Among the many incidents that have marked the unanimous uprising of the populations of My Empire in defence of its unity and integrity, nothing has moved me more than the passionate devotion to My Throne expressed both by My Indian subjects, and by the Feudatory Princes and the Ruling Chiefs of India, and their prodigal offers of their lives and their resources in the cause of the Realm. Their one-voiced demand to be foremost in the conflict has touched My heart, and has inspired to the highest issues the love and devotion which, as I well know, have ever linked My Indian subjects and Myself. I recall to mind India's gracious message to the British nation of goodwill and fellowship, which greeted My return in February, 1912, after the solemn ceremony of My Coronation Durbar at Delhi, and I find in this hour of trial a full harvest and a noble fulfilment of the assurance given by you that the destinies of Great Britain and India are indissolubly linked. * * * * * At the very beginning of the struggle, Germany had made a determined effort to win the friendship of the United States. From the great American Republic the great European autocracy wanted three things: moral support, money, and assistance in rescuing the German mercantile marine. German shipping to the amount of hundreds of thousands of tons was imprisoned in American ports; to venture outside would have been to court disaster from the strong squadrons of the British and French cruisers in the Atlantic. It was therefore suggested by the numerous Germans in New York and Washington, and by Germans who had become naturalised Americans, that with a view to the restoration of American shipping it would be a good plan to purchase from Germany the numerous German liners lying idle in American waters. The scheme did not make sufficient progress for any definite amount of money to be mentioned; but it was stated that the value of the steamers was estimated at £20,000,000--a sum which would have been very useful to Germany in carrying on the campaign. Acting under instructions from their Governments, protests were lodged at Washington by the British and French Embassies against this proposed transfer of German merchant shipping to a neutral flag. Legally the transfer would have been objectionable; and in any case the scheme was supported in America almost entirely by financiers of German extraction and was bitterly opposed by all American shipowners and shipbuilders. It is satisfactory to state that the New York correspondent of _The Daily Telegraph_, cabling on September 1st, said that the American Government had decided not to buy the German vessels, but would confine itself to purchasing neutral ships only.