TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 122, 23 May 1908, Page 12

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

CHINESE SAILORS. To tho&o who believe that British ships should bo manned by British, crows, certain statements recently laid before the Board of Trade, and now made public, aro a little disquieting. They show (reports the London Telegraph) that in many trades, more particularly where vessels are engaged for prolonged periods in running between distant foreign ports, th© practice of employing Chinese seamen is largely on the increase. Nor does it appear that ,this is due, as has-been alleged, to a desire on the part of the British shipowner to get hia vessel cheaply manned. According! to the testimony of upwards of twenty firms of shipowners, th© employment of Chinese crews is a little more costly as compared with European, but there is an ultimate saving because of the efficiency with which the work is done, more especially in the engine-room. There has iong been an impression that the employment of Lascars andj Chinese in the stokeholds of ships trading in tropical waters is An act of simple humanity. But the present statements do not profess to be based on any such consideration. The test applied is that of efficiency, and ehipowner after shipowner is found affirming that, having once been induced) to try a Chinese crew, he would not for any consideration go back to a British crew. The Chinese are stated to give steamers improved speed, owing to their better fir- ' ing, while, at the same time, their peaceable nature and their sobriety tend to make life on board infinitely more comfortable. For the most part Chinese seem to be employed in the stokehold, and nofi on deck, but not a few ship-, masters ' engage Chinamen altogether. It is a striking circumstance that captains aid engineers are found pleading with their owners to ba allowed to carry 'Oriental crews. They allege that the British fireman has greatly deteriorated of recent years. One master describes him ias being in a chronic state of "needing punishment or 1 nursing." Another asks for "anything in the shape of a. human being, other than a Britisher." These shipmasters assert that they would rather give preference to their own countrymen if they could, but that they are sick and tired of drunkenness, desertion, and 1 insubordination. RUNNING ThITgAUNTLET. An interesting anecdote is rehrted by the Melbourne Argus, regarding the American clipper Shenan'doah, which is the largest wooden sailing ship eveT constructed. The story is that during 1 the Spanish-American war silo was intercepted at sea by a gunboat belonging to the enemy, which fired a couple of shots across her bows as a, request to stop. The big American clipper was at the moment thrashing her way 'across the seas under an immense spread of canvas, I and logging fifteen knots an 1 hour. Her master, feeling certain that the gunboat could not overtake his vessel, kept her on her course, and, although several more shots whistled uncomfortably close by the merchantman, she soon outstripped her parting little enemy, end) reached safe water. According to Japanese newspapers, the Nippon Company intends to establish a service of cargo steamers from Japan to New York, via the Suez Canal and London. Already, of course, the Nippon Company has a regular mail and passenger steamship line to London, but hitherto it has not engaged in trade on the North Atlantic. Nothing seems to be known in L^ondom with 'reference, to this reported service, but there is no reason why the report should lack ,foun- T dirt-ion. Japan has just now so muchi spare tonnage that a. new outlet, for it may be demanded. Already the Japanese company, in addition to its regular connection with Eunbpe, has steamship lines running to Australia and across the Pacific. If it starts the euggested New "York cargo service it will practically circumnavigate the globe. In the case of sailing ships, it is not an uncommon thing for the captain to take his wife and children on a voyage. But as regards mail steamships, more especially when the vessel is frequently in port, there are usually regulations prohibiting the practice. Acording, however, to a Liverpool shipping newspaper, the Norddeutscher Lloyd Company recently made an exception in the case of Captain Bleeker, of the Frederich der Grosse, for it so happened that the twenty-fifth anniversary of his marriage and the completion of his twenty-fifth year in the company's service fell due in the course of a voyage from Genoa to New York. Captain Bleeker's wife aud two children were consequently permitted to accompany him, and to join with him- in the celebration of a double anniversary at 6ea. It is ' pleasant to find that rules that are usually interEreted with considerable stringency can c modified to meet the reasonable demands of sentiment. By the year 1916 Japan is to have, according to programme, 20 battleships, 20 armoured cruisers, eight 22-knot cruisers, eight 25-knot scouts, 100 destroyers, and a. largo number of submarines. Of the latter vessels she has 14 built and building. ' i - Advance booking, as far as namea of new vessels are concerned, has been sanctioned by the Board/ of Trade, with a reservation of twelve months, provided no clashing with previous selections takes place. Further, should a ship bo lost and a duplicate name not appear on the register, a reservation of six months is possible. Signs of the times are ' so significant that every attempted innovation in conduct of nautical matters is made the subject of comment. Latest of all is a statement no%v current that the British Admiralty will construct in -the coming year a battleship of almost irresistible power, the^ motive appliances of which will render unnecessary the use of funnels, so that her heavy armament will have a complete deck range, excepting where the placement of a single signalling staff is established. Ships cdn now go to sea with frozen ammunition, a method of utilising liquified air on warships having been discovered which will render tho explosion of a magazine, even when the ship is in action, almost impossible. The method is to so plage the liquid air that it will freeze the ammunition to several hundred degrees below zero. In that condition }t could not explode, even if a shel should burst in the magazine. From information to hand from Japan it would appear that the Nippon Yusen, the principal Japanese steamship company, has not escaped some of the difficulties which affect shipping enterprise in other parts of the world. ' It is stated in the last half-yearly report that coal is 30 per cent, dearer than before the Russo-Japanese war. Labour is also more costly. Again, the fact that so many more steamships are now competing for trade has tended to bring freights odwn to a comparatively low point. Thus, although the Nippon Company's boats traversed a greater distance than in any preceding half-year, and carried more goods and pa&sengers, its business by no means yielded a corresponding profit. The Japanese, nevertheless, go on building in their own yards Art though now tonn»)iu w*» in great do-

