"SAY 'YES'!"

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1459, 16 October 1918, Page 6

"SAY 'YES'!"

KAISER AT ESSEN.

CONFIRMATION DAY AT KRUPP'S

[Here is the fimoas speech, very slightly abbreviated, delivered by the Kaiser at Krnpp's four weeks ago. Pecksniffian oratory seems very effective in Germany.)

"My dear friends at the Krupp Works: I have long felt a desire to pay you a visit, but, as you know, 1 numerous political and military duties have summoned me to the various battlefields and regions of war-wrecked Europe. Now, at last, to my delight, I have succeeded in I coming here to the works which I i have been able to observe in- their development since my earliest childI hood, and the inspection of which has always filled me with the greatest | admiration for German science and [energy.

". . . In my journeyin.es through the land I have spoken with many a widow, many a peasant, many a member of the Landwehr and the Landsturm, whose hearts were heavy with cares, but who glowed with the thought of duty first. I have been touched by your cares to the depths of my heart. What paternal suggestion could do to diminish the burden has been done. Much could have been done otherwise, and it is no wonder there is dissatisfaction here and there.

"But to whom, after all. do we owe this? Who snoke at the verybeginning of starving the women and children? Who was it introduced terrible hatred into this war? "Everyone knows that I left no stone unturned to shorten the war. In December, 1916, I offered peace. Jeers, mockery, and contempt 1

"He up above knows rrr- <:«»n<:« of responsibility. But to make peace two are needed. If either is unwilling the other cannot, presuming that he does not overthrow the other. Thus we are confronted with the enemy's absolute will to destruction. And against this absolute will to destruction we must place our absolute will to preserve our existence. "Our brave army out there has shown you this will and deed. Whether in assault, or withdrawal, or trench fighting, the only thing that matters is that the enemv should lose as much as possible. That has occurred, and continues to occur.

"Our death-defying navy also has proved that. It beat the enemv at the Skager-Rack, despite his great superiority. Our U-boats, like a consuming worm, gnaw at the enemy's vitals more than our enemies will admit. Lasting Toi> Long.

"Even though, in the opinion of many among you, it is lasting too long, every German man and every German woman must, in witnessing these incomparably heroic deeds of our army and our navy, be aware that we are fighting and struggling for existence, and that we must make the utmost effort to defend ourselves victoriously, not only through the work, but as regards the thoughts of our people. Many among you have often asked themselves during this long war: 'How did such a thing happen? Why did we have to undergo such a thine after forty years of peace?' I think it is a question well worthy of an answer, and which must be answered for the future—for pur children, and our grandchildren. I have thought long on the matter, and have come to the following answer: "In this world good clashes with evil. That is how things have been ordered from on High—the Yes and No, the No of the doubting mind against the Yes of the creative mind, the No of the pessimist acainst the Yes of, the optimist, the No of the unbeliever against the Yes of the champion of faith, the Yes of Heaven against the No of Hell. "You will acknowledge that I anv right in describing this war as the product of a great negation. And do you ask what negation it is? It is the negation of the German people's right to existence. It is the negation of all our Kultur, a negation of our achievements, of all our work.

"The German people was industrious, meditative, assiduous, imaginative in all domains, it worked with body and soul. But there were people who did not wish to work, but to rest on their laurels. Those were our enemies. We pot close to them through our profitable work and the development of our industry, science, and art, through our popular education and social legislation. Thereby our people throve, and then came envy.

