WILLIAMTHE BOASTFUL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 148, 12 March 1918, Page 6

WILLIAMTHE BOASTFUL

REVIEWS 1917 CAMPAIGN

"I DO NOT BOAST"

When visiting the Second Army on December 22 last the Kaiser, addressing the troops, said: — "It has been n year full of events for the German army and tho German Fatherland. Powerful blows have been delivered, and your comrades in the East have been able to bring about great decisions. There has been no man, no officer, and no general, on tho wholo Eastern front, wherever I havo spoken to them, who has not frankly admitted that they could not havo accomplished .what they hare if their comrades in the West had not stood to a man. Tho tactical and strategical connection between the battles of tho Aisne, Champagne, Artois, Flanders, and Cambni,' and wonts in the East and in Italy, is so manifest that it In useless to waste words on It. With a centrajised direction the German army works in a centralised manner. In order that we should be ablo to deliver these offensive blows one portion of the army had to remain on the defensive, hard as this is for '.hr German soldier. Such a defensive battle, however, ns has Wn fought in 1917 is without parallel. West "Dovef'n"-" tho Eastern OlTonsii/e. "A fraction of the German army accepted the heavy task of covering its comrades in the East unconditionally, and had the entire Anglo-French army against -itself. In long preparation the enemy had collected unheard-of technical means and masses of ammunition and guns in order to make his entry into Brussels over ,your front, as he proudly announced. . The enemy has aohioved nothing. The most gigantic feat ever accomplished by an army, and one without parallel in history, was accomplished by the German army. "I do not boast.- It is a fact, and nothing else. "Tho admiration you have earned shall be your reward and at the same time your pride. Nothing can in any way place in the shade or surpass what you have accomplished, however great or overwhelming it may be. "The year 1917, with its great .battles, has proved that the German" people has, in the Lord of Creation above, an unconditional and avowed ally on whom it can absolutely rely. Without Him all would have been in vain. "Everyone of you had to exert every nerve to the utmost. I know that overyono of you in unparalleled drumfire did superhuman deeds. The feeling may have been frequently with you, 'If we only had something _ behind us; if we only had some relief? , "It came. The result of the blow ii. the East has been | that the of war there are at present silenced. God grant that it may be for ever. "Yesterday I spoke and saw your comrades near Verdun, and there, passing through all minds like the scent of the morning breeze, was the thought, 'You are no longer alone.' The great successes and victories of the recent time, the great days of battle in Flanders, and before Cambrai, where the first crushing offensive blow delivered by the arrogant British showed liini that despite three years of war suffering the old offensive spirit was still in our troops, have their effect on the entire Fatherland and on the enemy. "We do not know what is still in store for us, but you have seen how, in this last four years of war, Gods hand has visibly prevailed, punished treachery; and rewarded heroic perseverance. From this we can gain firm confidence that in the, future also the Lord will be with us. If tho enemy does not want peace then wo must bring peace to tho world by battering in with iron fist and shining sword the doors of those who will not have peace." ___________