Noel Coward

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Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans (1943)

We must be kind
And with an open
mind
We must endeavour to find
A way -
To let the Germans know that
when the war is over
They are not the ones who'll have to pay.
We must be
sweet
And tactful and discreet
And when they've suffered defeat
We
mustn't let
Them feel upset
Or ever get
The feeling that we're cross
with them or hate them,
Our future policy must be to reinstate
them.

Don't let's be beastly to the
Germans
When our victory is ultimately won,
It was just those nasty Nazis
who persuaded them to fight
And their Beethoven and Bach are really far worse
than their bite
Let's be meek to them-
And turn the other cheek to
them
And try to bring out their latent sense of fun.
Let's give them full
air parity
And treat the rats with charity,
But don't let's be beastly to
the Hun.

We must be just
And win their
love and trust
And in addition we must
Be wise
And ask the conquered
lands to join our hands to aid them.
That would be a wonderful
surprise.
For many years-
They've been in floods of tears
Because the
poor little dears
Have been so wronged and only longed
To cheat the
world,
Deplete the world
And beat
The world to blazes.
This is the
moment when we ought to sing their praises.

Don't let's be beastly to the
Germans
When we've definately got them on the run
Let us treat them very
kindly as we would a valued friend
We might send them out some Bishops as a
form of lease and lend,
Let's be sweet to them
And day by day repeat to
them
That 'sterilization' simply isn't done.
Let's help the dirty swine
again
To occupy the Rhine again,
But don't let's be beastly to the
Hun.

Don't let's be beastly to the
Germans
When the age of peace and plenty has begun.
We must send them
steel and oil and coal and everything they need
For their peaceable
intentions can be always guaranteed.
Let's employ with them a sort of
'strength through joy' with them,
They're better than us at honest manly
fun.
Let's let them feel they're swell again and bomb us all to hell
again,
But don't let's be beastly to the Hun.

Don't let's be beastly to the
Germans
For you can't deprive a gangster of his gun
Though they've been a
little naughty to the Czechs and Poles and Dutch
But I don't suppose those
countries really minded very much
Let's be free with them and share the
B.B.C. with them.
We mustn't prevent them basking in the sun.
Let's soften
their defeat again - and build their bloody fleet again,
But don't let's be
beastly to the Hun.