THE KAISER'S IMAGINATION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 8 June 1916, Page 5

THE KAISER'S IMAGINATION.

ONE OF ITS HIGHEST FLIGHTS

HIS ADDRESS TO THE FLEET AT

KIEL

(Received June 8, 10.30 a.m.)

AMSTERDAM, June 7. The Kaiser, aboard the flagship at Kiel, addressing detachments from the vessels which participated in the battle, said: ''While the army was conquering enemy after enemy, the fleet waited vainly for a fight. Numerous isolated deeds had manifested th 6 navy's heroic spirit, but its hour had not struck. Proposal after proposal was vainly made to bring the enemy into the field, and finally the day came. The gigantic fleet of Albion,, which since Trafalgar had imposed on the world a ban of sea tyranny and had surrounded herself with a nimbus of invincibility, came into the field.. Its admiral almost more than anyone enthusiastically admired the German fleet, and he was the brain and leader. He was leading splendid material with the bravest veteran sailors. The British armada approached our fleet and engaged it, and what happened to the British fleet? It was beaten by the first great hammer blow struck, and the nimbus of British .world supremacy disappeared. The news rushed over the world like an electric spark, causing unprecedented jubilation wherever German hearts "beat and among our allies. You have opened a new chapter in the world's history, avid the German fleet has .defeated a superior British fleet. God Almighty steeled your arms and "kept your eyes clear, but I, your Supreme War Lord, thank you from the bottom of my heart in the name of the Fatherland. The army at Verdun began the collapse, our allies are driving the Italians from the mountains, and the world was prepared for almost anything, but not for a German victory over the British Navy. With a start made fear will creep into the enemy's bones. You have done this so that the Father- ■ land may for all time have a free way lon the seas for industry and strength."