Bring in the nigger and the lash,
This advocate declares,
The working white is feeble trash,
Too weak for what he shares;
Bring; in the slayer and the whip.
The, licensed trade in man —
And see the, flag on every ship
That out as slaver ran.

Bring in the ‘British negro’ blood
(The Asian is too white).
What matter if its color flood
Australia left and right!
What matter’ if the moral law,
By which we strive to stand,
‘Give way to Ju-Ju, red and raw
From Britain’s Africa strand!

Be British! says this Britisher;
Put down your native pride.
Prefers to do a perisher
Than ride with Ham inside!
The white man starves beside the Thames,
And by the northern Firth;
We’ll leave him hungry, as he ‘clems’
And count the blacker worth!

Be British! says this Britisher,
As, stridently and loud,
He stands as our admonisher
And lands, his ‘nigger crowd;
He thinks that cotton black men grow
Will feel upon your skin
Nicer than that Australians show
As grown by kith and kin!

Alas,! Alas!, the negro man,
Enslaved for rich man’s greed,
Counted as endless- ages ran
No better than a weed!

Give him his country, back again,
Give him his native powers,
Give him his manhood among men—
And’ leave, O leave us, Ours!

Mary Gilmore, 22/1/1924