THE FIDDLERS Drink in the Witness Box

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3188, 12 September 1917, Page 4

THE FIDDLERS Drink in the Witness Box

• By ARTHUR MEE

. ' EXTRACTS "While Rome was BURNING Nero was FIDDLING" HOW LONG WILL YOU GO ON FIDDLING?

THE WAGES OF SIN. • como >vhen'.it should be said ilnat those, responsible for our couniry now- stand on the very threshold of eternal glory .or eternal shame. They . iplay and palter with, the greatest enemy force outeido Berlin. The news from iVimy Eidge comes to a, land whoso rulers fliiail before an enemy within its gale. ,-;\Not_for one hour hasihe full .strength of Britain - been turned against her en- . em?ee. Prom the first day pf- the war, •while our mighty Allies have been, fitrikong' down-this. ; foe' within' their gates, Britain has let fhis trade stalk through ,'har streets, ij£rving : the" Kaiser's pur.poses,. and' paying the . Government *21,000,000 "a weok for the'right to do it. . ■ She. has let this trade destroy our food and. bring us to. the vcrgq of-famine; she ihas let it keep back guns and shells and ihpld nip ships i she has let it waste our . people's wealth in hundreds of millions of pounds; she" has let it put its callous Ibrake on the merciful Bed Cross; she lias Hat, it jeopardise the unity and safety of thei Umpire—for it may yet he found, as iDr. Stuart Hol'deh has so finely said, that ithe links that bind the Pax Britannica are solvable in: that great chemist's solvent, alcohol: . '

The witnesses are too'great 10 numbei; ■we can only call -a few. There is no Iroom for all ; those, witnesses -whose e\idence is in tho House of Commons lieturn 220 (1915), showing the part think played in the great shell in delaying ships and guns, and imperilling the Army and the Fleet.

■ Bu/t the indictment '°s heavy. I charge 'Ihis trade with the crime the King laid Sat its door two years ago, the crime of prolonging the war; and the witnesses are liere at the bar of the people. The verdict is with them, ami the iudgment is with those who rule.

The wages of sin is death. What are the wages of those who fail in an hour like this? (

THE SHADOW OF FAMINE. "We lave to face this grim menace," says Lord Devonport. "Wo are taking no chances," says tho, Prime Sinister, aud the nation will hope there is some meaning in the words.. It is the tragic irony of this solemn time that so many men in high places have talked like kings and ruled like jesters. The nation looks to Mr. Lloyd George tc be equal to his words. The. Prime Minister blames ; :he late Government, the Government that let slip the greatest opportunity in British ikistory, for helping famine on; but it •will not do. The new Government lias 'been bringing famine nearer every day; it has allowed the destruction of enormous quantities of food, and those who ore guilty of this crime have lin stones to throw at others. The Prime Minister ..tamo into office with the food shortage in sight; it was his first <luty to, bu.ild ..lip the preat reserve of food ws might Wave had now in our gra'.iaries if the drink trade had not destroyed; it. We could haye laughed at subnnrin*?, for our barns would have been filled to overflowing, and we could have live<l in comfort for a year if no ship reached iis. Let lis see how much food drink has 'destroyed since the war began. .We will take it from August 4, 1911, to April .'lO, 1917. It is 999 days of the war. The quantity of grain and sugtr destroyed for drink has been:— Grain for beer 4,400.000 tons. Sugar for beer 340,000 tons It is not easy to realise .what this means, but it will help ns if we think of one or two examples. The biggest thing ever set up on earth ?s the Great Pyramid. It is 80,000,000 cubic feet. The food destroyed by drink during the war would make two Oreat Pyramids, both biggsr than the Pyramid of Egypt. The longest British railway is the ! Great Western; it'is over 3000 miles, but it wou|d not hold the food destroyed by 'drink since war began. If every inch of it were crammed with wagons, the Great Western Railway would need hundreds of miles, more line to hold the trainloads of food destroyed.

There are about 750,000 railway wagons 'in the United Kingdom; but if the Drink •Trade had them all they would not hold •the food it has'destroyed; it would need .■hundreds of thousands more.' ' '

There are about 30,000''engines on our British railways,»and jf.the food destroyed were made up in trains of 125 tons iapiece, all our engines would not pull them; we should still want 10,000 more.'

So vast ! is this incredible quantity of Bood destroyed by an enemy trade while famine has been coming on. We should ihave saved it all if Parliament had followed: the King, and l it would have given "the whole United Kingdom its flour yations for nearly a year. Take it at its Minimum scientific human food value and on the basis of our rations in April, 3917. it would havo given us: Flour for the whole United • Kingdom 43 weeks sugar for the whole United Kingdom 33 weeks Our three War Governments, confronted with tho increasing certainty of at least a, three years' war, have allowed the Drink Trade to destroy this vast reserve of food. It will not do for Mr. I/loyd George to blame his predecessor; he has carried on their policy of fiod destruction. In the first four months of 1917 .he has allowed the destruction of 400,000 tons of grain to holster up this trade in drink. It would give the United Kingdom its bread-rations for thirty days; it would make all the difference till the harvest.is over.. >

Thero .is not :i single reason for withholding Prohibition a day longer. It is coming; it -will come before this • year is ended, but if it does not'come till then it will.come to the eternal sihamo ■ of ■Downing Street, for it will be written that when famine came knocking at the door of Britain it found tho Government Dnore willing that children should hunger for bread than that men should thirst for beer.

Nobody will object to any sacrifice to make munitions; tha Government can take the bread out of our mouths for that. But there is in ctock 1515-OCO.OOO gallons of spirits, every drop cf which could be used for munitions. It is almost certainly; enough to make all the munitions wo shall want to win the war.

What should we say if. Vieker.s were storing, up guns, if Cammol Lairds, were storing up ships, if : Armstrongs were storing up shells? But the Drink Trade is hoarding no munitions. "Every. ounce this alcohol,in. bond for IR2O c.iiild be used for winning tho war; but it is-be-ing kept for losing the peace, and instead of using it the Government is making new., alcohol by destroying 740 tens of food a day. It is the most sinister example the war has given us of tho power of this trade.

That is the unparalleled scandal of tho food destroyed .to make a drink trade dividend in 1 years to come. What of the food destroyed to bolster up this drinking now? It'is a 'crime against the Navy and against the nation. Think r.f all tho hazard at which our food, ccmes lo lis in'these days—through mines and subMarines, guarded and proteit.'d on long journeys'at the risk of brave men's live,-*, B®d brought at last lo a. famine-threat-ened land to be handed or.er to a brew-

er's destructor. Take a carija of sugar from the Philippines, ordered for a restaurant.proprietor who piovides -10,000 aneals a day for working people in London. Tho sugar arrived at the London docks, and tho caterer sent for it; but instead of his sugar he received from the l'ort of London Authority a note siyinf: "Delivery of this sugar stopped by Food Controller, unless for Brewers."

