May it please your Majesty to accept from me and my people our heartiest thanks for the proof of the friendship which your Majesty has given me by this visit!
My troops, likewise, are filled with grateful pride that they have been able to conduct themselves with honor in the eyes of your Majesty, an experienced soldier.
Full of the happy remembrance of the army manœuvres at Rome, I raise my glass and drink to the health of your Majesty and of her Majesty, the Queen; to the health of your brave troops as well as to the unchanging friendship with the house of Savoy, whose motto, “Sempre avanti, Savoja,” has led to the unification of the kingdom of Italy. Long live his Majesty, King Humbert!
[THE ENGLISH FLEET AND THE GERMAN ARMY]
Sandown Bay, August 5, 1889
On this date the Emperor was created admiral of the English fleet by Queen Victoria. On the same day he was present at a regatta on Sandown Bay, where he replied as follows to a toast offered by the Prince of Wales:
I prize most highly the honor which has been shown me by the Queen in appointing me admiral of the English fleet. I sincerely rejoice to have seen the manœuvres of the fleet, which I consider the finest in the world. Germany possesses an army which answers to her needs, and if the British nation possesses a fleet sufficient for the needs of England, this in itself will be considered by Europe in general as a weighty factor in the maintenance of peace.
[THE ENGLISH ARMY]
Aldershot, August 7, 1889