On the Czar’s birthday the Emperor was present at the banquet given in Wiesbaden, to which the Russian Ambassador, Count Osten-Sacken, had been invited. The Emperor proposed the following toast. On the same day the peace conference at The Hague had been opened and the Russian delegate De Staal had been elected its president. At the end of August, 1898, the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs had issued the following communication to all the representatives of the powers in St. Petersburg. “The maintenance of universal peace and a possible reduction of the armaments which burden all nations in the present state of civilization is an ideal for all the world toward which all governments must be directed.” The Czar believed that a conference might achieve this object, and he suggested that they might regulate the reduction of armaments all around and eliminate many of the horrors of war through the establishment of certain humane principles. The programme was presented by Russia on January 11, 1899, and the conference was called on her invitation for May 18 of that year.
Every year I offer my toast to the health of his Majesty, the Emperor of Russia, with deep feeling. To-day I add to it my heartiest good wishes for the success of the conference which owes its inception to his Majesty’s initiative.
My honored Baron, my wish includes the hope that the two tried and experienced statesmen, his Excellency Baron de Staal and Count Münster, may succeed in their efforts and that they may conduct the conference on the old, established tradition which unites my house to that of his Majesty and the German people to the Russian; and by doing so, in accordance with the exactly similar orders which the Emperor and I have issued, that the conference may result to the entire satisfaction of his Majesty.
His Majesty, the Emperor Nicholas! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!
[THE HOUSING OF LABORERS]
Early June, 1899
Kadinen is one of the Emperor’s many farming estates and is situated in the neighborhood of Elbing, in East Prussia. It was here that he expressed the following sentiment:
Many things must be changed at Kadinen; especially the housing of the laborers must be changed. Here in the east this seems still to be a particular evil. The fine cattle stable in Kadinen is a veritable palace compared to the homes of the laborers. We must see to it that the pigsties are not better than the laborers’ houses.