Handkerchief printed with propaganda message

Propaganda came in all shapes and forms.

 

Printed cotton Handkerchief, c.1915

 

Accession number: MS 10024

 

From the State Library of Victoria's Manuscripts Collection.

 

See the catalogue record for this item

 

Transcription:

 

 

Words by Harold Begbie, Reproduced from the Daily Chronicle

 

What will you lack, sonny, what will you lack When the girls line up the street,
Shouting their love to the lads come back From the foe they rushed to beat?
Will you send a strangled cheer to the sky And grin till your cheeks are red?
But what will you lack when your mate goes by With a girl who cuts you dead?

 

 

Why do they call, sonny, why do they call For men who are brave and strong?
Is it naught to you if your country fall, And Right is smashed by Wrong?
Is it football still and the picture show, The pub and the betting odds,
When your brothers stand to the tyrant’s blow And Britain’s call is God’s?

 

 

Where will you look, sonny, where will you look When you children yet to be
Clamour to learn of the part you took In the War that kept men free?
Will you say it was naught to you if France Stood up to her foe or bunked?
But where will you look when they give the glance That tells you they know you funked?

 

How will you fare, sonny, how will you fare In the far-off winter night,
When you sit by the fire in an old man's chair And your neighbours talk of the fight?
Will you slink away, as it were from a blow, Your old head shamed and bent?
Or say  I was not with the first to go But I went thank God, I went?

 

Propaganda