In another case a caterer in the provinces, who had actually paid for his sugar and received a similar note from the docks, HTote to the .Food Controller, whoso Department replied that the sugar could only be released if it were sold to a brewer. The caterer, whose conscience would jiot allow him to sell food for destruction, asked if the Food Controller in such cases arranged for the sale, but was informed that the transaction must bo left to the owner. It has not beensold, and the sugar is still at the docks— though since tho exposure of this outrage steps have been taken to release this, sugar under certain conditions.

So we see the British Government holding back sugar from a people waiting for it iu queues outside our shops; holding it back from its legal owners in order to hand it to the food-destroyers. If the sugar brought at such a hazard must go straight to a brewer's destructor, we might surely have saved our sailors and our shipping all this bitter peril.

SCENES DURING THE GREAT FOOD DESTRUCTION. . An enormous crowds besieged a. farm at Fnrnborough, in Kent, where potatoes were being sold in. shilling lots, and tho Bale had to be suspended while the police restored order. Hundreds of people came by 'bus from London, others arrived in motor-cars, and the queue of four deep was nearly a mile long—Facts in "The Times," April 23, 1917. A queue of women and children four deep stood in a cold wind, many of them from seven in the morning till four in the afternoon, waiting for potatoes ouhsida a shop at Cardiff, on March 21, 1917. The procession crowded the pavements for nearly tiOt) yards, so that it would have been a mile long in single file.—Facts in "South Wales Daily Mews," March 22, 1917.

THE DRINK TRADE AND OUR WAR SERVICE. It is not possible to measure the strain the Drink Traffic has imposed on our war services. . The Food Controller's Organisation, with its great offices aud staffs, would not have been needed had wo saved the

food destroyed by drink. Kationing already ' involves 1200 committees, and may mean 50,000 officials and 50,000,000 tickets weekly. It could all be avoided. Prohibition would savo

moro bread without food controlling than all the food controlling can savo without Prohibition.

The Rational Service, with itsaietwork of officials, its costly advertising, its absorption of paper and printing, could all have been avoided under Prohibition. About 200,00(j men have enrolled, but Prohibition would give us twice that man-power any day. The slrain on a host of men and women looking after soldiers' children neglected through drink, soldiers' wives spending allowances On drink, is incalculable.

Tho strain on war charities and the strain on the police arising from drinkare both very great. The strain of drink on doctors, nurses, and hospitals iB beyond belief. Prohibition would set freo for the Bed Cross thousands who waste their time on tho great drink trail.

■The strain ou transport is seen in tho' long lines of wagons drawn by strong horses carting beer to publiu-liou.-e.s. lliis year alono tlio handling of drink must equal the. lifting of at least 9,000,000 tons, and tlio barrels of beer would fill nearly all tho railway wagons in the kingdom. As to ships, drink materials during the war have used uj> GO ships of 5000 tons, working all the time. On Lord ililncr's Estimate of ID barrt'| t° the truck, it would require 4,500,000 railway Inicks to carry (he 17,000,000 tons.of. beer manufactured in the United Kingdom during the war. It can be proved from official figures that the weight of- drink stuff'carried about since war began has been equal to the weight of solid material carried by the Navy to all our fighting fronts, . ,3? a . crying shame that the strength of Britain should be destroyc-d like this In such an hour as this. <

THE WAR-WORK OF THE FOOD DEvSTROYERS. There are hundreds of groat Pood Destructors in the United Kingdom. The man-power at their service, spread over our breweries and distilleries, numbers nunarods of thousands of'men; their capital is hundreds of millions. This is a summary of the work they did in the first 1000 days tho war.

They sacrificed 4,400,000 tons of grain and 340,000 tons or sugar, enough to ration the whole United Kingdom with bread for 43 weeks, and sugar for 33 weeks.

They took from every kitchen cupboard in the land 600lbs, of bread and 76lbs. of sugar.

They destroyed bread and sugar to last every child under 15 for every day of the war.

They took from the pockets of our poo. pie £500,000,0011.

They used up labour and transport for lifting over 50,000,000 tons. By'sea they used, up 60 Ships of 5000 tons; by rail their raw materials would fill 950,000 wagons, and make a train 3500 miles long; and their barrels of beer alone would fill 4,500,000 wagons, THE HIDE-THE-DRINK PRESS. The Drink Fleet during tho war, bringing in tho raw material of this trade without cessation, would have brought enough pulp to maintain our newspaper supplies for years. But these ships brought food for this trade to destroy, and the means of publicity are rapidly disappearing. Tho Hide-the-Drink Press has control of our communications.

All over the United Kingdom you can cram great halls for Prohibition. This page is written on the way from tho Free Trade Hall in Manchester, packed witli angry people. The other day it was Usher Hall, in Edinburgh, the day before St. Andrew's Hall in Glasgow, and then the Central Hall in Liverpool, liMßfii's Hall in London, in which we called on the Government to save our tood.

• But what have the papers to tell us of these things? Nothing. They live in another world. Take up tho "Times" l'or the day this is written; almost any day would do. Captain Bathurst has found a tremendous supporter .for his policy of saving food by whitewashing windows. If the Food Controller is to make a. startling impression, says the "Times," "he can lake drastic action in regard to the display of food." Wo livo in brave days: who shall measure tho conrago of our greatest newspaper when it writes likn thai? If we do not sec our food we shall not want it!

Bat wo do not liko tho llide-lhe-l>'ood Press any more than the Hide-the-Drink Press. The "Times" tells us the most

noticeable waste of food now going on 'is by children. 1 beg the "Times s" pardon. If we have come ill this conntry, us wo have come, lo a, tug-of-war between, brewers' dividends and bread l'or children, decent people are on the side of the children. Once before the "Times" has called the attention of (he Food Controller to the great exasperation of men and women all over the country that shops are still selling sweets, "Was any hypocrisy ever so great since Uriah Heep was'born? Let us take the "Daily Mail." We may raise our hat to the journalist who keeps drink uut of it, who spends day after day talking of the waste of food, and is blind and deaf and dumb to drink. Ho can see a gnat and miss an elephant; he must bo the cleverest journalist who ever held a pen. Bread is ammunition, and we cannot afford to waste a single loaf, says tho "Mail," but it has not a word to say about the outrage of destroying G,000,000 quartern loaves a week for drink. Every cargo of grain sunk by submarines has to be made up by economy in our homes," says the "Mail." So hare the 20 cargoes of 8000 tons of grain which the brewers are to destroy in the next 2G weeks.

HOW THE ALLIES DID IT. All the world knows, excopt, .apparently, tho world that goes round at. Westminster, how Prohibition has helped (he Allies. With the Shell Famine at its height— largely made by Drink—the Prohibition Army on the' East held up the enemy while Britain fought the Dri-ik Trade for her shells.

