If from your bonds you know quite well You might, this moment, find release, Changing, at will, your present hell For Liberty's heaven of lasting peace; If yet, for habit's sake, you choose This reign of steel, this rule of terror, It's not for us to push our views And point you out your silly error. Herein I speak as I am taught-- That your affairs are yours alone, Though, for myself, I should have thought They had a bearing on my own; Have I no right to interpose, Urging on you a free autonomy, Just as your U-boats shove their nose In my interior economy? I'm told we have no quarrel, none, With you as Germans. That's absurd. Myself, I hate all sorts of Hun, Yet will I say one kindly word: If, still refusing Freedom's part, You keep the old Potsdam connection, With all my sympathetic heart I wish you joy of that selection. O.S. * * * * * AN ORDER OF THE DAY. In my opinion the value of the stock letter has distinct limitations. What I mean to say is that if there is in a Government office a series of half a dozen standard epistles, one or other of which can be used as a reply to the majority of the conundrums that daily serve to bulge the post-bag of the "controller" or "director," the selection of the appropriate missive should not be left purely to chance. Last month I wrote to the Methylated Spirit Controller:-- "DEAR SIR,--Referring to the recent Methylated Spirit (Motor Fuel) Restriction Order, No. 2, 1917, I wish to know whether I am at liberty to use my car as a means of conveyance to a farm about ten miles away where the rabbits are eating the young blades of wheat. A friend has invited me to help him shoot them--the rabbits, I mean." Well, that was lucid enough, wasn't it? But the reply was not so helpful as I could have wished. It opened intelligibly with the words "Dear Sir," but continued:-- "I am directed by the Methylated Spirit Controller to inform you that the employment of a hackney motor vehicle, not licensed to ply for hire, as a conveyance to divine service constitutes a breach of Regulation 8 ZZ of the Defence of the Realm Regulations." Not a word about the rabbits, you see. I was so fascinated by the unexpected results of my first effort that I tried again, this time breaking new ground. "DEAR SIR," I wrote,--"Referring to Methylated Spirit (Motor Fuel) Restriction Order, No. 2, 1917, am I at liberty to use my car daily to take my children to their school, which is five miles from my residence? The only alternative form of conveyance available is a donkey and cart, the employment of which means that my offspring would have to start overnight." I received a quite polite but rather chilly answer:--