CALL ALL HANDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 20 February 1915, Page 8

CALL ALL HANDS

This poem which was written hv the late Mr W. T. Ooodge, for "The iDaily Teleferaph" in December, 1899, during the -Boer War, is particularly applicable at the present juncture. There's a whisper that was borne upon the breeze — ■Which the same is just a fancy kind o' As a fact the message went across the seas By that mrpoetic agency, the cable. All the same it sent a sympathetic thrill Through the Anglo-Saxon folk in other lands:— "If you're in for stormy weather, TTindly count us altogether. And be good enough to call: "All hands!" We hear the bugle calling on the British Grenadiers, We harken to the marching of the Irish Fusiliers: The piping of the Highlanders is ringing in our ears, So be kind enough to call: "All hands!" Chorus. Call all hands! And we'll show the donbting stranger Albion can range her Sons in time o' danger! Mistress of her destiny, there's nobody can change her; Pass the word to call "All hands!" We're going to find a place among the nations of the earth, We'll found a new Britannia or we'll trv for all we're worth, But we don't forget the country where the Empire had its birth, And we're readv when you call: "All hands !" And they talk of your "decadence" if you please! And the beggars never seem -to have a notion That the Britain who is (Mistress of the Seas, . Has~a group of growing Britains o re the ocean ! We prefer a reign of quietness and peace, But if trouble,comes we'll show them how it stands — That ten thousand miles of water • Make the British all the tauter When they pass the word to *all: "All hands!" We're English as the English, though the waters lie between. We're Irish as the Irish, who are soldiers of the Queen,* We're Scotch as any Scotchman in the town of Aberdeen, And we're Britons when you call: "All hands!" *Wh'en this was written, Queen Victoria was on the throne so that to-day it only needs the substitution of the world King to bi-ing the sentiment quite np-to-date.