With the Bread Famine looming in sight largely made by Drink the Prohibition Navy from the West flings in her power against the submarines.

Oh, the spirit ot' our Allies in this land! If Franco wants to rouse the

spirit of Verdun she strikes down her foe at home and puts absinthe away. If ltussia wants to be great and free she slop* this drink and orders out the Itomanolfs.. If Canada wants to give her utmost to help Britain, she stops this drin/t from sea to sea.. If Australia wants to make her soldiers lit she trains them in i.er Prohibition camps. .If America wants to beat the whole world at making shells, she drives drink from her workshops. If San Francisco lias ail earthquake, slia stops drink while she pulls herself together. If Liverpool lias a dangerous strike, she shuts up public houses and keeps the city quiet. Oh, for a Government of Britain that will see what all the world cau see!

History will do justice to tho part the Prohibition policy of the Allies has played in saving Europe, nut a pamphlet has no room for tlieso things. We can take only one or two great witnesses to the mighty achievements ol' our Prohibition Allies. Let us begin with France, and call our own Prime Minister to tell us what they did. Mr. Lloyd George: "One afternoon we had to postpone our conference in Paris, and tho French Minister of Finance said: 'I have to go to the Chamber of Depuies, because I am proposing a Bill to abolish absinthe.' Absintho plays tho same part in France that whisky plays in this country, and they abolished it by a. majority of something like ten to ono thai, afternoon."

. And how did Paris take this prohibition that men said would cause a revolution? Let us ask ilr. Philip Uibbs, whose splendid letters homo have made his nam» a household word. Mr. Philip Gjbhs:

"Absinthe was banned by a. thunderstroke, and Parisians who !:<ul acquired tbe absinthe habit trembled in every limb at this judgment,'which would reduce thein to physical and moral wrecks. I But the edict was given, and I'aris obeyed, loyally and with resignation.'' And now we come to Russia, to (heso mighty Russian people who in the last year of vodka saved i:ij.ooo,oUo or 'J87,000,000, and in the last lull' year of Prohibition saved a; 177,000,000. Wo will cull /)ur own Prime Minister again: "Russia, knowing her deficiency, knowing how unprepared she was, said, 'I must pull myself together. 1 am not going to bo trampled upon, unready as t am. 1 will usojill my resources.'' What is the first thiug she does? She stops drink.

"I was talking to M. Bark, the Uussian Minister of finance, and asked, 'What has been tlio result?' Ho said, 'Tlio productivity ol' labour, the amount of work which is put but by the workmen, lias gone up between 110 a.n'd 50 per cent.' "I said: 'How do they stand it without their liquor?' and ho replied, 'Stand it? I have lost revenue over it np to .£05,000,000 a year, and we certainly cannot afford it, but if 1 proposed to put it back there would bo a revolution in Russia.' " . '

flow coinplotely teetotal Russia, became we read long ago in the ".Daily Mail," to which Mr. Hamillon I'.yl'e sent this message from Petrograd: "Try to imagino all the public-houses in tho British lisles closed; all the restaurants putting ;iway their wine cards, and offering nothing stronger than cider or ginger ale. That is the date of things in Russia. Htrango it scums, indeed, yet there is ono thing strangor: Nobody makes any audible complaint." Everywhere in Russia it was the same —a nation was made sober by Act of Parliament.

Wo need not bo afraid of Drinkless Revolutions.

THE SOLDIER'S HOME. The things that will be told against this trado when all the truth is known will break the heart of those who mail. It is well for us that wo cannot know the full truth now; the burden would be 100 grievous to bo borne in days like these. But if you will go into your street, or will talk of these tilings with the next man you meet from one of our pitl'ul slums or will pick up one of thoso local papers that still have spuco to print the. truth, you will find the evidence close about you. We aro the- guardians of our soldiers' homes; wo are the trustees of the liopo and happiness of their little children; but we let this drink trade, that takes our people's food out of their cupboards, turn that food into means of death, and sow ruin and destruction through the land.

But wo will call the witnesses to these drink-ruined soldiers' homes, these homes that the enemy worse than Germany has shattered and broken whilo our men have been lighting for your home and mine. We will call a few hero and there, knowing that for every one called aro hundreds more that can be called, and that beyond all these that are known there is in this little land a countless host of tragedies as secret as the grave. A Tooting soldier whose wife had sent him loving letters to the trenches came back to surprise her after 18 ;nonlhs.-He found another man in possession of his home, and a new baby; and, overcome by the discovery, he gave way to drink and killed himself.—Records of Balham Coroner, March, 1910. A soldier who had left a comforlablo homo behind returned from tho front to lind it ruined, with not a bod to lio on, his children never sent to school, iiis wifo all the time i;i public-houscs. "I wish I had beep, shot in the Irenchrs," he said when he arrived.—facts in "'Cork Constitution," December 10, 1015. A soldier came back to his home in

Loudon to find his wife drinking lis money away, harbouring another man; one ol his children, cruelly neglected and the other in its grave, perished from neglect; and a drunken carman's baby about to bo born in his home.—l'acts in Shaftesbury Society Report.

A soldier came homo from the Front to find that drink had ruined his home, and his children were being cared for by Glasgow Parish Council. "Hour after hour we sit on this council," says the Chairman, "listening to case after case, and the cause is drunkenness, drunkenness, drunkenness. There are 2300 children under the council, and two thousand of them' liavo paronts living." "Our raw material is the finished product of tlie pubjic-lioiise," says one of these workers. —i'acts from Glasgow Councillors.

A motor mechanic at the Front, hearing that his wife, hitherto a sober woman, had given way. to drink, obtained leave to como home. He found his wife, very drunk, struggling homo with the help of tho railings in tho street, and neighbours described her horrible life with other The husband obtained a separation for tho sake of his children, and went back to France.—Eull facts in "Kent Messenger," July 31, 1915.

A working-man at Gravesend wont to the Front, leaving behind a wife and three children, her baby lately bora. His u ifo, started drinking away her allowance, neglected her home, and, full of ixnuorse and shame for the disgrace she had brought on the man who was in the trenches, she hanged Herself. 'J.lie man came iiomo to find waiting for him three motherless children, and one of the most pathetic letters a man lias ever had to read.—Records of Gravesend Coroner, 1916. MOTHERS AND CHILDREN. It is easy to understand the pitiful appeal of 500 women out of Hoiloway Vrison who begged Ihe Duchess of Bedford to help lo close all public-houses during tlio war. They know in their hearts of tragedies sucli as these, in which mothers and children die while the fathers light and the Drink Trade goes on merrily.

A soldier's wife in' Sunderland drew ■El 2 arrears of Army pay, and she and her mother began to drink it uway. She drew her pay on Friday, and was carried home drunk on Saturday, gave birth to twins on Sunday morning, and died on Sunday night. The twins (lied a week or two later, and a week or two after that tho soldier camo home from tho trenches to find his family in the grave. —Facts in Sunderland papers, 1917.

