TO THE GERMAN PEOPLE.
Each to his taste: if you prefer
The KAISER'S whip across your flanks;
If you enjoy the bloody spur
That rips your cannon-fodder's ranks;
If to his boots you still adhere,
Kissing 'em as you've always kissed 'em,
Why, who are we to interfere
With your internal Teuton system?
If from your bonds you know quite well
You might, this moment, find release,
Changing, at will, your present hell
For Liberty's heaven of lasting peace;
If yet, for habit's sake, you choose
This reign of steel, this rule of terror,
It's not for us to push our views
And point you out your silly error.
Herein I speak as I am taught—
That your affairs are yours alone,
Though, for myself, I should have thought
They had a bearing on my own;
Have I no right to interpose,
Urging on you a free autonomy,
Just as your U-boats shove their nose
In my interior economy?
I'm told we have no quarrel, none,
With you as Germans. That's absurd.
Myself, I hate all sorts of Hun,
Yet will I say one kindly word:
If, still refusing Freedom's part,
You keep the old Potsdam connection,
With all my sympathetic heart
I wish you joy of that selection.
O.S.