I [The matter for this column is supplied by a representative of the local temperance bodies, who alone is responsible for the opinions expressed in it.] THRIFTLESSNESS AND ALCOHOLISM. In his voluminous annual report, just published, the esteemed medical officer for the Borough of Finsbury (Dr. George Newman) has some outspoken remarks with regard to alcoholism. He says :—: — "There are certain conditions arising from the habits and customs of the people* which, on the whole, are exerting an unfavourable influence. Two such conditions may be mentioned as illustrations, namely, thriftlessness and alcoholism. The former reveals itself not only in a failure to save, but much moro in a failure to expend wisely and to the best advantage; the latter is, I am informed, prevalent among women. It is significant that alcoholism was returned as the cause of death in fifty-two persons, of whom twenty-three were •women. This, of course, is but a fraction of the deaths due to alcQholic excess. It appears that many women in Finsbury habitually pawn their belongings on Monday, spend part of the money so obtained in the public-house, and redeem the articles pledged on Saturday, thus incurring an unnecessary expenditure for interest, as well as spending hard-earned money unwisely. This per-" 1 nicious system prevails to such an extent that not a few seem to practise it from week to week throughout the year, and unite in one nabit i both thriftlessness and alcoholism. Such conditions result in a two-fold effect, viz. : Money is wasted which should be spent on better food and clothing, and an excess of alcohol drinking brings its own . quota of disease." < Dr. Newman pleads for the creation of a "health conscience," and adds : "Any influence which tends to counteract thriftlessness, alcoholism, and immorality is "an influence in favour of health, and the same is to be said of all social and religious agencies which tend to raise the moral tone of the community or the character of the individual." IN OWEN SOUND. Capital has been made by the liquor press, and prominent advertisements have been published in the press of the Dominion, proclaiming the lailure of local option in Ontario, Canada. The Toronto Globe therefore sent a special commissioner to the district, whoso full reports it has published — reports differing widely from those circulated by interested parties. "The fact is," comments the Globe, "that there are conditions which at this moment make the effective working of the by-iaw impossible in Owen Sound. The mayor is quite frankly opposed to it, and because he is personally opposed to it he feels himself under no official obligation to favour its enforcement. Indeed, he thinks it a proof of his consistency that months ago he voted against a resolution of council instructing the police officers to be active and vigilant in enforcing tho law. His consistency may be proved by such evidence, but his ideals of official duty are made to appear somewhat primitive. The chief magistrate, making his own personal notions the guide of his conduct on. matters of law enforcement, and priding himself in being consistent- in doing so, is an interesting incident in municipal government." THE FIVE STAGES OF DRUNKENNESS. ' The British Medical journal writes: — Dr. Maguan, whe- >was one of the first to begin the scientific study of the^ physiological action of alcohol, diatinguished five stages : First, slight excitement' and a feeling 01 well-being, in which, speech and gestures became more animated; in the second stage ideas became crowded together and confused, the mood being, without any very obvious reason for the difference, gay, or cad, or full of tender emotion ; in the third stage the^ confusion of ideas was greater, and accompanied by incoherence, perversion of taste and smell, illusions, thick speech, vacant countenance, and staggering gait ; the fourth stage was coma, and the fifth death. As Triboulet has well said, it is the psychic functions which develop last in the child that disappear earliest when the individual is coming under the influence of alcohol ; the curb which fear of public opinion puts on the free expression of emotions and ideas, or, .to change the meiaphor, the veil which hides the real moral disposition, is removed, whence the justification. ' for the saying in vino veritas. There is, so to say, at first a paralysis of the inhibitory apparatus — the irritable, loquacious stage ; then later an interference with the processes of thought, when, again to. quote Triboulet, ideas succeed each other so rapidly that there is no' time to arrange, them in orderly sequence —the pugnacious statge ; next the individual passes from a 'state of watchfulness to a. state of dream' — the affectionate and lachrymose stage, while simultaneously there is a loss of muscular co-ordination, a function developed later in the process of growth than mere movement, and therefor© going earlier when the nervous centres are poisoned. These stages have been observed and described with more or less accuracy for generations ; what is new is that' evensmall doses of alcohol retard both mental and nervous processes, not improbably through an action on the higher cerebral functions diminishing the faculty of attention. AN ISLAND WITHOUT ALCOHOL. Mr. F. N. Charrington, who has der vrvtedi his life to efforts for the reclamation of inebriates, has arranged to receive gentlemen (the victims of alcoholic excess) as paying guests on Osea nounced "0.C.") Island, which he purchased in 1903. The island, which is in Blackwater Bay, Essex, is reached by the steamer Annie, running twice daily from Maldon East, five miles distant. Residents are absolutely removed from temptation, as no a.lcohol of any description can bo obtained in the wholeof the' territory. \ In many homes for inebriates the inmates are confined within four walls on the other side of which public-houses, wi,th. 'all them temptations, are frequently near at hand. On Osea Island, however, there is full liberty within its four-mile radius. The needful recreation is provided by ideal golf links, and there is every facility for sea bathing and sea fishing. Mr. F. N. Charrington, who -has devoted his life to efforts for the reclama"tion of inebriates, has. arranged to receive gentlemen (the victims of alcoholic excess) as "paying guests" on Osea (pronounced "0.C.") Island, which he purchased in 1903. The island, which is in Blackwater Bay, Essex, is reached by the twin screw bteamer Annie, running twice daily from Maldon East, five miles distant. Residents aye absolutely removed from temptation, as no alcohol of any description can be obtained in the whole of the territory. In many homes for inebriates the inmates are confined within four walls on tho other sid/a of which public-houses, with all their temptations, are frequently near at hand. On Osea Island, however, there is full liberty within its four mile radius. The needful recreation is provided by ideal golf linki, and them is every facility for