Two women' wont drinking in Chester on a Sunday night, a. soldier's mother and a soldier's wife. They had 1 five whiskies each, and fell drunk in the street. Ono slept all night on a sofa, and the other lay on tlio floor, shouting and swearing. Her husband propped her up with a mat, and for hours she lay shrieking. In the morning she was dead. The publican was fined J!s.—Facts in "Chester Chronicle," February 17, 1917.

The wife of a Yorkshire soldier was drowned while drnuk at Sheffield. Hhe Blurted drinking with another soldier's wii'o disappeared with a drunken man, and her death was a mystery.—].''auts ill "Sheffield ImlopeJidenl," April 211, I'JJU.

The wife of a highly-esteemed ser-geant-major fighting in Franco was found lying drunk". Her four children, shockingly neglected, wcro put in a home, but alio look them, out, went oil drinking, and received soldiers at; her house. In a lew weeks her husband heard ill the trenches that his wifo had died from drinking.—Records of ;Wcst Surrey Coroner, March, 1017.

A soldier left throe children at home. Tie had been earning SI a week, but his wife received ll2s. (Jd. a week. She drank

it away, neglected the children, and. died in an asylum while her liusbaml was in France.—Eecords of Claybury Asylum. The little child of a. soldier in France died in Unv's Hospital from burns. Tho mother said she could not buy a fireguard. While she was absent the baby was burned, ami the mother, returning in a drunken stole carrying a can of beer. said, "A good jolt."—Records of tiouthwark Coroner, December, lill.i. "Your husband is fighting for his country, and his children have the right, to be protected," said tiio Chairman ot tho Chesterfield Hunch to a soldier's wife. Iter children were found starving wliile-eho was drinking, and one. day the little boy of three was found crouching naked inside the fender, trying to get, ivarm. Tho'police described tho house as foul from top to bottom, with a heap of horrible rags for a bed, and a food cupboard that made the house linendurable when the door was opened.— Facts in "Yorkshire Telegraph," March " Nineteen hundred children of soldiers have como into tho care of the N.S.I'.C.C., mainly through drink, sinco the war began.—Records of tho N.S.P.C.C. the ruined wives Who does not remember the terrible rush for tho last drop' of drink when Prohibition seemed to bo coming with the New Year? Thousands of women besieged tho whisky shops in Scotland. There were women of all ages, said tho "Daily Mail," tottering in grey hairs, young wives with babies in their arms, and inen of the loafer type. "There was not a respectable citizen," says the "Mai!;" "who did not deplore tliis discreditable scene, but the remarks of passers-by provoked only torrents of insult." The promise of the New Year and the now Government, alas, was not fulfilled, and now, in place of Drink Queues we havo Food Queues. Let ns see what drink is doing among our soldiers' wives :r—

Of 3000 soldiers' wives being cared for in South London, 2000 are splendid, while 1000 are sinking daily to lower and lower levels through drink.—Records of Shaftesbury Society.

A. soldier's wife, with a separation allowance of 325. (id. a week, drank most of it away, ruined her homo, neglectcd her children, and became a lunatic.— Records of Cla.vbury Asylum.

A young soldier's wife, hitherto of "quite an elegant type," is rapidly becoming a drunkard. Women hitherto sober have not tho courage to keep from women's drinking parties and young girls conio out of factories and go to publichouses in little groups.—Records of Charity Organisation Society. Outsido a publichouso in Dublin 15 small children were crying in tho cold, waiting for their mothers. Ninety-four drunken women came out; in' 25 minutes. There were ton drunken soldiers, and two girls of 15 were thrown, into tlio street hopelessly drunk.—Facta in "Irish Times," April 20, 1915.

A stream of nearly 15,000 men and women poured into 58 publicliouses in Birmingham in less than four hours; over 0000 were women. Into one house tho peoplo streamed at nearly 500 an hour.—Tacts in "Review of Reviews," October, 1915.

For months somo wives of soldiers and sailors in Scotland wero never really sober. "We have done our best," says a. worker among them, "going to their homos and doing all in our power, but. it. beats us." In 2:1 families, with 178 children born, (il were dead.—Facts told to Secretary for Scotland, July, IUKJ.

THE NEW DRINKERS. "No complaints have reached tho War Office of youths who were total abstainers having become confirmed dmnkards since enlistment." 1 So wo aro told ill the Jiouso of Comf inoiis. Tho records of the War Office are clearly incomplete, and tho iuforma. lion from tlio camps may hero lie supplemented by unchallengeable witnesses of what happens in the horrible drink canteens run by tlio Army Council:— A soldier who was wounded at La Bassee, a total abstainer until then, was senteuced at the Old Bailey for killing his undo while drunk. Ho'was a newsvendor, aged 21, and "had no memory of the tragedy in which lie killed his uncle at a. Christmas party. —Facte in "Daily Chronicle," January 13, 1916. A private in tho Itoyal Scots Fusiliers, aged 17, was charged with .murdering a bugler boy, aged 16, in his regiment. The private became mad drunk in tho camp canteen, went back to his hut, locked himself in, and fired two shots, one of which entered another tut and killed the bugler. "Was there jio ono with power to say how much drink should bo given?" asked the Judge, and an officer said there was no one. "Then it was high time power was given to tho commanding officer," said tho Judge. "Was there to be no restraining lirnd to prevent young boys from fuddling themselves in canteens .'"—Facts in "The Times," November 21, 1016. An old man sat in a tram in gieat distress. He had lost his boy at tho front. When he joined the Army he had never tasted alcohol, but when lie cams home on leave to see his mother ho i\as di'iink every night. He was drunk tlie night lie went away, and in three days he was dead. "The last we saw ef him," said the poor old mail between his sobs, "was his going away drunk, and , his mother, who is old-fashioned 111 'her faith, cannot get it out of her mind that no drunkard can enter the kingdom oi! God."—Facts told by Dr. Norman Maclean. Many young officers, called T.pon to share the wine bill at mess, naturally say, "It' I havo to pay I ainy as well 'drink my share," and one man accounted for ten glasses of champagne. On a Guest Night in his mess sjveval more "were under the table."—Facts ill "Dublin Daily Express," April, liiS. A boy got his V.C., and came home wounded. The publican m liis street sounded his praises in the taproom, where they subscribed to the I.',ir for 120 pints for him when he arrived. He came, home and began to drink it, and was nearly dead with it before he was rescued.—Facts related by Bishop of Lincoln. When the Scottish Horse Brigade were at Perth, whisky was literally! l'crted down tho men, and they were inundated with floods of bad women.—ftigiulierGeneral Lord Tnllibardine. A teetotal household had two boys in an officers' training camp, and 1 hey gave pitiable accounts of drinking. Boys from school had a drunken sergeant put over tlieiu, and a. canteen ill ti.o midst of them. "Our boys never sr.w drink before," ono father wrote. -From a letter lo Dr. Nonnan Maclean. A boy ot' 17, discharged from llie Navy, spent Bs. one night on beer and rum, and created a.disturbance ; n a workshop at Sheffield.—Facts in "Sheffield Star," November 11, 191 G. Mr. Justice Atkin, charging the Grand Jury at Bristol, said that ill nearly; every case where a soldier was tried in the I ■Western Circuit the. defence was drink. ; One lad of 18 was treated to eight ' pints of beer in two hours, and ' did not know what happened. That

sort of thing, said the Judge, must seriously impair the efficiency of the troops when sent to the Front—Record of Bristol .Assizes, Autumn, 191 a.

