It is with particular pleasure that I find myself among you again on this historic anniversary. It always gives me new strength and vigor when I feel around me the dashing spray and bubbling life of one of the cities of the Hanseatic League. It was a solemn act that we have just witnessed when we gave over to its element a new portion of the floating defense of the Fatherland. Every one who was present must have been impressed with the thought that the proud ship would soon be able to take up its calling. We feel its lack, and bitterly do we need a powerful German fleet. Its name reminds us of the first glorious days of the old empire and of its mighty protector. The first beginnings of Hamburg date from that time, even though it was merely the point of departure for the missions in the service of the powerful Emperor. Now our Fatherland has been newly united through Emperor William the Great and is in a position to take up its glorious outward development. And right here in this great emporium of trade we feel the sense of power and energy which the German people are capable of putting into their enterprises through the fact that they are bound together and united. But here, too, we can most readily understand how necessary it is that we should have powerful support and that we can no longer continue without increasing our fighting strength upon the seas. But this feeling penetrates all too slowly into the German Fatherland, which unfortunately wastes its strength in fruitless party strife. I have had to watch with deep concern how slow is the progress of interest in, and political comprehension of, the great world problems among the German people.