Trentham.

Free Lance, Volume XVI, Issue 881, 25 May 1917, Page 15

Trentham.

The first fifty thousand (Jany., 1917.) % (For the N.Z. Free Lance.) Fifty thousand fighting men, With horses and guns and gear, From city and hamlet, hill and glen, Half an hundred ■ thousand men Have marched away from here. The fighting blood of their valiant sires - Runs hot in the younger veins; They felt the throb of the old desires, Forsook their homes and the camping fires, Gave fate the charge of the reins. To Trentham passed with their laughing lips, Fifty thousand worldly wise. When they marched away to the transport ships With swift good-byes and strong hand grips, There was death to: Huns in their eyes. Tho' never a heart but filled with pride To hear how they fighting fell. Yet seldom a face had tears to hidej For hearts are. strong in a land that's wide. (God! But they fought with Hell.) Tread light, for the .men who have fought and died, In spirit are marching yet; --, With ranks unbroken they bravely ride, Shoulder to shoulder and stride to stride, So how can their sons forget?

The popular Enquiry Officer at the Base Records Office, ;

Speak low; for the", fifty thousand strong Have marched where the brave men tread. - And "some are "sleeping. '. . ' . The strange birds' .songIs a requiem there where the nights are long; But there's glory in Britain's dead. —Melville EarL Trentlraih Camp.