Two boys, 15 and 17, were fined [or being drunk in munition works. Ono was discovered just in time to savo him from carrying liquid.—Birmingham Munitions Tribunal, December, 1910.

"A boy joined the Royal Navy as a carpenter, living in barracks and working on shore. Every day lie was given 'grog' for his rations, although lie never asked for it, and never took it."—Facts in letter to the Author.

Such aro the tragedies of boys Handed over in our camps to drink and its temptations. What of the girls in our munition shops? They have learned to drink in thousands sinco tiie war began—respectable girls leaving home lo go inlo munitions, respectablo young wives alone, at home. With no restraining hand upon them, with new companionship and pocket-money flowing freely, it is not surprising tho temptation should be too strong l'or them. We can take only ono or two cases.

Tho girl-wifo of a Cardiff seaman died in the street from exposure alter .Irinking in public-houses with other ftirls. — Records of l'ontyipridd Coroner, December 27, 191 G.

■ A publican at Lincoln was fined J;5 for allowing children lo be drunk on his premises. Ruth Ouyoii, l-l, and Rose Herrick, IG, wero found in his house with a soldier. They had been iu five houses, and had ton drinks each, and readied home helplessly drunk.—Facts in "Sheffield Daily Telegraph," Sept. 1, 1916.

A number of cartridge workers wero summoned for taking drink inlo a munition works. One young woman was led to tlio surgery drunk at half past four in the morning; another wns discharged because she could not stand. Sixteen girls subscribed for four bottles of wine and whisky.—Records of Leeds Munitions Tribunal, April AS, lUlti.

Two girls, of 16 and I", wero fined lor bailiff helplessly drunk in an explosive works, tite Magistrates pointing out that their conduct imperilled - the lives of other workers.—Records of Coventry Munitions Tribunal, July 24, 1916.

Tho men and girls at a large armament works drank all night. Girls would lurch into the dormitory dead drunk at. 2 a.m. j one lady was up till -i a.m. lolling in drunken girls. As a result of drunkenness, tliero was an explosion at these works, two men being killed and six injured.—Facts in "Spectator," January 20, 1917.

A DubliD public-house was found full of girls and soldiers, all drunk. Three drunken girls were taken away by six soldiers.—Facts in "Irish Times,'' Anril 20, 1316.

Tn half an hour HG7 girls entered Birmingham public-houses, scores under 18. Stout and beer were chiefly drunk, hut whisky and water also, and some port wine. ■ Ten ynnnjr girls were nuilp. drunk, —Facts in "Birmingham Daily Post."

INTO THE FIRING-LINE. Lord Kitchener is dead, but there are two things that are with us—that ruro little note that he gavo to his men as they went out, warning them of drink; and that infamous nole sent out by a. drink firm in London, begging our people to send out drink to our men. They can guarantee it right up to the firing-line, they say, and oven when our shells could not get there through drink, drink seems to have found its way. It can get en to transports when the Ministry of Munitions is waiting urgently for shipping space; it can commandeer our vans and horses and trains when these mean life or death to us; it seems to get past any regulation; it. goes iibout with tho power of a king, doing its work where it' will.)

It is regrettable that our troops st the Front cannot get more British Beer.— Managing Director of Allsopps, July U 191(i.

Dpar Sir, —In answer lo your inquiry, the only limitation in the size of (.asks consigned to officers in tlio Expeditionary "Force is that thoy must not exceed lc.wt.

We can guarantee delivery right into the front trenches. The cases are 'handed over at Southampton to tho Military Forwarding Officer, and the A.S.C. see them rigbt through. Wo are shitiping hundreds of eases weekly.—Yours faithfully,— Lcttw from a Wine and Spirit firm in London.

So drink finds it way to tlio front', to weaken our troops, with all their matchless heroism. Let lis call the witnesses who havo seen the work it does.

Soldiers at the Front, tried for drunkenness, liavo declared that thoy have received drink from homo. Men sometimes receive ilasks in the tronchcs. Tiioy are exhausted, the stimulant revives them for a minute or two, and the harm is done. "And then (says Colonel Crozier) they get about two years' hard labour." —Letter from Colonel Crozier, commanding'9th Royal Irish fiitles. As tho result of a Court-martial investigating charges of excessive drinking among the officers of a regiment ;t the Front, the Army Council removed tho commanding officer from his post.—Records of Courts-martial, l!)|fi.

in tho torrid climate of Mesopotamia, in deliatico of all military medical hislory, rum was issued lo tho men instead of food and sterile water, and the presence of cholera, dysentery, and other

discuses, was attributed to this by Sir X l "?'' Horsley. *' oiil- gross failures and stupidity, ho said, "are in my opinion u0 to whisky affßctinjf tho intellectual organs and clearness of our leaders. They do not reuliso that alcohol in small doses acts as a briii;© on the brain."—Facts in a letter from riii- Victor liorsley, May 13, 19JG. Battalion Headquarters—colonel and chaplainjircsent. Enter Adjutant: "Tlio rum ration is duo 10-night, sir; ;,m I lo distributo it. y,J r L l ]ie (Julonci (nobly, and in a voice audible all over tho trench): "No! Damn tho rum! To hell with the rum!" Chaplain's letter in \Allianco News," June, 1916. At a eoiirt-martiul in Newcastle, a seigeant-major, charged "with misaptiropnatiiig funds of the sergeants' uCess, pleaded that during this period a resolution of tlio me.ss had come into effect, providing free drinks during Christinas and the New Year.—Pacts in Daily News," April 17, 1916. In tho Flying vServices one lias seen more than one good man go to the des through drink, or become fat and flabby and useless through just the excess of alcohol which falls short of Inking drink in tho usual acceptance of tlio term. More men take to drink because of tlio 'have another custom than because they like or need alcohol and simple prohibition would stop all this nonsense straight away. This kindly note is not the outpouring of a teetotal ianatic, for I suppose I have paid in my time rather more than my sliaro of the nation's drink bill; it is merely a perfectly sound argument in favour of increasing the nation's efficiency at the expense jjf its chief bad harjit.— The Editor of "The Aeroplane." A lieutenant in tlio trenches, knowing that tlio rum ration made him cold" threw his rum on the ground. His cap-, tain saw him, and threatened to report him. "You do, sir, 3 ' said the lieutenant,

"and I will rasiort you for being drunk on duty."—Facts in possession of the Author.

