THE FIDDLERS

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 67, 17 September 1917, Page 11

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 ?

[PUBLISHED BY ARRANGEMENT.]

THE WAGES OF SIN

Tho timo ha 3 come when it should be laid that those- responsible for our country now stand' on the very threshold of eternal glory or eternal shame. They play and palter with the greatest enemy forte outsido Berlin. The news from Viray Ridge comes to a land whose rulers quail before an enemy within its.gate.

Not for one hour has the full strength of Britain been turned against her enemies. From the first day of. tho war, while our mighty Allies have been striking down this foe within their, gates, Britain has lot this trado stalk through her streets, senring the Kaiser's purposes, and paying tho Government £1,000,000 a •tveek for the right to do it.

She has let this trade destroy our food and bring us to.the verge of famine; she ■has let it keep back guns and shells and hold up ships; she hag let it waste our people's wealth in hundreds of millions expounds; she ha« let it put its callous brats on the merciful Red Cros3; she has let it jeopardise the unity ami Safety of the Empire—for it may jet"" bo ■ found, as Dr. Stuart Holden has so finely said, that the links that bind the Pax Britarmica ard solvable in that groat chemist's solvent, alcohol.

The witnesses are too great to number; we can only call a few. There is no room for all those' witnesses whose evidonco is in. the House of Commons Return 220 (1915);' showing tho part drink played in tie great shell famine in delaying ships and guns, and imperilling the Army and the Fleet.

But tho indictment is heavy. I charge this trade with tho crime the King laid at its door two years ago, tho crirno of prolonging the war; and tho witnesses are here at the bar of the people. Tha verdiofc ia with them, and the- judgment is with those who fulo.

The wages af sin is death. What are th« Wages «f these wha fail In an haur like this?

THE SHADOW OF FAMINE

"Wo hare to face this grim menace," says Lord Devonport. "We are taking no. chances," says the Prime Minister, and the nation will hope there is some meaning in the words. It is the tragio irony of this solemn timo that so many men in high places havo talked like kings and ruled like jesters. The nation looks to Mr. Lloyd George to be equal to his words. The Prime Minister blames the late Government, the Government that let slip the greatest opportunity in British '. history, for helping famine on; but' it will not do. Tho new Government has been bringing famine nearer every day; it has allowed the destruction of enormous quantities of food, and those who are guilty of this crime have no stones to throw at others. The Prime Minister oame into office with the food sUortago | in sight: it w»» his fimt dutj to build up tbo great reserve of food "c might hare had now in our granaries i£ the drink trad* had not destroyed it. We could have laughed at submarines, for our bams would have been filled to overflWing, and we could have lived in comfort for a year if no ship reached ue. Let us see how much food drink has destroyed since tho war began. We will take it from 4th August, 1914, to 30th April, 1917. It is 999 days of the war. The quantity of grain'and sugar destroyed for drink has boen:— Grain fer beer 4,400,000 tsns. Sugar for beer : 340,090 tens. It is not easy to realise what this means, but it will help M if wo think of ono or two examples. The biggest thing ever set up on earth is the Great Pyramid. It is 89,000,000 cubic feet. The food destroyed by drink during t« war would make two Great Pyramids, both bigger than the Pyramid of Egypt. . The Itmgast British railway Is the Great Western; It Is over ,3000 miles, but it would not held the food destroyed by drink since war began, if every inch »f it were crammed with' wagons, the Great Western Railway w»uld need hundreds of miles more line ta hold the trainloads of food destroyed.

There are abiut 760,900 railway wag»ns in the United Kingdom, but if the Drink

Trade had them all they would not hold the food it has destroyed; it would neeed hundreds of thousands more.

There are abaut 39,000 engines on our British railways, and if the food destroyed were made Up in trains of 125 tans apiece, all our engines would not pull them; we should still want 10,009 marc.

So vast is this incredible quantity of food destroyed by an enemy trade whils famine has been coming on. We should have saved it all if Parliament had followed the King, and it would have given the whole United Kingdom its flour rations for nearly o. year.. Take it at its minimum scientific human food value and on the basis of our rations in April, 1917, it would have given, us: Fltur for the whele United Kingdom 43 weeks Sugar for the vvhsle United Kingdom 33 weeks Our three War Governments, confronted with ■■ the.; 1 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. Lloyd George to blame his predecessor; ho has carried on their policy of food destruction. In the first four months of 1917 he has allowed the destruction of 400,000 tons of grain, to bolster 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 ever. ,

There is not a 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 shame of Dowhing-strcet, for it will be Written that when famine came knocking at the door of Britainvit found the Government more willing- that children should hunger for bread than that men should thirst for beer.

