MESOPOTAMIA.

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 September 1917, Page 8

MESOPOTAMIA.

(By lludyard Kipling, in the Morning J'ost.) They shall nut return to us. the resolute, the young, The eager and whole-hearted whom we gave; But the men who left them thriftily to die in their own dung— Shall they come with years and honor to the grave? They shall not return to us, the strong men slowly slain in sight of help denied from day to day; But the men who edged their agonies and chid them in their pain— Are those too stro/ng, or wise, to put away? Our dead shall not return to us while day and night divide, Never while the bars of sunset hold ; But the idle-minded overlings who quibbled while they died— Shall they thrust for high employmentsl ag; of old ? Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour? When the storm is ended shall we find How softly, but how swiftly, they have sidled back to power By tire favor and contrivance of their kind? • Even while they soothe us, while they promise large amends, Even while they make a. show of fear, They call 'upon their debtors, they take counsel with their friends, To renew and re-establish each career. Their li vos cannot repay us, their death could not .undo The shame that they have laid upon our race; But the s/lotiifiilness that wasted and the arrogance that slew— Shall we leave it unabated in its place ?