G'day aagin,

Joybell: I understood that the American Ambassador had been prevailed upon, by the Colonial authorites, to warn the Americans off ... with the usual threats of authority. (Can't say too much about the effects of authority ... Peter Lalor did end up as Minister for Transport in the Victorian Government!)

Joe Richman: Sorry I have been otherwise engaged - I did look at various Australian versions of Dinky Di ... and it is interesting that the collected version - mostly written down post-WW II - come with the 'Lord Gort' verse ... whether they have the WW I references or the WW II ones! The Lord Gort verse must be WW II ... he was only a Lieut. Colonel in 1917 ... I think that verse - usually the final one of the song - is so good it sticks to all versions!

I'll get back from home, where I have scanned in Bill Scott's version from his Second Penguin Australian Songbook (1980?). He learned the song first hand in the 1940s, on active service ... but refers back to the version his Dad sang him, from WW I ... but retains the Lord Gort stanza. I'll also give you another version ... varying mostly in having a variable chorus, echoing the last line of each stanza.

I ran my usual Monday Night Music Workshop last night ... and remembered that John Poleson, who was in the band Selectors with me in the '70s ... and comes along to my Workshops ... was the source of a much less expurgated version, printed in Brad Tate's Australian Bawdy Songs, Ramskull Press (mid 1980s ... ?) - but that (perhaps fortunately) doesn't enter into this discussion since it goes to the tune Mountains of Mourne ( - and there is textual evidence that this was the earlier tune for Dinki Di).

I also noted a reference (Thérèse Radic, in her (~) Favourite Australian Songs - I'll dig out the full references when I get home) to another Australian song Euabalong Ball (or Wooeeo Ball, before A.L. Lloyd fiddled with it) going to " ... a variant of Villikins & His Dinah". However, after a lot of comparison of the two tunes, I'd have to say the resemblance is slight! I can give you ABC (plus the no longer Mudcat-supported MIDItxt) if you are interested ... or send of a simple MIDI - and/or a scan or a print-out from my music progran, if you want to give me an e-mail address by PM.

Regards,

Bob Bolton