Nobody will obect to any sacrifice to make munitions; tho Government can take tho bread out of our mouths for that. But there is in stock 156,000,000 gallons of spirits, every drop of which could bo used for munitions. It is almost certainly enough ro make all tho munitions wa shall want to win tho war.

What should wo say if Vickers lvero storing up gups, if Cammcl Lairds were storing up ships, if Armstrongs were storing up sheik? But the Drink Trade is hoarding up munitions. Every ounce, of this alcohol in bond for 1920 could be used for winning the war,, but it is being kept for losing the peace, and instead of using it the Government is making new alcohol by destroying 740 tons of food a day. It is the most sinister example the war has given us of the power of tkie trade. *

That is the unparalleled scandal of the food destroyed to make a drink trade dividend in 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 of all the hazard at which our food comes to us in these clays—through mines and submarines, guarded and protected on long joiirnoys at the risk of brave men's lives, and brought at last to a famine-threat-ened land to be handed over to a brewer's destructor. Take a cargo of sugar from tJic Philippines, ordered for a restaurant proprietor who provides 4-0,000 ineaJs a day for working people in London. The sujtar arrived at the London docks, and the caterer sent for it; but instead of his sugar ho received from the Port' of London Authority a, note saying: " Delivery of.- ttjis sugar stopped by Food Controller, unless fer Brewers."-

In another case a caterer in the province.!, who had actually paid for his sugar and received a similar notu from the docks, wrote to tho Food Controller, whose Department replied that, the sugar could only be released if it were sold to a brev/er. The caterer, whose conscience would not allow him to soil food for destruction, asked if the Food Controller in such eases arranged for'the sale, but wa£ informed that the transaction must be left to the owner. It has not been sold, and the sugar is still at, the docks—though since the exposure of this outrage stops have been taken to release this sugar Under certain conditions.

So we sen the British Government holding' back sugar from a people waiting for it in queues outside our shops; holding it back from its legal owners in orderto 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 crowd besieged a. farm at Farnborough, in Kent, where potatoes were being sold in shilling lots, and the vale had to be suspended while the police restored order. Hundreds of peoplo came by 'bus from London, others arrived iv motor-cars, and the queue of four deep was nearly la mile long.—Facts in Tho Times, 23rd April, 1917.

A qiißiic of women sind children four deep stood in a cold wind, 1 many of them from seven in the morning till four in the afternoon, -muting for potatoe*

I outside a shop at Cardiff, on 21st March, 3.917. The procession crowded the pavement for nearly 600 yards so that it would have been a inila.. long in single file. —Facts in South Wales Daily News", 22nd March, 1917. THE DRINK TRADE AND OUR WAR SERVICE. It is nst possible to measure the strain the Drink Traffic has impssed on «ur war services. The Food Controllers' Organisation, with its great offices and staffs, would not have been needed had- we saved the food destroyed by drink.

Rationing already involves 1200 committees, and -may mean 50,000 officials and 50,000,000 tickets weekly. It could all be avnided. Prohibition would save more bread without food controlling than all the food controlling can save without Prohibition.

The National Service, with, its network of officials, its.costly advertising, its absorption of paper and printing, could all hove been a-voided under Prohibition. About, 200,000 men have enrolled, but Prohibition would give us twice that manpower any day. .

The strain on a host of men and women looking 1 after soldiers' children neglected through -drink, soldiers' wives spending allowances on drink, is- incalculable. The strain on war charities and the strain on the police arising from .drink are both very great.

The strain of drink on doctors, nurses, and hospitals is beyond belief. Prohibition would set free for the Red Cross thousands who waste their time on the great drink trail. The strain on transport is seen in the lone lines of wagons drawn by strong horses carting beer to public-houses. This year alone the handling of drink must equal the lifting of at least 9,000,000 tons, and the barrels of beer would fill nearly all the railway wagons in the kingdom. As to ships drink materials during the war have used up, 60 ships of 5000 tons, working all the time. ■ On Lord Milner's estimate ,of 19 barrels to the truck, it would require ♦,500,000. railway trucks to carry, the 17,000,000 tons of beer manufactured in the United Kingdom during 1 the war.

It can be proved from official figures that, the weight of drink stuff carried about since war began has been equal ta the weight of solid material carried by the Navy to all our fighting fronts. It Li a'crying shame .that the strength of Britain should be destroyed like this in such an hour as this. THE WAR-WORK OF THE FOOD DESTROYERS. There are hundreds of great Food Destructors in the United Kingdom. The man-power at their service, spread over our breweries and distilleries, numbershundreds of thousands of men; their capital is hundreds of millions. This is * summary of the work they did in the first 1000 days of the war. They sacrificed. 4,400,000 tons of grain and 340,060 tons of sugar, enough to ration the whole United Kingdom with broad for

43 weeks, and sugar far 33 weeks.

They teak from every kitchen cupboard in the land 6001b of bread and 761b of sugar.

