KAISER’S RESPECT

Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1935, Page 14

KAISER’S RESPECT

BRITONS AS FIGHTERS. AMERICAN AMBASSADOR’S STORY.' Mr. James' W. Gerard, who was United States Ambassador at Berlin during the first part of the war, revealed the Kaiser’s respect for the pertinacity of the British people, at a luncheon given to him by the Pilgrims Society at the Hotel Victoria, London, recently. “On Auguit 10, 1914, by request of President Wilson, I called upon the Kaiser to offer him the services of the United States, should it be possible to stop the war and arrange peace,” he said. “I was shown into the garden of the Palace at Berlin, where the Kaiser was sitting at a table writing. I made my offer, and he said, ‘S' down,’ and I sat down. He seemed to be in a more thoughtful mood than I had ever seen him. “I said: ‘ln a few weeks your army will be at Paris, and you will be able to dictate peace to the world.’ He replied: ‘No. The coming in of the British has changed the whole situation. They are an obstinate nation. When they, start fighting they never stop.’ “You know,” Mr. Gerard added, with a smile, “we have a saying in the United States that the British lose every battle in a war except the-last one.”

The Earl of Derby, in the chair, proposing the health of Mr. Gerard, referred to his great work for British prisoners of war in Germany.

“Bad as was the life of those prisoners,” he said, “it would have been infinitely worse but for Mr. Gerard and his efforts, and there is many a prisoner of war now restored to his country who blesses the name of Mr. Gerard.”

Referring to Anglo-United States relations, Lord Derby said: “We do not want an alliance, we want that friendship which is based on esteem and respect for each other, and, I believe, tha* exists at the present meme- . to an unusual degree. As long as it exists I believe the moral influence of our common thought, of our common wish and our common policy, will do more to keep the peace of the world than any treaty ever made or even ever thought of.” Mr. Gerard, responding, said the British prisoners of war in Germany won general respect by their attitude. “They kept up their uniforms, polished their buttons, were always on parade, and were an example not only to the other prisoners, but to the whole world. I learned to have a great respect for their Anglo-Saxon characteristics.”