LIQUOR AND THE WAR.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 6970, 1 February 1918, Page 3

LIQUOR AND THE WAR.

Lecture by Dr Bedford.

The Town Hall was weii filled on Wednesday night to hear the lecture by Dr Bedford or. the relation of the iiqaor frafiic to the war. His Worship the Mayor (Me J. C. Adams) presided and briefly introduced the lecturer, and also the Rev. ,1. Dawson. Dr Bedford dealt very cleariy snJ convincingly witb i\i subject, and at the conclusion of th<? lecture waa accorded a hcartv vets of thanks on the motion of Mr N. H. S. Law, seconded by Staft-Captain Mcof«, S.A. Dr Bedford said ha hid come to discuss the relation of the liquor traffic to the war. His daily work wes that ot examining ths principles underlying the prosperity of rations. On every psge of the history of every nation two principle were written. i^o nation c^n permanently retain ness ii'iless its people were ctroug in body, mind anil character. Thfi next principle written in capital letters on every page of hurt-an history tvaa that decadence was sure to come when a nation forgot to honour the principles of highest liberty. He desired ta direct attention to the man power on which a nation's greatness was dependent, The influence of tee liquor traffic o« the problem was well illustrsratcd by the resolution of a Detroit Ciuipa'-y employing 40,000 ms:i that if an agitation to restore licenses in that, city succeeded they" 'would move their plant to a "dry" district. The burden that the liquor traffic was on the prosperity of a country was clearly outlii.tid. The wer had ?aade the world poor. It had inflicled poverty, not only on the working classes, but the richer cla??es us well. Tiir(;u.jh all classes of society in Europe was a sense of shortag?. Uvery country was running down the ?teep grade of impoverishment. Two reasons why it wss difficult for U3 to understand t'nis were our isolation, ar.d tie feet that our surplus produce could not find its way readily to Europe. In England last year he went into a restaurant in one of the most aristocratic quarters in Londun. He had two courses — one of fish and one of milk pudding. Britain was then short cf food. ReCent cables showed us tho gravity of tbe foci] problem in ft.iylasiri now. She was on the yerge of rationing her people. Other countries were wuiee. No country near the seat of war but was feeling the shortage of things that satisfy life. Ar.d the reason was that the average man was misled when facing this problem by looking only at the figures of money by which Ministers of Finance regale them. We hear of tbe millions borrowed and we think our Empire ia rich. An eminent financier tied estimated that here were 100 millions sterling more in circulation in Britain to-day than before the war, but Jiotwithstanding tl"ere was a great shortage it food. The reason for this ahortege was simply that thirty million men in the prime of life bad heen turned from breadwinners into breed consumers. Those who remain have to work as hard as ever to maintain their wants and had then to maintain the thirty million men fit the t'roct- As a result cf Germany's terrible ambition the would had audderly been saddled with the maintenance of thirty million men wbo vvere formerly creators of the wealth and prosperity of the nations. No wonder that the cost o* living waa rising everywhere. No man's work was bringing in as much bs before the war. We were going rapidly towards impoverishment. When this was the case what did people do in respect to industries that; wsste ita energies? The liquor trade drew to itself many of the things of which we were short. He could understand ths production of beer and spirits if we had all the munitions and feed we want, but it was a national erinie to go ou producing it until the shortages that existed were relieved. It was an act of gro?3 dißloyalty to allow the liquor trade to absoiu the wealth we needed. Mr Lloyd George was saying to Britain to-day that it must divert its energies now going into culaaaal luxuries. V\>e were now short of food because we would Inng oo to cur luxuries. The British Empire could' not provide all the ammunition and food desired and hang o.i to its luxuries, aad wo had to choose which. During tho first two year? we let munitions go short and prolonged the war, and now wo .say that food must go short. The worli could not havo the three-munitions, food and luxuries. We have now to make our choice. Britain was gradually coming to her right mmd. The selliug hours for liquor were being restricted, but it was not enough While the war was on people were necessarily opponents of the liquor traffic. It was not possible for au intelligent, patriotic man to oppose pi'uliibitlon during the war. Continuing tho speaker said* thai for several years alter the war was over Ike world would be pour. This im proverisiiiueut of tho iuitiom; would bo manifest for several years. This would bo so fur the pimple icasou that a vast aiuiy of men would to engaged in repairing ?ho damage caused hy th^ «ar. All the world to-day was ia disrepair. Belgium a-;d Northern France hud I-eon 'nil! des;.l.i*e, and the dauitigo doin> was so great <h tit '*r;\s estimate.! ihu Ov.st <•£ restoring- the damage dune to the o-j»l of l'Jl6 would cost as much as the conduct of the war to the Allies to that elate. This work aioue, np;ir!; Ito a ut-hor restoration woik, would bo c.'-jlossm}, and probably millions oi iu:u vvciilu b: 1 required for ay .oar or so. There must be no mistiik•> as lo what :his meant. It'every man vv> r-icl ?-n or twelve hours a day the world wotii-j s;ill feel p iveriy and priva';oa. W« sh >>.]) have t» maintain ourselves and this vast army of men engaged rostoiing tho diuinge, and generally speakicg aftt r tbe v-'nr men woull have to work harder for years to get the same