"Envy induced our enemies to fight, and war came upon us. And now when' our opponents see that their hopes have been deceptive and how our mighty generals, after whom your new workshops are rightly named, have dealt them blow upon blow, hatred springs up. We onlv know the honest wrath which deals the enemy the blow, but when he lies prostrate and bleeding we extend to him our hand and see to his recovery. "Hatred manifests itself only among people who feel themselves beaten. If. therefore, such terrible hatred exists among our enemies it owes its origin to the fact that their calculations have been wrong. Every one who knows the character of the Anglo-Saxons knows what it means to fiffht them—how tenacious they are. Wc do not know when the struggle will end. but one thing we do know, namelv. that we must fight the battle through. Britain Against Democratic Russia. "And now, my friends, let me draw your attention to something more. You have read what recently happened in Moscow—the mighty conspiracy against the present Government. The Parliamen-tary-governed, democratic British nation has endeavoured to overthrow the ultra-democratic Government which the Russian people had begun to construct, because this Government, considering the interests of its fatherland, wishes to maintain its people in the peace for which it clamours. But the AngloSaxon does not yet desire peace. That is how thing's are. It is proof of his feeling of inferiority that the Anglo-Saxon has recourse to such criminal means.

"Everything now depends on our final exertions. Everything is at stake, and because our enemies know it, because thev have the greatest respect for the German army, because they see they cannot overcome our army and navy, they are trying to overcome us by means of internal disintegration, and to weaken us by false rumours. "These do not emanate from the German people. They are artificial

productions. But whoever hearkens to such rumours, whoever passes on unsubstantiated news in the railway workshop or elsewhere, sins against the Fatherland. He is a traitor, and is liable to severe punishment, no matter whether he be a count or a workman. "I know very well every one of you will acknowledge that I am right in this matter. Believe me, it is not easy for me to bear every day the anxiety and the responsibility for a nation of 70 millions, and for I more than four years to be a spectajtor to all the 'difficulties and in.creasim? distress of the people." I The Emperor then referred to the German Empress, "who by God's as- ! sistance again is on the road to re--1 covery-" He recalled the passages I in the Bible: "Cast th\ burden upon | the Lord and He shall sustain thee," 1 and "But seek ye first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these j things shall be added unto you." The . Emperor then added: "How can we please God and I soften his heart? By doing our duty in making our Fatherland free; consequently it is our duty to hold out with all our strength in the fight against our enemies. "Each one of us has received his appointed task from on high—you at ! your hammer, you at your lathe, and 11, on my throne. We must all, bow- ■ ever, build on God's assistance. : Doubt is the greatest ingratitude towards the Lord, and now I ask you jail simplv and honestly: Have we, then, really ground for doubt? Will God Abandon Us Now? "Just look at thefour years of war. What immense achievements we have behind us; half the world stood against us and our royal allies, and now we have oeace with Russia and ipeace with Rumania; Serbia and i Montenegro are finished. Only in the west do we still fight, and is it to be thought that good God will abandon us there at the last moment? "We should be ashamed of the faint-heartedness which comes when one gives credence to rumours. From th facts which you yourselves have experienced forge for yourselves a firm belief in the future of your Fatherland. "We often at home and at the front, in church and in the open air, have sung: I " 'Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott'

"So it has resounded in the blue vault of heaven and in the thunderclouds. The nation from which such a hymn originated must be invincible.

"My request, my demand of you and through you to all the workers who have proved themselves so admirable and capable, and through you again to the entire German peoDle, is this: "For me and for my relations to my people my words of August 4, 1914, hold good. I know no party. I know only Germans. It is now no time for factions. We must all now combine into a block. And, here, the most appropriate word is to be as hard as steel, and a block of the German people welded into steel shall show its strength to the enemy. "Whoever, therefore, is determined to obey this summons, whoever has his heart in the right place and whoever intends to keep faith, let him stand up. "Now, promise me on behalf of the entire German labour: *We intend to tight and to hold out to the last, so help us God.' Whoever so intends, let him answer 'Yes."' The assembly loudly chorused "Yes," and the Emperor continued: "I thank you. With this 'Yes' I go now to the Feild-MarshaL Now it is for every one of us to fulfil his vow of duty and to exert his body and mind to the utmost for the Fatherland. Every doubt must be banished from mind and heart. "Our watchword now is: The German swords are raised, hearts are strong and muscles are taut On to battle against everything that stands against us, no matter how long it lasts, so help us God. Amen, and, now, farewell."