21 JULY 1917, Page 12

POETRY.

BOTHA AND SMUTS.

AGAINST us once, now by our side they stand, Helpers of foremost rank with head and hand. Let far-spread empires from this drama learn; Royal our boon, and royal their return.

" Not without God " we healed the wasted lands, Raised the sunk hearts and loosed the captives' bands. Beyond the rumours of their rolling plain They heard the mightier music of the main. They heard, they rose, they Gourd a higher fate, Faithful in small things once, but now in great. They claimed their part, they took their place by right, Unvexed by vanished doubts, in Freedom's fight, Sons and rot strangers through the years to be, Peers in our peerless Realm, our Empire of the Free.

EHNEST Mersa