, explicitly asks Grey if there were any treaties between Russia and Great Britain that could drag Great Britain into a wider war. Again Grey dodges the question.

But it is this precise point that leads to Lord Morley and John Burns to resign upon Grey revealing the details of the treaty with France because they understood that Grey had misled everyone and that Russia at war would mean France at war would mean Great Britain at war.

There is one scene in which King George V appears, but he is portrayed as a peacemaker. His statement of neutrality to Prince Henry is not shown, nor is George's statement to Grey to get Great Britain into the war. And in 37 Days Grey only finds out about Germany's plan to invade Belgium on 3rd August when in reality Grey was actually told about this plan in late July by the British military attache in Berlin.