Germany -- Foreign relations -- 1871-1918; William II, German Emperor, 1859-1941
What say you, veteran soldiers, who fought in the Terrible Year? What
say you, Parisians of the Siege, Frenchmen who have seen the Prussian
conqueror dragging his guns and booty along the roads of our France?
What say you, men of Alsace-Lorraine, heroes all? (No matter whether,
like some, you have sacrificed situation, home and your little
fatherland, so as not to forsake the greater, or, like others, you have
consented to become Prussians in order that the land you worship may
remain in hands that are still French.) What say you, when our
dreadful defeat, our piled-up ruin, and the spoliation of a portion of
France, become for a German official organ our _former differences_?
What words are these in which to speak of 1870-71, of that
unforgettable and tragic invasion, of the terrible anguish of our
ravished provinces, and what a proof they afford of the great gulf
which separates the mind of Germany from that of France!
September 26, 1894.
The German Emperor does not forget that he is before all things a
Prussian. Having administered a reprimand to the nobility, he proceeds
to give to the five new fortresses at Koenigsberg, the five greatest
family names of the Prussian nobility.
At Thorn he declared--
"Only they can count upon my royal favour who shall regard themselves
as absolutely and entirely Prussian subjects." The Germans have not
yet realised that the German Empire will be Prussian, before ever
Prussia consents to lose herself in a united Germany.
October 28, 1894.
The German Emperor, King of Prussia, with that love of peace for which
even Frenchmen are pleased to praise him, is now chiefly occupied in
displaying his passion for militarism. In the case of William II, it
will be necessary to modify a hallowed phrase, and to say to him:
"Seeing you in uniform, I guessed that you were no soldier."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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