a league of notions

i'm here sitting in the wreck of europe

with a map of europe

spread out in a hall of versailles

and every single nationality and principality

have come for a piece of the pie

i'm sitting in the wreck of europe

with a map of europe

and the lines and the borders are gone

we've got to do this jigsaw puzzle

it's an awful muddle

but somehow we've got to go on

lawrence of arabia is waiting in the wings

he's got some arab sheikhs and kings

and we're in debt to them somehow

lawrence of arabia has got this perfect vision

gonna sell him down the river

there's no time for him now

i think i'm gonna take a piece of russia

and a piece of germany

and give them to poland again

i'll put together yugoslavia and czechoslovakia

and hope that is how they'll remain

then i'll take a bit of turkey

then a lot of turkey

this is all quite a heady affair

there's persia and iraq to pick up

and there's churchill's hiccup

and we can't leave it up in the air

woodrow wilson waves his fourteen points around

and says the time to act is now