THE GERMAN EMPEROR'S SPEECHES BEING A SELECTION FROM THE SPEECHES T PREFATORY NOTE HE present selection from the Speeches, Edicts, Letters, and Telegrams of the German Emperor has been made from a volume of Kaiserreden, published in Leipzig in 1902. In his preface the German editor, Mr. A. Oskar Klaussmann, tells us that his object in making this collection was to give a character sketch of the Emperor, as illustrated by his own utterances. Mr. Klaussmann expressly disclaims any political or personal motives in the preparation of his volume, and has merely selected such speeches, etc., as seemed to shed an interesting light on the talents, character, and views of the Emperor, and connected them by means of a brief explanatory text, in order to put the reader in possession of the circumstances under which each utterance was made. The thanks of the publishers are due to the following for the permission they have kindly given to incorporate various passages in this volume-To the Editor of the Times, for the text of the speech on page 100; to the Editor of the Saturday Review, for permission to reprint the extracts given on page 105; to Mr. S. S. McClure, for a portion of the article by RearAdmiral Evans on page 284; to Sir E. J. Reed, for permission to reprint a portion of an article written by him for the Deutsche Revue of Stuttgart on page 107. The article was written in English, but as the English original was not available it was necessary to retranslate it from the German, and the author is in no way responsible for this retranslation. The translation has been revised throughout by Mr. J. W. Bartram, M.A., who has also added a few footnotes explanatory of the Emperor's allusions. LONDON, January, 1904. |