[Editor: A poem published in Aussie: The Australian Soldiers’ Magazine, no. 2, 16 February 1918.]
From Aussie to Sammy.
Say, how do, old cobber, give us yer mit!
Pleased to meet you I certainly am.
We can now pull together in doing our bit,
Said the Aussie to proud Uncle Sam.
We’ve both got some stars on our banners, you know,
And I guess that our blood’s the same hue,
And the old Southern Cross shining under below
Sends a warm greeting ray out to you.
We are absolute glad that you’ve joined in the fray,
And have jerried to Fritz’s true light.
You can rest quite assured — on the odds I will lay —
Now he’s up against something to fight.
We’ve seen lots of scrapping these three years or more,
And we’ve stoushed him — yes, time after time —
And with your mighty help I guess he’ll feel sore
When he’s knocked back to hell o’er the Rhine.
So when you hop over the trenches with us,
Pay no heed to his “Kamerad” mania,
But get into him with yer bayonet, the cuss,
And remember the sunk “Lusitania!”
You can never forgive such a treacherous hound —
Giving that name insults any dog —
And a ripe lasting friendship square dinkum we’ll found
When we’ve passed through the war’s grimy fog.
John T. Barrat.
Source:
Aussie: The Australian Soldiers’ Magazine, no. 2, 16 February 1918, page 12
Editor’s notes:
Lusitania = the RMS Lusitania was a British non-military ship torpedoed by a German submarine on its journey from America to the Britain, sinking on 7 May 1915 off the Irish coast, causing the deaths of 1195 crew and passengers (out of 1959 aboard), including 128 citizens of the USA, an incident which played a part in convincing the USA to join the side of the Allies in World War One (however, the Germans considered that, as the ship was carrying ammunition to Britain, the Lusitania was an “auxiliary war ship”, and so had, prior to the ship leaving America, advertised in American newspapers that “vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters”)
See: 1) “Deadly cargo and the falsified manifests”, Lusitania Online (accessed 9 March 2014)
2) Jennifer Rosenberg, “Sinking of the Lusitania”, About.com (accessed 9 March 2014)
3) “RMS Lusitania”, Wikipedia (accessed 9 March 2014)
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