[The KAISER's Chancellor, in an interview with the American
journalist, KARL VON WIEGAND, accuses England of militarism, and
alleges that we pursued towards Germany a policy of envelopment
(_Einkreisungspolitik_).]
They mocked us for a peaceful folk,
A land that flowed with beer and chops;
NAPOLEON (ere we had him broke)
Remarked our taste for keeping shops;
And WILLIAM, in his humorous way,
Thought that we must have all gone barmy
Because we joined so large a fray
With so absurdly small an army.
Opinions alter. Now it seems,
Under our outer rind, or peel,
Deep at the core of England's schemes
There lurked a lust for blood and steel;
Herr BETHMANN-HOLLWEG he proclaims
The War was due to our intrigue and
Expounds our militaristic aims
Into the ear of Herr VON WIEGAND.
We are a dragon belching fire,
One of those horrors, spawned in hell,
Who come from wallowing in the mire
To crunch the innocent damosel;
And when we've nosed about and found
What looks to be a toothsome jawful
We call our mates and ring her round
With other dragons just as awful.
Prussia was ever such a maid;
Pink-toed and fair and free from guile
She frolicked in the flowery glade,
Pursuing Culture all the while;
Then, coached by GREY, the monsters came,
And their behaviour (something horrid)
BETHMANN condemns, and brands the blame
Upon the premier dragon's forehead.