GERMAN EXPEDITION TO CHINA.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 291, 21 May 1898, Page 5 (Supplement)

GERMAN EXPEDITION TO CHINA.

The "mailed iLt" speech by the German Emperor was delivered when his brother, Prince Henry of Prussia, was about to start for China, with a German fleet of two vessels. The better of the two, commanded by the Prince, was the Deutschland, and when she and her coascort, the Gefion, put into Portsmouth the naval authorities at that port seem to have been contemptuously amused at thjir appe trance. Ono correspondent of a London paper Bays, " The Deutschlaud is described as an antiquated single-screw ship hard to navigate, and not too good » sea boat. Thero is a whole fleet equal to tho Deutschlaud—in addition to many vessels which are superior to her—anchored in the reserve basin at Portsmouth, but thpy are held by the British Admirality to be too obsolete to commission, except in case of very great urgency." On the fubject of the celebrated Kiel speech, on the doparture of the Deutschland, the following aDpeared in the World : AX IMPERIAL DUET. William. Who ventures ou the stormy seas To face a uation that with ease Was smothered by the Japanese ? My brother. Henry. "Who bears his bold auuoiuted head, While round his uniform are shed Rick Bengal lights of green and red? My brother. William. Whose sense of duty bids him go And thrash a bloody-minded foe That does not mean to fight, we know f My brother. Houry. Who, with an air theatrical, Will play the salt-spraj'ed Admiral Upon a little Ship Canal ? My Brother. AVilliam. Who, when his mailed fist shall smite, Shall wraj) his youthful brow up tight In laurel wreaths all day and night ? My brother. Houry. Who, leaping jack-like from his box, The universe completely knocks, And ever plays the giddy Hochs r My brother. Both. Who, with a voice of German brass, Allows no single chaucc to pass Of raising high the bumper glass ? My brother. -M.T.P.