The Answer.

Free Lance, Volume XVI, Issue 839, 28 July 1916, Page 13

The Answer.

(For the N.Z, Free Lance), When peace from out tlie trenclies Shall lift her bandaged head, And Germany awake to find Her dream of world-power fled; When she cries aloud, "Peccavi!" Says, "I'll evermore behavo." Should not we then forgive her And reprisals nobly waive ? When she broods with chastened spirit O'er the losses she has borne; When by conscience, roused from torpor, Her guilty breast is torn; When in sackcloth and in ashes She sits and moans her fate ; Should not we feel compassion For her truly woeful state? When you see her once proud eagles Encaged by walls of steel, Birds that had sought such dizzy heights As make the senses reel; When you see her erstwhile haughty lords Take up the beggar's part, Will not one grain of pity find A lodgment in your heart P And when hungered, sad, and war-worn. She, a prodigal, returns To crave a servant's portion, 'Mid shame that well-nigh burns, Shall our hands, red from the conflict, Again in friendship touch ? — "Bv all brave Belgium's cruel wrongs," We answer up, "NOT MUCH!" —Robert J. Pope. Wellington.