They destroyed bread and sugar tt last every child under 15 far every day «f the war.

They took from the pockets of our per pie £5«0,009,000.

They used up labour and transport f«r lifting ever 50,069,060 tons. By sea they used up 68 ships of SSOO tons; by rail their raw materials would fill 950,060 wagans, and make a train 3590 miles long; and their barrels of beer alone would fill 4,669,030 wagons.

THE 'HIDE-THE-DRINK PRESS,

The Drinlc Fleet during the war, bring' ing in the raw ■ material of this trade without cessation, would have brought enough pulp to maintain our netfspa^er supplies for years. But these ■ ships brought food for this trade to destroy, and the means of publicity are rapidly disappearing. The Hide-the-Drink Press hat control of our communications.

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

But. what havo the papers to tell us of these things? Nothing. They live in another world. Take up The Times for the day this is written; almost any day would do. Captain Bathurst has found a tremendous supportor for his policy of saving food by whitewashing windows. If the Food Controller is to make a startling impression, says The Times, " he can take drastic action in regard to the display of food." We live in brave days: who shall measure- the courage of our greatest newspaper when it writes like that? If we do not see our food we shall not want it! ' ,

But we do not like the Hide-the-Food Press any more than the "Hide-the-Drink Press. ' The Times tells us tho most noticeable waste of food now going on is- by children. I beg The Times's pardon. If.we have come, in this country, as we havo come, to a tug-of-war between brewers' dividends and bread for children, decent people are on the side of the children. Once before The* Times has called the attention of the 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 tho journalist who keeps drink out of it, who spends day after day talking of the waste of food, and is blind and deaf and dumb to drink. He can see a gnat and miss an elephant; he must be the cleverest journalist who ever held a pen. 1 Bread is ammunition, and we cannot afford to waste a single loaf, says the Mail, but it has not a word to say about the outrage of destroying 6,000,000 quartern loaves a week for drink. ( " Every cargo of grain sunk by submarines has to be made up by economy In our names," says tho Mail. So have the 26 cargoes of 8000 tons of grain which the brewers are to destroy in the next 26 weeks.

HOW THE ALLIES DfD IT. AIJ tho world knows, except, apparently, the world that goes round at Westminster, how Prohibition has helped the Allies. With the Sholl Famine at its height— fargely made by Drink—the Prohibition Army on the East held up the enemy while Britain fought the Drink 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 of our Allies in this land! If 'Franco wants to rouse the spirit of Verdun sho strikes down her foe at homo and puts absinthe away. If Russia wants to be great and free she stops thi3 drink and orders out the Romanoffs. If Canada wants to give her utmost to help Britain, sho stops this^drink from sea to sea. If Australia wants to make her soldiers fit she trains them in her Prohibition camps. If America wants to beat the whole world at making shells, she drives drink from her workshops. If San Francisco has an earthquako, sho sto»3 drink while she pulls herself togtther. If Liverpool h*s 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 can see !

History will do justice to the part the Prohibition policy of the Allies'has played in saving Europe; but a pamphlet has no room for these things. We can take only one or two great witnesses to the mighty achievements of 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 the French Minister of Finance said: 'I have to go to the Chamber of Deputies, becauso I am proposing: a Bill to abolish- absinthe. Absinthe plays the saino part in France that whisky plays in this country, and they abolished it by a majority of something like ten to one that afternoon."

And how did Paris take this prohibition that men said would cause a revolution? Let us ask Mr. Philip Gibbs, whose splendid letters home have made his name a household word. Mr. Philip Gibbs:

"Absinthe was banned by a thunderstroke, and Parisians who had acquired the absinthe habit trembled in every limb at this judgment, which would reduce them'to physical and moral wreckE, But the edict was given, an£J Paris obeyed, loyally and with resignation."

And now wc.como to Russia, to these mighty Russian people who in the last year of vodka saved £6,000,000 or £7,000,----000, and in' the last full year of Prohibition saved £177,000,000. We will call our own Prime Minister again: a

"Russia, knowing her deficiency, knowing how unprepared she was, said, 'I mustpull myself together. I am not going to be trampled upon, unready as I am. I will use all my resources.' What is the first thing she does? She stops,drink.

"I was talking to M. Bark, the Eussiau Minister of Finance, and asked, 'What has been tho result?' He said, 'The productivity of labour, the amount 6f work whioh is put out by the workmen, has gone up between 30 and 50 per cent.

"I said: 'How do they stand it without their liquor?' and he replied, 'Stand it? I have lost revenue over it up to £65,000,000 a year, and wo certainly cannot afford it, but if I proposed to put it back there would be a revolution in Russia.' " How completely teetotal Russia became we read long ago in the Daily .Mail, to which Mr. Hamilton Fyf© sent this mes: sage from Petrograd: "Try to imagine all the public-houses in the British Islee closed; all the restaurants putting away their wine cards, and, offering nothing stronger than cider or ginger ale. That is the state of things in Russia. Strangs it seems, indeed, yet there is one thing stranger: Nobody mates , any audible complaint."

