THOUGHTS ON MAY 24.

If there be traitors here who hate this flag,

See that they do not burn it yet a while.
It must wave wide, for one has to come to brag
And talk with patriot ardor by the mile.
Salute the emblem! Freeman proudly flew it
On stricken fields by George, well see you do it!

Nay, do not burn these triple crosses
1
proud;
It has another purpose here to-day.
The children greet it with their plaudits loud
And stand, bored stiff, in impotent array.
Nay, do not burn the flag. This man who patters
Has need of it to talk it now to tatters.

Pat OMaori
Pseudonym of David McKee Wright
N.S.W.
The Bulletin, 2
nd
June 1921

1
The crosses are of St Andrew of Scotland, St George of England and St Patrick of Ireland,
comprising the three crosses in the Union of the United Kingdom. (Wales was excluded because
it was not a Kingdom).