THE KAISER'S ALLEGED ANTICATHOLIC UTTERANCES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 13, 16 January 1905, Page 6

THE KAISER'S ALLEGED ANTICATHOLIC UTTERANCES.

i (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) ''■1 (HiUSTCHLTICH, Saturday. £ Last November a speech alleged to *'«have been delivered by the Kaiser to the ■Roman Catholic Bishop of Metz wa<> to the colonies, and circulated •(broadcast through the medium of the jjress. Amongst other things the GerJtnan Emperor was reported to have rebuked the Bishop, adding: "Two-thirds of my subjects are Protestants. I have done everything in :ny power to fulfil the desires of my Catholic subjects without heeding the dissatisfaction of men of my own faith, with the single idea of enabling all to co-operate in unity and vrsonal esteem. See to jL tnat I do not arrive at the conclusion that my efforts and sacrifices tune been in vain, that the Roman catholic (.hureh does oot desire peace but sii'-tnission. If my a;'_anipts at conciliation fail, owing to the intolerance and presuniptuousness of the Roman Catholics, the wind may possibly blow from another quarter. Serve God to the best c>f your knowledge, b'jt do not forget that you must also serve your country, and your king, and although your king rules with r. gentle hand, that hand may in a moment be turned into a mailed fist." Writing to the Christchurch morning paper Bishop Grimes quotes the following- letter on the subject, which he lias riceived from the Bishop of Sale (Australia): — "We have it on most reliable authority that there is not an iota of truth in the report. This authority is the Bishop of Metz, who. when it was brought under his notice, wrote as follows: 'Metz, November 13, I!'o4.—All the Catholic papers in Germany have already protested HiiaLnst the so-called utterances of the Emperor to the Bishop of Metz. Not one iota of the expressions is true. These perfidious falsehoods show the spirit in which the agitation against the Catholic Church is carried. —W. Beuzler. Bishop.' Ac German priest states: 'The Bishop was appointed to Metz by desire of the Emperor himself. The feeling between the two is of the best. The Emperor would not make a fool of himself by such a speech. Everybody in Germany knows that the report is untrue. Sometime ago these falsehoods were refuted in the German press by the Bishop of Metz and others. The whole thing is a pure concoction.' "