A seaman serving on a ship in Cork Harbour died from alcohol. Found drunk and unknown, he was put on a. strtcher and died.—Facts in "Cork Constitution," December 9, 1915. i "Over three-quarters of tlio courts-iuar--1 rial I have had anything lo do with are due directly or indirectly to drunkenness. Many thousands of competent n.c.o.'s and soldiers have been punished, and become useless to the nation during their punishment, as a result of drink.

"I have nevjpr been a teetotaller, find have rather opposed the radical temperance agitation, but am now changing my views as I see our success over hero hampered and our progress towards victory retarded so obviously by drink."— Lotter from a Liout.-Colonel at the Front seen by the Author.

The captain of a British merchant ship, drunk on the bridge, ordered his chief gunner to fire 50 rounds of shell at nothing. Xhe gunner fired four rounds to appease him. Going through tho Mediterranean, the drunken captain ordered his gunner to fire at a British hospital ship, and tho incident Jpd to a struggle for life, which ended in the captain being put in irons, tried, and sentenced to five .years' penal servitude.— Record of Devon Assizes, Exeter, February 2. 1917.

Such is the work of drink wherever it finds a soldier to entrap—the drink the Navy carries free from Southampton to Iho trenches; and from America romes the news, as this-page is being'written, that tho Army and the Na.vv of our Western Ally, like the Army and Navy of our Eastern Ally, are to be \inder Total Prohibition'.

DRINK AND THE RED CROSS. If the full story could ever be told of tho national tragedy of drink and the war, there would be lio more ghastly chapter than that which would tell how drink fought the lied Cross; how, without pity, it hindered the work of morcj* that is the general consolation -of tho world in days like these. Wo are coming to a famine not only in food, but in doctors. The death-roll lias been heavy beyond all parallel; the strain on tho medical services Has-been almost too great to be borne, and wo look anxiously round to know where tho doctors and nurses will come from. .With Prohibition tho problem v;ould be largely solved, for the ordinary burden of lifo would be largely lifted from our doctors and hospitals, and thousands of men and women would bo free to give themselves to the war instead of mending; up and patching up tlio sordid effects of drink. A rich brewer gave a donation for extending a hospital. "Ah! but we should not have to extend .if lie would shut up his public-house," said a doctor. It is easy to see how drink is telling all the time against our doctors, our nurses, and our hospitals everywhere. Let us call a low witnesses. Somebody gave a glass of neat whisky to two wounded men at a garden party in Tottenham. Both were drunk wlieit tho brake came to tako them home, and ono died on the way.—Knots in "Sheffield Telegraph," September 3, 1915. Threo wounded soldiers at Oxford were overcome by four bottles of rum smuggled into the hospital by visitors, and one of the men died.—Records of Oxford Coroner, January, 1916. A wounded soldier asked for two hours' leave, camo back in four hours drunk with whisky, and died al'tor a terrible night; in the hospital.—Fuels in "Daily Mail." Two limbloss soldiers were found helplessly drunk on tlio pavement at Brighton. A publican was fined .£2o.—Facts in "Daily Chronicle," November '.'.5, JOIfJ. Lying Helpless at a Loudon station, moaning on tlio ground in drunken delirium, was a lad in hospital bluo who had, in truth, been wounded by his friends. Drink was taking him again through the worst of his experiences, and his mental pain was pitiable to see. —Facts in tho "Globe,''' January, 191". The medical officer in charge of the Mental' Block of a large military hospital said to tho colonel: "I have the worst jab of all, and it is through Drink, Drink, Drink! Jlen recover fairly coon from shell shock, but officers, especially tlio younger ones, who habitually tako wines aud spirits, are subject to relapses every few days. It is awful!"— Facts in "National ''Temperance Quarterly," May, 1917. I

One terrible truth remains to bo told of the crime of drink against the lied Cross. The most blessed thing in all the world to-day is alcohol, for it makes chloroform arid ether, which soothe tho pain of men. We cannot get enough of either of these consoling drugs, yet wo go on wasting precious food to'make mora alcohol to add to the sum of misery and pain. STABBING THE ARMY IN THE BACK. All the world is learning now that the drink trade is the great confederate of venereal disease. It leads a man into temptution, destroys his power of resistance, and retards his chances' of recovery. „ Wo can never know the truth about tho extent of this uisease, about the way in which the liquor trade, by breaking down tens of thousands of our men, has stabbed the Army dn tho back. But the number of soldiers incapacitated by this disease through drink is enormously greater than the number incapacitated by the most subtle or dramatic stroke devised by the German Staff.

Tlio lost man-power of tlie Army through this disease must lie equal (n the wliolo of ilio original British Expeditionary Force. The Govoniuioiit lias given us figures for tlio Army at homo last year, and they are 111 per 1000—or over 100,000 cases for an army of 2,'if10,(100 men. 'l'here were 7000 cases in ono Canadian camp alone.

Here are the black facts revealed in ii debate in Parliament on April 2.1, 1917, when two distinguished Army Officers, speaking with great restraint, sought to open tho eyes of the nation to this plaguo fostered in our camps by drink. "During xlie war we have had admitted into tho hospitals of England over 7000 cases of gonorrhoea, over 20,000 cases of syphilis, and over (iOOO cases of another disease somewhat similar. I am quite openly prepared to stato that of these 20,000 cases of syphilis you do not get much work out of them under two and a half years. I know from what I have .seen of the modern conditions of this nar that you may absolutely wipe them out, except for a few handfuls. ''When you come to tha great mass of casualties under this head . . . tho

figures mean that you have a Division constantly out of action. If you have anything like 70,000 men enfeebled, you find thai: you t-uffer to that extent also. Tt, is not only that you lose the men, and not only the men who are partially cured and arc Mill'crin? for many months to enme, but 'heir chances of recovery from wounds are not nearly so good. "I know of a hospital for venereal cases which it Tras found necessary to

expand from its normal accommodation for 500 or UOO up lo 2000 cases, and tliey aro continually full. It is a British hospital in Franco. A figure I should like to submit to diallengo is that during tho course of t'ho war between -10,000 and 50,000 cases of syphilis have passed through our hospitals in France. When yon come to gonorrhoea, tho figure given 1110 which covers that is between' 150,000 and 200,000 cases."—Captain Guest, in Parliament, April 23, 1917. . ivory Canadian soldier who comes to this country arrives here not only a firstclass specimen of a tine soldier, but as clean-limbed and as clean a. man as the Creator Himself could create. The fact that in ono only of the three Canadian camps in this country 7000 of these clean Canadian boy* went through the hospital for venereal disease in fourteen months is not only a great discredit to any Government in this country, but has an effect in Canada w:hich I can assuro the House does not make for a better feeling with_ the Home Country, and does not mako for what we all desire—imperial unity."—Colonel Sir Hamar Greenwood, in Parliament, April 23, IDI7. These are unchallenged statements made in tho House of Commons itseif; they stand as a terrible indictment of this disease, and it is not to be denied that this evil could never have reached its present frightful proportions if Parliament had followed the King. Let us look at a few examples of the ravages of this vice allied so closely to the publichouse.