Everywhere in Russia it was the s»me— a nation made sober by Act of Parliament.

We need not be afraid of Drinkless Revolutions.

THE SOLDIER'S HOME. The thingß that will be told against this trade when all the truth is known will break tho heart of those who read. It is well for us that we cannot know the full truth now; the burden would be too grievous to bo borne in days like these. But if you will go into your street, or will talk of these things with the next man you meet from one of our pitiful slums,' or will pick up one of those local papers that still have space to print the truth, you will find the evidence close about'you.

We are the guardians of 'our soldiers' homes; we are the trustees of the hope 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 moans of death, and sow ruin and destruction through the land.

But we will 1 call the Witnesses to .those drink-ruined soldiers' homes, thefe homes that the enemy worse than. Germany has shattered and broken while our men have been fighting for your home and mine. We will call a few herb and there, knowing that for every ono called are 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 lettors to the trenches came back to surprise her after 18 months. He found another man in possession of his homo, and a new baby; and, overcome by the discovery, he gave way to drinking arid killod himself.—Records of Balham Coroner, March, 1916.

A soldier who had left a comfortable homo behind returned from the front to find it ruined, with not a bod to lie on, his ohildron never sent to school, his wife all the time in public-houses. "I wish I had been shot ia the trenches," he said when ho arrived.—Facts in "Cork Constitution," 10th December, 1915.

A soldier came back to his home in London to find his wife drinking his money away, harbouring another man; one of his children cruelly neglected and tho other m its grave, perished from neglect; and a: drunken carman's baby about to be born in his home. —Facts Mil 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 arc 2300 children under the council, and two thousand of them have parents living." " Our raw material is the finished product of the public-hoiise," says one of these workers. —Facts 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 come home. Ho found his wife, very drunk, struggling home with the help of the railings in the street, and neighbours described her horrible life with other soldiers. The husband obtained a separation for the sake of his children, and went back to France.—Full facts in Kent Messenger, 31st July, 1915.

A working man at Gravesend went to the Front, leaving behind a wife and three children, her baby lately born. His wife started drinking away her allowance, neglected her home, and, full of remorse and shame for tho disgrace she had brought on tho man who was in the trenches, she hanged herself. The man came home to find waiting for him three motherless children, and one of the most pathetic letters a man has 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 Holloway Prison who begged tho Duchess of Bedford to help to close all public-houses during the war. They know in their hearts of tragedies such as these, in which mothers and children die while the fathers Gsht and tho Drink Traffic goes on merrily. ' . .

A soldier's wife in Sunderland drew.£l2 arrears of Army pay, and she and • her mother began to drink it away. She drew her pay on Friday, and was carried home drunk on Saturday, Rave' birth to twins on Sunday morning, nnd, died on Sunday night. The twins died a week or two later, and a week or two after that the soldier came home from the trenches to find his family in the grave.—Facts in Sunderland papers, 1917.

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

The wife of n. Yorkshire soldier was drowned while drunk at Sheffield. She started drinking with another soldier s wife, disappeared with a drunken man, and her death' was a mystery.—Facts in Sheffield Independent, 26th April, 1916.

The wife of a highly-eßtepmed ser-geant-major fighting in France was found

lying drunk. Her four children, shockingly neglected, were put in a- home, but she took them out, wont on drinking, and' received soldiers at her house. In a few weeks her husband heard in the tranches' that his wife had died from drinking.—Records ■ of West Surrey Coroner, March, 1917.

A soldier left three children at homo. He had been earning £1 a week, but his wife received 32s 6d a week. She drank it away, neglected the children, and died in an asylum while her husband, was in France.—Records of Claybury Asylum.

The little child of a soldier in France died in Guy's Hospital from burns. The mother said she could not buy a fireguard. While she was absent the baby was burned, and the mother, returning in a drunken state carrying » can of beer, said. "A. good job."—Records of Southwark Coroner, December, 1915.

" Your husband is" fighting- for his country, and his children have the right to be protected," said tho Chairman of the Chesterfield Bench to a soldier's 1 wife. Her children were found starving while she was drinking:, and one day the little boy of three years was found crouching naked inside tlie fender, trying to get warm. Tho police described the house as foul from' top to bottom, with a heap of horrible rags for a bod, and a food cupboard that made the house unendurable when the door was opened.—Fact* in Yorkshire Telegraph, 24th March, 1916.

