JACK TAR TO TOMMY ATKINS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 147, 18 February 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

JACK TAR TO TOMMY ATKINS.

When I'm keeping watch on a pitch dark night, With a black nor'enstcr blowing, With Zepps, maybe, looking down on me, And never a moonbeam showing. Then I thinks of you in a muddy trench, With the shrapnel round you screaming) And bullets and shells and a thousand hells And the rain cfr your khaki streaming ! And 1 sends this chanty through The wind and the dark to you 1 "Oh! it's dirty work for us fight-ing-men, Soldiers and sailors, too ! You bear the brunt on the Flanders front, And I on the raging blue! But shrapnel and mine, the battlelino, The storm and the st.nging spray, Olt! we'll face them all at tho nation's call In the good old Britisher's way 1" And whenever I looks towards London Town And I see the searchlights flashing. And the dim stars over the cliffs of Dover, And hear the night-tide- crashing. Then I thinks to myself, "We are doing our bit. Both .Tellicoe's men and French's, For I ride on the sea for liberty, While Tommy keeps guard in tho trenches!" And again I lifts this song And sends it thundering along ! " "T : s a bi|f bit of work for us fighting-men, Soldiers and sailors, too! But we'll finish the German, the dirty vermin! And carry tho thing right through! For you don't care a hang for the big guns' bang, Nor I for the Northern grey. If we onlv can see the o'd flag flying free In the same eld Britisher's way !"