THEIR SPLENDID HISTORY.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2523, 19 December 1914, Page 4

THEIR SPLENDID HISTORY.

In all their splendid history there is no instance of their having answered so magnificently to the desperate calls made upoii them.—Sir John French on the soldiers of Britain.

have heard the Germans laughing at the armies raised bv-K., At our forces flung together in a swift and hurried day, At our' rookies marching bravely to the war: They would hack us, they would hew us, they would scatter us like chaff, They would knock us all to splinters in a minute and half, But the spirit of old England gave tho answer to then* laugh, With Mr Thomas Atkins to the fore.

We've a notion that the Kaiser and his bullies missed the 'bus— The word of little Never-lose is good enough for us, As he gives the Prussian prophets all the lie. "In all their splendid history"—that | phrase will give the key To all the valour that has been, and • is, and. yet shall be In every corner of the world, by land and air and sea, Where Britons for their Empire fight and die. We fixed our hopes, we sot our feet along the peaceful ways, And half-forgotten were the deeds, that in the olden days Had turned the fight on many a ! bloody field; j But though they smouldered deep and low those fires were yet alight i That blazed whenever England called her soldiers to the fight, | And when tho star of war shone red across the livid night, The ancient, living spirit stood re- I vealed. , "In all their splendid history"—i brave memoricos awake ! Th© fighting blood, that slumbered long, to war for England's sake, ! For a freedom that is England's still to keep: ; Tlie artisans who never beard tho sound of war's alarms, The clerks behind their counters, and the yokels on the farms : Gave the answer when the Kaiser called 3 startled world to arms . And he thought he'd caught the i Lion fast asleep. You may take and train a nation to the bugle and the drum . Feed it up with tales of glory in the days that are to come, You can teach it to be slaughtered when it's bid; You may tell it England's greatness is an antiquated ghost, But you'll find it rather awkward when against, your marching host lou discover Tommy Atkins sticking grimly to his post— And he does it just because lie always did. --Sydney Sun.