19 APRIL 1940, Page 14

SOLDIER'S SONG, 1940

THIS much I know ; if ever comes the time When truth and freedom perish from mankind, It will not be when men can bravely die, And smiling leave the much-loved things behind. Though fear and hatred make us blind, And though the cup of bitterness each hour More bitter grows, one comfort lives : Still can forgiveness cancel out all wrong, And truth and beauty come again to flower. This much I know As I watch morning streak the eastern sky, And the first sun flush creep across the snow.

C. H. PEACOCK.