WAR VERSE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 193, 23 January 1915, Page 6

WAR VERSE.

THE BLACKEST LIE. (The Frankfurter Zeitung states thai Belgium intrigued with England and France to drag Germany into war). Big bully Belgium, Breathing flood of flame, Crafty as a serpent 1 In a cunning game, Sent a note to England, Sent a note to France: "Let us crush the Fatherland, While we have the chance." Poor little Germany, Gentle land of peace, Seeking the millennium, ■When armaments shall cease; Rather grieved than angry, Called her sons to fight To protect their Fatherland, As was only right. Hurry with tho whitewash, Poor it out in streams! Bleached the ravaged country, Louvain, Antwerp, Rlieims! Belgium concocted war, Thus deserves her fate! That's the blackest Teuton lie Published up to date. —Jessie Pope in. the Daily Mail. It. OF K.'s NEW ARMY. Men of England, Men of Scotland, Men Ireland and of Wales, Men of all the Mighty Empire where our British Ensign sails! By the dreams which women fashion round their happiness on earth, We are proud that we have loved you, we are proud we gave you birth. You arc leaving home and pleasures, you are leaving work and pay, You are flocking to the colors in your hundreds every day! By the valiant hearts within you, by your spirits brave and true, Ye have made us proud of Britain, you have made us proud of you. Do yea hear the women's homage? Does it beat into your heart, As we stand aside in silence, watehinj all we love depart? Though our eyes are dim with weeping, though our lips are dumb with pain, We are proud of you, we love you—on our love there lies no stain. Had we held you back in weakness —women's words can work such shame— Pleading love of home and children, soiling thus our country's fame, Could we face the years that found us with our mankind by our side? Could we boar the stern accusing and the scorn of those who died? Women's souls shall march beside you, women's love shall hold you fast, While you fight the fight of honor till your triumph comes at last, Then, since war is harsh and cruel—God be kind to women's pain!— Pride shall keep our hearts from breaking, if you come not back again, —Margaret Peterson, in the Sphere.