Nineteen hundred children of soldiers have come into the care of the N.S.P.C.G., mainly through drink, since the war began.-rßecords of the N.S.P.C.C. ,

THE RUINED WIVES,

Who does not remember the terrible rush for the lust drop of drink when Prohibition seemed to be coming with the New Year?. Thousands of women besieged the whisky shops in Scotland. There were women of all ages, said the Daily Mail, tottering in grey hairs, young wives with babies in their arms, and men of the loafer type. '" There was not a respectable citizen," says the Mail, " who did not deplore this discreditable scene, but the remarks of passers-by provoked only torrents of insult." The promise of the New Year and the new Government, •alas, was not fulfilled, and now, in place of Drink Queues w«r have Food Queues. Lot us see what drink is doing among our soldiers' wives:—

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 32s 6d a week, drank most of it away, ruined her home, neglected her children, and became a lunatic—Records' of Claybury Asylum.

A young soldier's wife, - hitherto of "quite an elegant type," is rapidly becoming a drunkard. Women hitherto sober have not the courage to keep from women's drinking parties, and young girls come out of factories and go to publichousos in little groups.—Records of Charity Organisation Society. %

Outside a publichouse in Dublin 15 small children were crying in the cold, waiting for their mothers. Ninety-four drunken women came out in 25 minutes. There were ten drunken soldiers, and two n-irls of 15 were thrown into the street hopelessly drunk.—Facts in Irish Times, 20th April, 1915.

A stream of nearly 15,000 men and women poured into 58 publichouses in Birmingham in less than four hours; over 6000 were women. Into one house the people streamed at nearly 500 an hour.Facts in Review of Reviews, October, 1915.

For months some wives of soldiers and sailors in Scotland were never really sober. "We have done our best," says ii worker among them, " going to their homes and doing all in our power, but it beats us." In 23 families, with 178 children born, 61 were dead.—Facts told to Secretary for Scotland, 1916.

THE NEW DRINKERS,

" Ne complaints have reached the War Office of youths whs were total abstainers haying bec»me confirmed drunkards since enlistment."

So we are told in the House of Commons. The records of the War Office are clearly incomplete, and the information from the camps may here bo supplemented by unchallengeable witnesses of what happens in the horrible drink canteens run by the Army Council: —

A soldier who was wounded at La Baesee, a total abstainer until then, was sentenced at the Old Bailey for killing 1 his uncle while drunk. He was a' newsvendor, aged 21, and had no memory of the tragedy in which he killod his uncle at a Christmas party.—Facts ip "Daily Chronicle," January 13, 1916.

A private.in the Royal Scots Fusiliers, aged 17, was charged with murdering a bugler boy, aged'l6, in his regiment. The private becam©' mad drunk in the camp canteen, went back to his hut, locked himself in, and fired two shots, one of which entered another hut and killed the bugler. "Was thero no ono with power to say how much drink should be given?" asked the Judge, and an officer, said there was no one. "Then it was high time power was given to the commanding officer," said tho Judge. "Was thero to be no restraining hand to prevent young boys from fuddling themselves in canteens?" —Facts in "The Times," November 21, 1916.

An old man sat in a tram in great distress. He had lost his boy at the front. When he joined the Army he had never ta6ted alcohol, but when he came home on leave to see his mother he was. drunk every night. He was drunk tho night he went away, and in three day.6 he was dead. "Tho last we saw of him," said the poor old man between his sobs, "was his going away drunk, and his mother, who is old-fashioned in her faith, cannot get it out of her mind that no drunkard can enter the Kingdom of God." —Facts told by Dr. Norman Maclean.

Many youngr officera, called upon to share the wine bill at mess, naturally 6ay, "If I have to pay I may as well drink my share," and ono man accounted for ten glasses of champagne. On a Guest Night in his mess several more "were under the table." —Facts in "Dublin Daily Express," April, 1916.

A. boy got his V.C., and came home wounded. The publican in his street sounded hia praises in the taproom, where they subscribed to the bar for 120 pints for him when he arrived. Ho cam'o ■home arid began to drink it, and was nearly dead with it before he was rescued. —Facts related by Bishop of Lincoln.

When tho Scottish Horse Brigade were at Perth, whisky was literally forced down the men, and they were inundated with floods of bad women.—Brigadier General Lord Tullibardine.

A teetotal household had two boys in an officers' training camri, and they gave pitiable accounts of drinking. Boys from school had a drunken sergeant put over them, and a canteen in the midst of them. ""Our boys never saw drink before," one father wrote. —From a letter to Dr. Norman Maclean.

A boy of 17, discharged from the Navy, spent 8s one night on beer and rum. and created ?, disturbance in a workshop at Sheffield.—Fncte in "Sheffield Star," November 11, 1916.

Mr Justice 1 Atkin, charging the Grand Jury at Bristol said that in nearly every caso where a soldier was tried in tho Western Circuit tho 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 thine;, said the Judge, must seriously impair the efficiency of the Iroop6 when sent to tho front. —Record of Bristol Assizes. Autumn, 1914.

