A REVISED NATIONAL ANTHEM
SIR,—No wonder Mr. St. John Ervine always puts such gusto into the singing of those lines about frustrating politics and confounding knavish tricks, since he himself, and Janus, would appear to be the joint and only begetters of what, though assuredly not contemptible, is a sad come-down after the grand, soul-lifting second verse of our National Anthem, with its swelling exordium of "0 Lord our God, arise!"
and its crashing climax of
"Confound their politics!
Frustrate their knavish tricks!"
which helped to keep us in heart about this time seven years ago, and is not without a use for some of us even now. It is all very well for the Minister of Fuel to pursue his war against Christian housewives by contemptuously misquoting, as well as taking in vain, words that to them are the most solemn and sacred ever spoken; but I do think that Mr. Ervine (whom I hope and believe to be a hundred-plus-Ulster per cent. Protestant loyalist) might be a little more tender with what Mr. Shinwell's supporters would probably call "Gawdsave." Not to speak of our beloved, and normally infallible, Janus !—Yours faithfully,
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