WHERE IS THE FLAG OF ENGLAND?

Henry Dupre LaBouchere

I

Let the winds of the world make answer!

North, South, East, West,

Wherever there is wealth to covet

Or land to be possessed:

Wherever the savage nations

To coddle, coerce or scare,

You may look for the vaunted emblem

For the Flag of England is there!

II

Aye, it waves over the blazing hovels

Whence its African victims fly

To be shot by explosive bullets

Or wretchedly starve and die:

Or where the beachcomber hammers

The isles of tbe southern sea -

From the peak of his hellish vessel

The English flag flies free!

III

The Maori, full of hate, curses

With his fleeting, dying breath.

And the Arab hath hissed his curses

As he spat at its folds in death.

The hapless fellah hath feared it

On Tel el Kebir's parched plain.

And the blood of the Zulu hath stained it,

With a deep indelible stain.

IV

It has floated over scenes of pillage

And flaunted over deeds of shame.

It has waved o'er the fell marauder

As he ravished with Sword and flame:

It has looked on ruthless slaughter

And assassination dire and grim.

And has heard the shrieks of its victims

Drown even the jingo hymn.

V

Where is the flag of England?

Seek the land where the natives rot

And decay, and assured extinction

Must soon be the people's lot.

Go to the once fair island

Where disease and death are rife

And the greed of colossal commerce

Now fattens on human life.

VI

Where is the flag of England?

Go sail where the rich galleons come

With their shoddy and wasted cotton,

And beer and Bibles and rum.

Seek the land where brute force hath triumphed

And hypocrisy hath its lair.

And your question will thus be answered

For the flag of England is there!