Two boys, 15 and 17, wore fined foe being drunk in munition works. On©

wns discovered just in time lo save him from carrying molten liquid.—"BinningImm Munitions Tribunal," December. 1916.

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

Such are the tragedies of boys ha.nded over in our camps to drink and its temptations. What of tlie girls in our munition shops? They have learned to drink in thousands since, the war began—respectable girls leaving home to go into munitions, respectable young wives alone at home. With no -restraining hand upon them, with new companionship and pocket-money flowing freely, it is not surprising the temptation should be too strong for them. Wo can take only one or two cases. '. ■ .

The girl wife of a Cardiff seaman died in the street from exposure after drinking in public-houses with other girls.— Recor.de of Pontypridd Coroner, 27th December, 1916.

A publican at Lincoln was fined £5 for allowing children to be drunk on his premises. Ruth Onyon, 14, and Rose Herrick, 16, were found in his house .with a soldier. They Had been in five houses, and had ten drinks each, and reached homo helplessly drunk.—Fact* in Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Ist Sept., 1916.

, A number of cartridge workers were summoned for taking drink into ,a. munition works. One young Woman was led to the surgery drunk at half : past four in the morning; another was discharged because shs coultl not stand. Sixteen girls subscribed for four bottles of wine and whi3ky.—Records of Leeds Munitions Tribunal, 2.Bth April, 1916.

Two girls, of 16 and 17, .were fined fof being helplessly drunk in an explosive works, the Magistrates pointing out that their conduct imperilled the lives of other workers. —Records of Coventry Munitions Tribunal, 24th July, 1916.

. Tho men and girls et a large armament works drank all night. Girls- would lurch into the dormitory dead drunk at 2 a.m.; one lady was up till 4 a.m. letting in drunken girls. As a. result of drunkenness, there was an explosion at these^ works, two men being killedVand six injured.— Facts in Spectator, 20th January, 1917.

A Dublin public-house was found full of girls c.nd soldiers, ail drunk. Three drunken girls were taken away by six soldiers.—Facts in Irish Times, 20th April, 1916.

In half an hour 367 girls entered Birmingham pubiic-houses, scores under 18. Stout and- beer were chiefly drunk,' but whisky aJid water ateo, ' and some port wine. Ten girls were quite drunk. —Facts in .Birmingham Daily Post.

, INTO THE FIRING-LINE

Lord Kitchener is dead, but there are two things that are with us—that rare little note that he-ga.ve to his men as they went out, warning them of drink; and that infamous note sen.* out by a drink firm in liondon, begging out 1 people to send out drink to our men. They can guarantee it right up to the firing-line,, they say, and'even when our shells could not get there through drink, drink seems to have found its way. It can get on to transports when the Ministry of Munitions is waiting urgently for. .shipping space ; it can commajideer our x- vans and horses and trains when these mean, life or death to us; it seems to get past any regulation; it goes about with the power of a. king, doing its work where it will.

It is regrettable that our troops at the Front cannot get more British Beer.— Managing Director of Allsopps, 14th July, 1916.

Dear Sir,—ln answer to your enquiry, the only limitation in the size of^ casea consigned to officers in tho Expeditionary Force is that they must'not exceed lewt. Wo can guarantee delivery right into tho front trenches. Tho cases arc handed Over at Southampton to the Military Forwarding Officer, and tho A.S.C. see thorn right through. We are-shipping hundreds of cases weekly.—Yours faithfully—Letter from a Wine and Spirit firm in London.

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

Soldiers at the Front, tried for drunkenness, have decla-red that they have received drink from home. Men sometimes, receive flasks in tho trench.ee. They are exhausted, the stimulant revives them for a minute or two, and the harm is done. "And then (says Colonel Crozier) thoy get about two years' hard labour." —Letter from Colonel Crozier, commanding 9th Royal Ir\sh Rifles.

As tho result of a Court-martial investigating charges of excessive drinking among the officers of a regiment at the Front, tho Army Council removed tho commanding officer from his post.—Ro^ oords of Court-martial, 1916.

In the torrid climate of Mesopotamia, in defiance of all military medical history, juiri was issued to the men instead of food and sterile water, and the presence of cholera, dysentery, and other diseases was attributed to this by Sir Victor Horsley. "Our gross failures, and stupidity," ho said, "are in my, opinion duo to whisky affecting the intellectual organs and clearness of our loaders. They do not realise that alcohol in small doses acts as a brake on the brain." —Facts in a. letter from Sir Victor Horsley, 13th May, 1916. '

Battalion Headquarters—colonol a,nd chaplain present. Enter Adjutant: "The rum ration is due to-night, air; am i to distribute it?" The Colonel (nobly, and in a* voice audible all over the trench): "No! Damn the rum! To hell with the rum!" —Chaplain's letter in Alliance News, June, 1916.

