"AT THE GATES OF THE WEST"-A REPLY.

Otago Witness, Volume 23, Issue 2684, 23 August 1905, Page 82

"AT THE GATES OF THE WEST"A REPLY.

"Oh! Judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason." t — Shakespeare.- ■ Away across the leagues to eastward— out beyond the white man's lands, Where the brown men claim the right t<j. rule their own dark fates', See "the weaiy sons of Ivan," with the dread knout in their hands, All bloody from some woman's back, strong keepers of the gates. And the flag of Russia's flying o'er the lofty battle line, As the Baltic fleet moves careless, yet majestic, on its way; Leaving slaughtered crews of fishing boats toperish on the brine — "Were the brown nien ever guilty of such callous murder, say? It is not the soldier Eitssians, but the men behind the throne! Fxr the thousands— son* of Ivan — who have '" cross' d "the Great Divide," Who have faced the guns, and, falling, He unburied and alone — Oh, they knew not why they struggled, nol nor yet for what they died. " And where the flag of Russia waves the hearts of Europe beat:" Yes, that is true: for who's forgot th» patriotic Poles? The Finns, the Jews? and who's forgot St. Petersburg's red street?* Against that flag, for deeds like these, out hot resentment rolls. You cry the brown man down because hill skin is not like yours," And yem never give a thought to right or wrong-; - - But she trusts the God above her, and whil*' England-'* power endures, She will ever guard the right against th* strong. ' — D. C. Mtnnso. Ifokotua, Southland, "1905. * On 22ik! January 200 strikers werej3hof dead in St. Petersburg. — News item.