OCR Text |
Show KAISER'S PROCLAMATION. ' Some queer phrases, betraying a pe culiar state of mind, occur in the kaiser's '. proclamation to Germany's forces on land and sea. They are not the phrases of normal, sane mankind and indicate that a nation at war is apt to be a nation na-tion of madmen. After remarking that the second year of war, like the first, was for Germany's Ger-many's arms a year of glory, he adds: i "Whether the enemy retreated, borne ; down by the force of your attacks, or whether, re-enforced by foreign assistance assist-ance collected and pressed into service from all parts of the world, he tried to rob you of the fruits of our former victories, you always proved yourself superior to him. " The kaiser seems to refer to "foreign assistance collected and pressed into service from all parts of the world," j as if, it were something grossly unfair, forgetting, no doubt, that Germany and AuBtria aro availing themselves of the j foreign assistance of the "Unspeakable j Turk," who has slain his tens of thou sands of innocent beings since the war j, began. But when the kaiser speaks pathetically and lugubriously of the enemy's en-emy's "trying to rob you of the fruits of our former victories," he adopts a tone which has come to be regarded as i typically Teutonic. "When Teutons win victories it is glorious, but when enemies try to win victories they nre robbers. 1 ' "My gratitude and that of the father land are due to the nation at home," says the kaiser. Evidently the German nation, if we regard these words as uttered with due intent, consists of Germans at home and Germans abroad. Events havo seemed to confirm this peculiar pe-culiar view. But why should not the kaiser thank the nation abroad? It has succeeded in giving much help to the nation at home by various fornis of cunning and violence, "by foreign assistance as-sistance collected and pressed into service ser-vice from all parts of the world" But perhaps the emperor was thinking of the numerous failures of the nation abroad, of the emissaries who got themselves them-selves into prison in this country and of the diplomatic officers who got themselves them-selves into trouble and were recalled. The German nation "abroad" has not succeeded to the kaiser 's satisfaction and, therefore, he does not speak words of laudation. |