At a court-martial in Newcastle, a sergeant-major, charged with misappropriating funds of the sergeants' mess., pleaded that during this period a resolution of the nie>;s had come into effect, providing free drinks, during Christinas and the Now Year.—Facts in Daily News. 17th April, 1916.

"In tho Flying Services one has seen more than one good man go to the dogs through drink, or becomo fat and flabby and useless through just tho excess of alcohol which falls short of taking drink in the usual acceptance of the term. More men take to drink because of the 'have another' .custom than because they like or need alcohol, and simple prohibition would Btop all this nonsense straight away- This kindly note is not the outpouring of a teetotal fanatic, for I suppose I have paid in my time rather more than my share of the nation's drink bill;, it is morel}' a perfectly sound argument in favour of increasing the nation's efficiency at the expense of its chief bad habit.-'The Editor of The Aeroplane.

A lieutenant in the trenches, knowing that the rum ration made him cold, throw his rum on the ground. His. captain saw him, and threatened to report him. "You do, sir," said the lieutenant, "and I will report you for being drunk on duty."—Facts in possession of the Author. A seaman serving on a ship in Cork Harbour diod from alcohol. Found drunk and unknown, he was put on a stretcher and died.—Facts in Cork Constitution, 9th December, 1915.

"Over three-quarters of the courtsmartial I have had anything to do with are due directly or indirectly to drunkenness. Many thousands of competont n.c.o.'s and soldiers have been punished, and become useless to tho nation during their punishment, as a result of drink.

"I have never been a teetotaller, and 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 viotory retarded so obviously by drink."— Letter from a lieut.-colonel at tho front seen by the author. Tho captain of a. British merchant ship; drunk on tho bridge, ordered his chief, gunner to fire 50 rounds of shell at no-

thing. The gunner fired four rounds to appease him. Going through the Mediterranean, the drunken captain ordered his gunner to five at a British hospital ship, and the incident led to a strugglo for life, which ended in ihe captain being put in irons, tried, and sentenced to five years' penal servitude. —Record of Devon Assizes, Exeter, 2nd February, 1917.

Such is the work of drink, wherever it Ends a soldier to entrap—the drink the Navy carries free- from Southampton to tho trenches; and from America comes the nows, as this page is being written, that the Army and the Navy of our Western Ally, liko tho Army und Navy of our Eastern Ally, are to be under Total Prohibition.

DRINK AND THE RED CROSS,

If the full storj could ever be told of the national tragedy of drink and the war, there would be no more ghastly chapter than that which would tell how drink fought the Red Crc*s; how, without pity, it hindered the work of mercy that is the general consolation of the world in days like these.

We ara coming- to a famine not only in food, out in doctors. The death-roll has been heavy beyond all _ parallel; the strain ,on the medical services has been almost too great to bo borne, and we look anxiously round to know where the doctors and nurses will come from. With Prohibition, tho problem would bo largely solved, for tho ordinary burden of life 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 qt mending up and patching up tho sordid effects of drink. A. rich brewer gave a donation for extending a hospital. "Ah! but. we should not have to extend if he would shut up his public-house," said a doctor.

It is easy to no© how tho drink is telling *11 the time against, our doctors, our nurses, and our hospitals everywhere.. Let us call a few witnesses.

Somebody gave a glass of neat whisky to two bounded men at a garden party in. Tottenham. Both wero drunk when the brake came to take them home, and ono died on tho way.—Facts in Sheffield Telegraph, 3rd September, 1915.

Thjfeo wounded soldiers at Oxford were overebme by four botjles of rum smuggled into tho hospital by Visitors, and one of tho men died.—Records of Oxford Coroner, January, 1916. ■

A wounded soldier asked for two hours' leave, eamo back in four hours drunk with whisky, and died after a, terrible night in. tho hospital.—Facts in Daily Mail. ' "

Two limbless soldiers were found helplessly drunk on the pavement at Brighton. A publican was fined £20,—Facts in Daily Chronicle, 25th November, 1916.

Lying helpless at a London station, moaning on the ground in drunken delirium, was a, lad in hospital blue who had, in truth, been wounded by his friends. \ Drink . was taking him again through tho worst of his experiences, and his mental pain was pitiable to see.—Facts in the Globe, January, 1917.

The medical officer in charge of the Mental Block of a large military hospital said to the colonel: "I "have the worst job of all. and it is through Drink, 4 Drmk, Prink! Men recover fairly soon front shell shook, but officers, especially the younger ones, who habitually take wines and spirits, are subject to relapses every few days. It is awful!"— Facts in National Temperance Quarterly," May, 1917

One terrible truth remains to be told of the crime of drink against the Red Cross. The ntost blessed thing in all the world to-day is alcohol, for it makes chloroform and ether, which soothe thf pain of men. We cannot get enough of these consoling drugs, yet wo go' on wasting precious food to make more alcohol to add io the sum of misery and pain. j 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 temptation, destroys his power of resistance, and retards his chances of recovery.

