Thirteen thousand miles away from it, Grey remained the friend of the Colony in which he had spent the greater part of his days. He might well have been appointed Agent-General or High Commissioner for it in London, and it is known that in later years he would have accepted the office, which was created in 1870; but the interests of colonial politicians had to be regarded, and perhaps he was distrusted by Ministers, while he might not have been a persona grata at the Colonial Office. He was to act like a Greek proxenos, keeping watch and ward over its relations with the Motherland, as Rudyard Kipling professed to sit on the boundary of Maine like the watch-dog of the British Empire. As there were once volunteer laureates in England, Grey was for a brief space, before the office had been created, a volunteer Agent-General. He was the intermediary between the colonists and the Colonial Office, but he failed to avert the total withdrawal of the troops from New Zealand. Yet once he was to render it a signal service.