That far-off day when Peace is signed (and all the papers say-- "A most important by-election starts at Kew to-day; We urge our readers one and all to loyally support The Independent Candidate--Count Katzenjammerdordt") Will change a lot of little things--perhaps we'll get some leave, And hear a yarn of extra pay, which no one will believe; The salvage ships will hurry out, two thousand wrecks to find, The monuments to Kultur that the Huns have left behind. We'll watch the sweepers put to sea ten million mines to seek, And--Patrol Flotilla Exercise will start within a week; Someone Big will say to Someone: "Time for work and time for play, (Rub his hands together briskly) We'll commence the work to-day; They have had their fun and fighting, and they must be getting slack, Stop all leave and start manoeuvres--for the good old times are back." Then destroyers and torpedo-boats and submarines and oilers Will receive a little notice headed "Maintenance of Boilers," "To economise in fuel while the ships are out at sea Each pound of steam will count as two, and every knot as three." We'll have the old manoeuvre Rules to show us what to do. "I rose within two thousand yards and have torpedoed you," "My counter-claim is obvious--to port you must retire," "I sank you with a Maxim gun just as you rose to fire." Ships will carry navigation lights--"Precautionary Measure," "An infringement of this solemn rule incurs My Lords' Displeasure." Yes, the after-war manoeuvres will be fearful to behold, Not been held since nineteen--("half a minute, surely you've been told"), Hush, you'll get me into trouble ("it was eighteen months ago-- And the whole Grand Fleet was in it--I was there, I ought to know: _Red Fleet to start from Helgoland and Blue from Udsire Light, To meet in sixty-twenty North and have a morning fight. No ship should cross a line between the Jahde and Amrum Bank, But should a German flag be seen (unless of junior rank),_ _No captain can do very wrong who indicates by guns-- We won't have our manoeuvres spoilt by interfering Huns._ Perhaps the wording isn't right, perhaps it isn't true, But we've got to have manoeuvres when there's nothing else to do.") And when the Censor fades away and leaves the presses clear For all the "Truths about the War," by "One who has no fear," And all the "Contract Scandals," by "A Clerk behind the Door," The book I want to see in print is "Humours of the War," Though I fear the other Censor (Morals, Cinemas, and Vice) Would expurgate the best of them as being hardly nice; Still, even with the cream suppressed a volume could be filled With the epigrams of killing and the jokes of being killed, With a preface by the officer we rescued from the wave, When a cloud of steam and lyddite smoke lay o'er the "Bluecher's" grave,