It is not possible to tell the wholo truth about drink; the language in which it must be written would be offensive in a civilised countrj. It must be said, simply, that soldiers in England have been court-martialled for having been influenced by drink to commit unspeakable offences against animals.—Facts in Records of Courts-Martial.

Here is the official proof of the relation of, t'ho drink trade to this traffic in disease. It is from the Report of tho lloyal Commission.

Abundant evidence was pri von as to tho intimate relation between alcohol and venereal diseases. >

Alcohol renders a,man liable to yield to temptations which he might otherwise resist, aiul aggravates the disease by diminishing; the resistance of the individual.

Alcoholism makes latent syphilis and gonorrhoea active.

Our evidence tends to show that tho communication in disease is frequently due to indulgence in intoxicants, anil there is no doubt that the'growth of temperance among the population would help to bring about an amelioration of the verv serious conditions which our inquiry lias revealed.

AVe desire, therefore, to nlaee on record our opinion that action should he taken without delay.

THE PRICE THE EMPIRE PAYS. It is a bitter irony that while the men of tho Empire have comc to France to fight the enemy of mankind, this foe within our gates has struck a blow at the British Empire that generations will not heal. How many Empire men this private trado has slain we do not know, but we know beyond all challenge that' it has weakened the bonds that bind our Dominions to tho Motherland. This

trado that throttles us at home can pull the Empire down, and it has started well. It. lias struck its blow at Canada.

let us look at the plain facts which in other days than these would have caused a storm of anger that Parliament could not have ignoral. j Canada has followed llio King; arming herself with her full powers, flinging herself upon her enemies with her utmost strength, she lias swept drink out of Canada, almost from sea

to sea. Hut even before she (lid this Canada saw that alcohol must go from her camps if her men were to be fit to light for England, and long before the Prohibition wavo swept across tho country, the Canadian Government removed

all alcohol from the training camps. It was the deliberate choice of a Government and its people, and from that day to this there lias been no reason for re-

So the young manhood \ of Canada, rallying to the flag, was guarded from alcohol. She poured out lier men in hundreds of thousands; they came to us from Prohibition camps; they came in Prohibition ships, and even here this trado that has us jn its grip was not allowed at first in the Canadian camps; the only condition that Canada made—a conditio!!'implied, but clearly understood

—was properly regarded and obeyed. We respectcd tho desiro of Canada, and kept her soldiers free from drink in their own camps. But a soldier cannot keep in camp, and in tho villages around (lie Drink Trade waits in every slreet. Tho military iiuthorivies wcro

filling: for tho Canadian Government lo lave their way inside (lie camps, but Irink was freo outside, and in theso pub-ic-houses there wasj sown, the seed i hat

may one day break this Empire. 'I ho Drink Trado was so rampant outside tho Canadian camps' that Prohibition insido was almost in vain. Wo had lo decido between breaking tho word of the Canadian Government to its people or dealing with this trade .as Canada herself has done; as Ktissia has done; as France and America are doing. It. was tho Umpire or tho drink traffic, and tho drink traffic won, as it (always wins with us.

It would have been surprising if there had not poured in upon our Government a stream of protests, and from

all parts of the Dominions I hey earned Tho Dominion of Canada, giving freely to tho Motherland J50,000 boys and men, was moved to passionate indignation that Eugiaud should scorn her love for Iheiu, should ignore tho pleadings of their mothers and sisters, and should put in their way the temptations from which, they wero saved at home. Canada does not want our drink trade; sho lives side by side with the United States, sho sees, that great country building up its future freo from drink, and she sees America, splendid Ally in war, as a mighty rival in peace.

And Canada has followed tho Prohibition load of the United States, and already she has ceased to be a borrowing country. The very first year of Prohibition has seen this young Dominion, for the first time in her histoid, financially self-sustaining. Crime is disappearing; social gatherings are held in her gaols; she has set up vast munition workshops, and instead of borrowing money for her own support she has male hundreds of millions' worth of munitions for which this country need not pay until the war is over, and then need never pay at all for tho munitions tho Canadians have used. Canada is in deadly earnest. She kept her men away from drink to make them fit; sho has swept it awav to make a clean country for those who go hack.

And what is England's contribution to this Imperial Reconstruction. We have scorned it all. The Prime Minister has said that this drink trade is so horrible that it is worth this horrible war'" to settle with it, yet we have sacrificed tho love of Canada on our brewers' altar. We can believe tho Cannuians who declares his profound conviction that but for this Canada would liavo sent us 100,000 more recruits; we can beliovo it is true that where responsible Canadians meet together in these days tho talk is of how long tho tio will last, unbroken that binds tho daughter to tho Motherland. Wo can understand tho passion, that lies behind tho resolutions that como to Downing Street from Nova Scotia; wo know tho depth of (he yearning of those 61,000 mothers and wives of Toronto who signed that great petition to the Government of Canada begin" it in the name of God to intervene." ° We can understand it all; but let us call the witnesses, and let us see the price the Dominion pavs for our quailing before this Kaiser's trade.

THE MEN FROM THE PROHIBITION

CAMPS. Again anil again wo have seen (ho peculiar temptations of drink among Canadians. Officers, chief-constables, chaplains, newspapers, the men themselves, have all borne witness that to these men from Prohibition Canada the sudden temptations of our drink trado come with terrible power, and often they fall not knowing. Tho finest. manhood of the Empire our taprooms and canteens destroy, not i'n isolated eases, but in a host we daro not number.

In an officers' mess of two double companies of Canadians only 0110 officor drank on his arrival in a canteen camp in England; within three months there was not an .abstainer in tho mess—Facts told at Soeioly for Study of Inebriety, January 10, 1916. These men come mostly from districts' in Canada whore intoxicants aro prohibited by law, and many of them. being young lads, who perhaps have never

tasted liquor before their arrival, fall easy victims-Chief Constable of Godalming.

