It is of great significance that precisely at this time, when Bavarians and Würtembergers, Saxons and Prussians are going into the far East in order to re-establish the honor of the German flag, your Royal Highness should have accepted the honor of the _à la suite_ position to the naval battalion. Just as the house of Wittelsbach took up arms in 1870 to fight for Germany's honor, for her union, and her imperial dignity, so I hope that the empire may always be assured of the support of this noble race. As a representative of this noble house I greet your Royal Highness with the wish that the close connection which the _à la suite_ position to my navy now gives you will always maintain your Royal Highness's interest for our fleet. I drink to the health of his Royal Highness, Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! OPEN THE WAY FOR CULTURE BREMEN, JULY 27, 1900 Events in China touched upon in the speech delivered on December 15, 1897, had finally brought about the Pekin crisis. Baron von Ketteler, the German Minister, had been shot down in the streets on June 20. The following is one of five speeches which the Emperor delivered on the occasion of the departure of the German troops for China. This particular one was delivered to the troops at Bremen in the presence of the Empress, Princes Eitel Friedrich and Adelbert, Chancellor Hohenlohe, Secretary of State von Bülow, Minister of War von Gossler, and Lieutenant-General von Bessel. Various versions of this speech exist and in many of them the harshness of the Emperor's expression has been toned down. We give first the version which was printed in the _Reichsanzeiger_, the official journal, and which seems to have been somewhat edited. In order that the reader may realize more fully the impression conveyed by the Emperor's farewell address to his troops, we print under it the account which a volunteer of the 1st East Asiatic Regiment of infantry sent home to his family. Great tasks oversea have fallen to the lot of the newly arisen German Empire, tasks far greater than many of my countrymen have expected. The character of the German Empire makes it a duty for it to protect its citizens no matter how far they may have penetrated into foreign lands. The new German Empire is in a position to discharge the task which the old Roman Empire of the German Nation could not discharge. The instrument which makes this possible for us is our army.