THE KAISER AT JERUSALEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 June 1918, Page 8

THE KAISER AT JERUSALEM.

2.Rg£AL raporrerix Jk GEOraSQUE Aim SINGULAR JUORKBT. When tie present Emperor of Germany decided to visit Jerusalem in company with the Empress, in the winter of 1898-1899, many prophecies were rife, Minded upon a superstitions belief, of rewnt growth, that royal couples visiting the Holy l4nd will meet soon after with some calamity. A yiait to Palestine and Jerusalem has immediately preceded the deaths of ten members of the house of flapaburg. The Emperor of Anstafa brother, the Archduke Charles lonis, accompanied by his wife, visited Jerusalem and died shortly afterward. The Emperor's son Rndolph, accompanied by the Crown Prince Stephanie, visited Palestine and returned home only to die tragically at Meyeriing. Prince Frederick of SehleswigvHolstein, uncle of the German Empress, visiting (Palestine on his bridal trip, died at Jaffa. Shortly after the Grand Duke Seigius of Russia visited Jerusalem with his wse, she had to appeal to the Cfear for protection against his brutality. The calamity which immediately remitted to the Kaiser took a highly hum. orous form when "Le Rire," the French "Punch," devoted an entire issue to an imaginary diary of the Emperor's trip. This hilarious satire, which made of the I angnst one a laughing stock which conyoked all Europe, and which has juat been presented in an English translation at this timely moment when British troops are in Jerusalem, revives with its reprinting interest in the Kaiser's grotesque and singular journey 'Ho other Christian monarch ever vis* fled the Holy Land direct from the court of the Sultan," writes the Rev. James i W. Lee in a recent article in the "Christian World." "Th e Christmas Gift of the Modern Crusaders." The author continues: "William 11. paid a ceremonious visit fo the head of the Mohammedan world at Constantinople, and thence proceeded ia the yacht Hohenzollern to the Bay of Acre, where he

landed at Haifa, » busy German colony. The manner of his visit to Jerusalem differed from that of any previous visitor. The narrow entry known as the Jaffa Gate, through which for centuries pilgrims from the West have entered the goal of their long travel, was considered by the Porte as uzonited for an imperial procession. Accordingly they threw a bridge over the moat and broko down the wall for the construction of a new and more spacious portal. Entering this on horse-back, the Emperor soon after dismounted and was conducted in state to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, the consecration of which was the ostensible reason for the imperial vißit "This handsome stone building of the Romanesque style is situated in the Muristan, an historic enclosure that carries the memory back to the days of Charlemagne To that energetic defender of the faith, the Calif of Bagdad granted permission to build a church and hospice on this site. Later it became the property of the Italians and the home of the Order of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem. When Saladin, in 1187, captured Jerusalem, he took up his quarters in the Grand Master's Palace, at the Muristan, and devoted the whole property to religious uses. By his nephew the main building was turned into a hospital. The whole mass of buildings had fallen into complete decay when, just before the Franco-fPrussiau war, the Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia visited Jerusalem, The Sultan was pleased to grant him the eastern half of the ground; and for many years it has been the cherished desire of the German Government to found there a visible centre of Protestantism in the Far East. "The inscription over the chancel of the Church of the Redeemer in the Muristan reads: 'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Standing under this, the Emperor, a white mantle over his military costume, read from a lectern a written discourse, based on the text: 'As for me and my honae, .we will serve the Lord.'"