THE LICENSING PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 260, 3 August 1928, Page 13

THE LICENSING PROBLEM

Sir, —In answer to “Reader,” who asks me to state in what lectures or addresses by various medical men are to be found the statements quoted by me ininy recentletter, I have pleasure in furnishing him with the information he desires. Sir William Roberts is reported in the “Morning Bost” as follows: —“Probably three or four generations of total abstainers would lower our mental capacity to the Moslem level, and we would cease as a nation to be~ a breeding ground for men of genius.” . . Tiie “Weekly Dispatch” reported Sir. John Biand Sutton, F.R.C.S.,- as under: “Taken in moderation, good wine, beer, ana spirits are useful as diet, and in certain forms of illness invaluable stimulants.” Sir James Paget was reported in the “Times” as under: “The existing race of, Englishmen are the descendants of many generations of moderate drinkers.” Sir James Crichton Browne is reported by the “Morning Post” as making this statement over his own name: "The use of alcoholic beverages has been a marked characteristic of the diet of European and; other progressive races, and in no instances has the fall of a nation been due to alcohol.” The Kipg’s physician (Lord Dawson of Penn), speaking in the House of Lords on after-war conditions, said: “In the particular phase of civilisation that we are passing through, there has been‘no time when alcohol, properly taken in proper quantities and in moderation, could serve a more useful purpose.”—“Hansard.” July, 1923. "Reader” will now, I hope, be converted from his prohibition tendencies. Prohibition has no conscience—no scruples. It would degrade our people, in three generations to the level of Moslem mentality ; and a low mentality is suspicious, licentious, mid criminal. It would deprive many thousands of that which has proved, beneficial in health and in sickness. All our ancestors have used alcohol in moderation all their lives without let or hindrance by the narrow, crabby, ill-con-ditioned members of our race; and because of the spread of their utterly unreliable and fanatical preaching and the increase of their numbers, the health, sanity and civilisation of our race is threatened by prohibition. All progressive nations that use alcohol as an article' of diet are the most advanced. I look upon prohibition ns a means to weaken the character of our people and an attempt] to degrade this Dominion as a member of the great British Commonwealth.—l am, ! etc., WM. A. PHILPOTTS. Lower Hutt, August 1.