If it really was meant to be an attack on Chaplin, I'm surprised it wasn't more vicious. Subtlety was not a feature of anti- 'conchie and coward' sentiment in the Great War. Learning it in a working class family in the 1940s, nothing ever suggested to me that it was about anything but an affectionately regarded movie character. Now that I've been reminded I shall sing it to my grand daughter and I hope that, in time, she will pass it on.