KAISER’S TOUR
MODEL FACTORY VISITED
( Daily Telegraph, Saturday, 22nd October 1898 )
By nine O’clock on Thursday, the German Emperor and the Empress had crossed the Bosphorous in state caiques to Haidar Pasha the terminus of the Anotolian Railway. A train of eight carriages are fitted up most sumptuously, with welvets and silks, all manufactured at Hereke.
The object of the excursion was to visit the Imperial Carpet Factory at Hereke, where the Sultan had provided lunch in a kiosk built on purpose. This factory was founded in 1843, on the most perfect site on the shore of the Sea of Marmara and now produces most beautiful silks and carpets. It is a modal factory and thanks to continual interest taken in it by the Sultan.
At Hereke the decorations were on a stupendous scale all the way from the station to the factory.
Kaiser Wilhelm minitudely examinated every part of the esthablishment, whilst the Empress conversed with the work girls with the greatest affability. Her Majesty was presented with three carpets, and the Emperor received a magnificient carpet, designed to cover the flor of the immense hall at Berlin, where the clorous of the Imperial Guard are kept. The Emperor was much pleased with this gift and expressed a desire to be acquainted with the names of all the girls who had assisted in the manufacture of the carpet, and declared his intention of presenting each of them on her marriage with a dowry.
Kaiser Wilhelm desptched a telegram to the Sultan expressing the great pleasure he had experienced, and soon after received a reply in which the Sultan stated how pleased he was with the Emperor’s satisfaction.
After lunch the Imperial couple embarked in the Loreley. They were accompanied to the shore by all the workpeople of the factory and the population of neighbouring villages, who were in a state of indescribable enthusiasm, and who continued cheering the Sultan and Kaiser till the ship was out of hearing.