Iho Canadians in most cases aro entirely lost when they arrive in this country, and are muck more liable to ths temptation which is thrown in their* way, but when you give a figure cuch as this—that in ono camp during hist year, and two months of the previous year, there i were 7000 eases—it seems to mo that it is about wo realised tha magnitude of tho evil., I <l<> not know what lias happened to them, except that I imagine a large number have gone "back to Canada, and have not been able to play tho part they had hoped to plav. —Capluui Guest, in Parliament, April 23, 191/, ' 1

THE RISING STORM IN CANADA. The thing cannot be justified. It is the blackest tragedy of this whole war that, in fighting for freedom in Europe, the free sons of the British breed hava to face this war-time record of waste at home, with its inevitable toll of de. bauchery and crime.-Editorial in tha "Toronto Globe." While this book is being written one . of the greatest meetings ever held' ; in: .Manchester was cheering a Canadian in, khala who declared that ho was net Bf in ß. hungry while brewers were de-' straying food, and ho went on to say. this soldier and sportsman sell knoW# in the Dominion:— Great numbers of our men never saw, Irancc. Canadian boys cried because they not .munitions. England reeled and beer, flower like water while thousands of our hoys went d nni into Canada'"™ 5 never forget in We may be sure Canada will rot for* get She will not forget her <lc-id; she will not forget that the Drink Traffics she has swept away at home struck; down hei sons in the land for which' ttey fouglit._ We must know who is t'o : blame, says a Canadian paper: 'V® presume they will have no objection to have their names placarded before tho country, that every mother may know." Colonel Sir, Hamar Greenwood, II.P has lately returned from Oauada, and this is wliat ho tells us:— "I met niajiy fathers and mothers whose boys had been sent b&ck to Canada debilitated and ruined for life because, they had been e«mesh>d by harpies, and again and again the='e parents have said to me, "We do not mind our boys dying on the Sold of * battle tor old England, but to think: that we sent our s,ons to England to come back to us ruined in health/and a disgrace to us, to them, and. to the couiuvy, is something the Home Country should never ask us'to bear,". Prom a Resolution received by ifrLloyd George from the Social Service Council of Nova Scotia.-'That.ne, re- ' pi eseuting the social, moral .ajid spun tual forces of this part of the British) Jimpire, who have proved our loyalty by the thousands of men this small province has sent overseas, do record our earnest protest against Britain's inaction in this matter,, which we are sura must result in longer and increased suffering for the men we have sent to help her win the war; and do most insistently plead with the British Government ;u/d the British Parliament that ' they at' once exercise the power vested in tbemi to strike the blow that will "dispose oE this enemy at home, and so give mighty? reinforcement to those who are bleeding and dying for Britain and human liberties on the battlefields abroad." Sermon by Dr. Flanders in London, Ontario, February 25, 1017.—Canada has tho right to make this demand on the Motherland froiii the simple standpoint of political economics. That we night put tho Dominion-into the best jK.ssibla shape to give the utmost of our strength, in men and munitions, we have an al-

most Dominion-wide Prohibition, and! no intelligent person will dony that our contributions to the war from the first have been multiplied and intensified by that action. Why should little Jchmii'e Canuck abolish drink that he might conserve his manhood and material resources in* the interests of the Empire's war, and big John Bull refuse to nbolishi the traffic to the great waste cf his material resources and tho undoing of his efficiency?"

A Public Man with Three Soldier Sons wrote to tho "Toronto Globe".—"Canada, for efficiency in war, casts out'f.lse drink evil. Isit too much to expect' Great Britain, in fairness, to do the same ? Ja it Jiot a mockery for'the British Islca to face our-common struggle with this palsy in her frame?"

Letter from ono of the Most Eminent Public Men in Canada.—"British Canada is intensely loyal lo tho Empire Md the Allied cause, but at present recruiting is almost at an end. Why? .Parflv becauso of very- dissatisfaction with many of the conditions which." prevail. Suffering, wounds, death, are expected as inevitable in war, but the evil influences, the lavish temptations of liquor an'd bad women which sweep down upon our boys in England are not felt to be necessary, and tho hearts of multitudes of Canadian parents are hot with indignation at tho apparent indifference of the authorities to the moral welfare of the troops." From the Petition presented io tiio Prime II mister of Canada, signed by, IH,OOO mothers and wives in Toronto'.—' 1. That mothers and wives of Canada in giving their sons and husbands for lung and Empire asked and received from' your Minister of Militia this only assur-

ance that, in sending them into . the ranks, we were not hereby irrevacablv thrusting thorn into the temptation cif strong drink. 2. Wo appreciated, in tiro dopths of our hearts, your action, in abolishing tho wet canteen from the Canadian Militia. Wo believe :ho wefc canteen established in tho ranks at the

front to be a double danger, robbing our King of the success in arms which in. these days comes only to the brave heart that is controlled by a clear .head, and robbing us and our Canada of the manhood which ive gave into our Empire's keeping. 3. We do not believe that tha King will Tefuse tho aid of Canada's sons; nor that ho will appreciate vcur patriotic, efforts the less if you keep faith with'us and make known to His Majesty, his Ministers and Commanders that our boys are sent forth on the one condition that'the dispensing of intnxi-j eating liquors shall be prohibited in the ranks. " THE WAY FOR THE GOVERNMENT, Thero is .ono clear way before tha Government; it is tho only way of straightness and patriotism and honour., It is to wind up this enemy trade, and move from our path the greatest 'hindrance ■to the winning of the war. It is to take our side honourably with our great Allies, to bring to an end the shameful isolation of Great Britain, in the drink map of the great free countries. How long are we to blush, when wo looksat a drink map of iho world, to see . these little islands still as black as Mexico?

If there are difficulties they can bo met; we have been doing difficult things for nearly three years. If the iroubla is that this trade is so 3trougly en-< trenched in Parliament that it cannot be treated like an honest trade that has not made its intefest its politics, let us know it. If tho trouble is with party funds, let us know that. But if tha real reason is that the Government is afraid of our own people, then let thab bo said plainly, for this nation has not waited until now to mako up iia mind that a Government afraid of Hriloiw is not the Government to beat the Germans. 11l the highest interests of the ration and tho war, lot'this be said as plain as words can make it —that there is no body of temperance opinion anywhere standing in the way of Prohibition, but that the united moral forces of the raJ tion would rally to the Government instantly on an Act of a few words such; as thi§:

That the manufacture and sale cf sicoholic beverages be totally prohibited in the United Kingdom for the period of the war and demobilisation, and that a

committee be appointed to deal with all. the private and public interests eon« cerned; and that it be resolved upon, hero and now, that reconstruction ha accompanied by universal local option. If the Government is afraid of tha working man, let it say so, or let it try him. If it is afraid of temperance people, let it rally them to its side aa one man on the platform where they meet. If it is afraid of the Drink Trade, then the time has como to say so, for we who send out our millions to fight aj foreign foe are not going to starve for bread through fear of eiiemies v/ithin our gate. Tho Prime Minister gave the Army its. munitions; the Army fill use them iu vain unless the munitions of life cpme into our homes. (Published by Arrangement,)