THE KAISER'S SPEECH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 197, 29 November 1910, Page 5

THE KAISER'S SPEECH

CRITICISED IX THE REICHSTAG. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Berlin, November 27. Socialists in the Reichstag interpellated the Government over the Kaiser's speech at Koenigsberg. The Chancellor, in a vigorous reply, contended that the speech did not place the Kaiser in contradiction to Prince Billow's statement in 1908. The speech was delivered in a Prussian provincial town, and was not meant for a proclamation of absolutism, but to emphasise the fundamental principle of monarchy in Prussia, where, the constitution was not acquainted with the idea of the people's sovereignty. He added: "The King's personal responsibility, independence, and the primordial nature of the monarchal rights are fundamental ideas of our political life, which remain alive in the period of constitutional development.''

In the speech referred to the Kaiser said: "Here my grandfather placed by his own right the Crown of the Kings of Prussia upon 'his head, once again laying stress upon the fact that it was conferred upon him by the grace of God alone, and not by Parliaments, meetings of the people, or popular decisions, and that he considered himself the chosen instrument of Heaven, and as such performed his duties as Regent and as ruler. And, adorned with the Crown, he took the field forty years ■ago in order to add to it the Imperial Crown.