Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/129

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IMPERIAL WISDOM
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of thanks and praise from the Emperor William, commending him for his humanity and bravery and for so keeping up the German name! Accompanying it was a magnificent gold watch with an inscription!

How did the Emperor know of such an incident, and so soon? His eye and his arm are far-reaching. Nothing escapes him, and they tell me he knows get be that goes on in the N.D.L. Service, and takes a personal interest in it all. How stimulating and encouraging it is to his far- away subjects to know he is with them, as it were, wherever they are, ready, and the first to reward and praise them if they do anything to foster the honour and interest of his empire! How wise this is! It does not affect the recipient of the favour alone, it stimulates and encourages all his subjects to do well, and no wonder they work together for their Fatherland. One knows of many a wire-pulling, intriguing nobody in our Government employ at home, who is paid, too, for his badly done work, who gets titles and honours for God knows what, simply because his party is paying him by recommending his name to the King—but that affects the recipient alone and passes unnoticed by the people in general. Queen Victoria and our late and present King and Queen often did, and do, personal things to recognise and honour some one, and how doubly grateful that is to the favoured one! It makes them realise that the King and Queen belong to every one and are in touch with every one, and wakens in them feelings of real attachment and devotion.

The German Emperor has this clever instinct of personally and unsolicited seeking out those it is useful for patriotic reasons to reward, people who perhaps have never seen him and never dream he can hear of them. It seems as spontaneous as

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