Saturday, 2 January 2016

Poem ~ League of German Fear - Sunday, 2 January 1916


Source: File: A 1915 Anti-German League, Australian badge.jpg. [online] An original image is Available at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AGLbadge.jpg> [Accessed: 2 January 2016]

With first column of joyful news
To tell of births - alongside Happy
New Year greetings, from Cheri
Mr. A De Hem and Miss Eddes -
Echoed by Mrs. Roger's greetings
And thanks for wishes, during
Her illness, above a sober square.

Below a personal advert set out
How numbers solely in London,
For 10,729 Germans uninterned -
The figures replied to a question
Made by house of commons -
To be 10,729; the advert quizes
How long is state to continue?

Such views were nothing new,
And could date back to middle
Ages, in dislike of all things as in
Danish Chronicon Lethrense -
The middle of nineteenth century,
With rise of Germany's power
And solidity in unification was fear.

From wars strike of 1914, riots
Against all German presence
Had occurred - to continue
Brewing, not just in Britain yet
All over the world - in Empire
State of Australia by 1915,
A league was well established.

Tuesday 23 November 1915,
Darlinghurst saw a meeting
In open air of the Anti-German
League - in a call for dismissals
All to be made for any German
Presence in Australian office.

In advertising, 1 January 1916,
Was the British AGL to claim
How neutral countries, believed
Britain mad - in peril of alien
Enemies still at large - a call
Being adverts purpose to all
True British, to join the AGL.

The League's purpose was
To place pressure on those
Allowing Germans to be
Uninterned - the need being
Called for a million members,
To help the battle cry to make
Everything German taboo.

The unity of this league
Would spread across the
Empire, to justify existing
Germanophobia and play
Of pre war fears - a public
Should send for application.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1916. Personal Column: 10,729 Germans. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 1 January 1916. P.1. Col.2. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12072922/Daily-Telegraph-January-1-1916.html [Accessed: 1 January 2016].

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 1 January 2016). 



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