[Editor: This song by Mary Gilmore was published in the “For Worker Women” column (“Conducted by Mary Gilmore”), in The Australian Worker (Sydney, NSW), 8 April 1920.]
Song of Anti-White.
(With special reference to the “Sydney Morning Herald” and other papers with a cold policy towards the white man.)
Fling away the Cross and bring us in Mahomet,
The Crescent is a star, the Star was a comet —
The comet flamed an hour and then it fizzled out;
And it’s India: and Turkey: and Shout, boys, Shout!
The Star’s on the dip, the Crescent on the rise;
The Cross is pushed away and Asia cribs the prize;
We shook the white foundation until it petered out —
And it’s India: and Turkey: and Shout, boys, Shout!
Shove away, Australia — down with her flag!
America’s her neighbor, we’ll tear her like a rag!
For the Crescent it is filling, the Cross is emptied out —
It’s Japonica: and China: and Shout, boys, Shout!
Put the white man down, set the foeman up!
Let hunger batten Europe while Asia takes the cup;
Let Latin, Celt, and Teuton go down to — or out,
For we’ve lifted up the Crescent; so Shout, boys, Shout!
We flung down the white and drained him of his blood,
We broke upon the levee, and now comes by the flood;
The fools who fiddled Rome have turned the children out —
And it’s Asia for the morning, so Shout, boys, Shout!
6/3/’20. MARY GILMORE.
(Note. — (1) The so-called “loyal” papers are pro-Asiatic and anti-white American in tone.
(2) Even the “Sydney Morning Herald” (16/3/’20) reported Mr. Hughes as saying: “…He was at the Peace Conference to represent Australia, and not the United Kingdom, they (his critics), for some reason or other, persisted in regarding as the Empire. … In the matter of a White Australia, that question more likely than any other to lead to war, if war should come, America has more in harmony with Australia than with that country whose dominion was expressed by people of many races scattered throughout the world. America need have no fear,” declared the Prime Minister. “Like all nations, we are jealous of our liberty, and determined to maintain our rights as a nation. Whilst others cannot understand the nature of those ties that bind us to Britain, we will not hesitate to assert our rights when they run counter to those of the United Kingdom itself.”
(3) The Crusaders of the middle ages were for the Cross against the Crescent. What Crusade touches Our future?)
Source:
The Australian Worker (Sydney, NSW), 8 April 1920, p. 9
Editor’s notes:
It seems very likely that the title of “Song of Anti-White” should have been “Song of the Anti-White”, i.e. including the word “the” (which may have been left out as a transcription mistake or a typographical error). Not only does it make grammatical sense to include “the” in the title, but Mary Gilmore, in her column published two weeks afterwards, actually refers to this verse as “Song of the Anti-White”.
See: Mary Gilmore, “The white man’s flag”, The Australian Worker, (Sydney, NSW), 22 April 1920, p. 9
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
The Institute of Australian Culture
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