SIR JOSEPH WARD AND LICENSING.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16610, 25 August 1919, Page 8

SIR JOSEPH WARD AND LICENSING.

TO TUB EDITOR Or "THX P&XSt." Sir, —AH the signs indicate that Sir Joseph Ward, in his feverish anxiety to regain the Premiership, is willing to throw over any and every thing so that his ambition may be* gratified. His adoption of many of the planks of the Labour platform are justly resented by official Labour, because it is only a.t the point of the bayonet that he has declared in favour of Buch radical measures as are contained in his manifesto. There is one serious omission, and tha,t is that. Sir Joseph has not made any declaration of faith on the liquor question. "What I do know is that in Sir Joseph, and the bulk of the Liberal members, ,wo have had the most determined opponents of the prohibition movement. Does the Liberal Leader stand for everything that is radical and progressive with the one exception that he will not touch the trade? A conundrum which I cannot unravel is that the Reform Party, which is not supposed to jxs very progressive, is more distinctly in favour of temperance reform than the Liberals. Many readers of your widely-circulated journal will be glad to _ know, through your columns, on which side of the fence Sir Joseph stands.—Yours, etc., a «« „ SPECTATOR. August 23rd.