We can never know tho truth about the extent of this disease, about the way in which the liquor trade, by breaking dowti tens of thousands of our men, has stabbed the Army in the 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 Gorman Staff.

The lost man-power of the Army through' this disease must be equal to the whole of tho original British Expeditionary Force. The Government has eiven us figures foi tho Army at home las\ year, and they are 43 per 1000—or over 100,000 cases for an army of 2,500,000 men. There were 7000 cases in one Canadian vamp alone.

Here are the black facts revealed in a debate in Parliament on 23rd April, 1917, when two distinguished Army officers,' speaking with great, restraint, sought to open tho eyes of the nation to this plague fostered in" our camps by drink.

"During the war we have had admitted into tho hospitals of England over 7000 oases of gonorrhoea, over 20,000 cases of syphilis, and over 6000 cases of another disease . somewhat similar. I am quite openly prepared to state 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 war that you may absolutely wipe thorn out, except for a few handfuls.

" When you come to the great mass of casualties under this head . . . the figures mean that ypu have a Division constantly out of action. If you have anything like 70.000 men enfeebled, you find that you suffer to that extent also. It is not only that you lose the men r and not only the men who are partially cured and are suffering for many months to come, but their chances of recovery .from wounds are not nearly so good. .

"I know of a hospital for venereal cases which it was found necesn-ry to expand from its normal accommodation for 500 or 600 up to 2000 oases, and they are continually full. It is a British hospital in France. A figure I should like to submit to challenge is that during- tho course of the- war between 40,000 and 50,000 cases of syphilis have passed through our hospitals in France. When you come to gonorrhoea, the figure given me which covers that is between 150,000 and 200,000 cases."—Captain Guest, in Parliament, 23rd- April, 1917.

"Every Canadian soldier who comes to this,, country arrives here not only a firstclass specimen of. a fine soldier, but as clean-limbed and as clean a, man 39 the Creator Himself could create The fact that in one only 'of the three Canadian camps in this • country 7000 of these clean Canadian boys 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 which I can assure the House does not make for a better feeling with the Home Country, nnd docs not make for what we all "desire—lmperial unity."—' Colonel Sir Hamar Greenwood, in Parliament, 23rd April, 1917.

These are unchallenged statements mide in the House of Commons itself; they stand as * terrible indictment of tlus disease,, and it is not to be denied that this evil, could never havo reached its present frightful proportions if Parliament had followed tho King. Let us look at a- few exaihples of the ravages of this vice allied so closely to the public-house.

It is not possible to toll the whole truth about drink; the language in which it mv.it be written would be offensive in a, civilised country. It must be said, simply, that soldiers in England have been courtmavtialled for having been influenced by drink to commit unspeakable offences against aninials. —Facts in Records of Courts-Martial. •

Here is the official proof of the relation of the driak trade to this traffic

in disease. It is from the Report of the Royal Commission.

Abundant evidence was given as to tho intimate relations between alcohol and voi)ereal disease?.

■ Alcohol renders a man liable to yield to temptations which he might otherwise resist, and aggravates the diseaseby diminishing the resistance of the individual.

Alcoholism makes latent syphilis and gonorrhoea active.

Our ovidence tends to show that the com. munication in disease is frequently duo to indulgence in intoxicants, and there is no doubt that the grewth" of temperance, among tho population would help to bring about an amelioration of the very serious conditions which our enquiry has revealed. We deEirc, therefore, to place on.record our opinion that action should be taken without delay. . ?

THE PRICE THE EMPIRE PAYS,

It is a bitter irony that while the men of the Empire have come to France to fight tho enemy of mankind, this, fob within our gates: has struck a blow at the British Empire that generations will not heal. How many Empire men this private trade has slain wo do not know, but wo'know beyond all challenge that it has weakened the bonds 'that-bind our Dominions to tho Motherland. This trade that throttles us at homo can pull the Empire down, and it has started well. It has struck its blow at Canada.

Let us look at tho plain facts which in other days than those would have caused a storm of anger that Parliament could not have ignored. Canada has followed the King; arming herself with her full powers, flinging herself upon her enemies with her utmost .strength, she has swept drink out of Canada almost from sea to sea. But even before "sho did this Canada saw that alcohol must go from her camps if her men woro" to be fit to fight for England, and long before the Prohibition .wave swept across the. .country,, the Canadian Government removed all alcohol from the training camps. It was tho deliberate choice of a Government and its people, and from that day to this there has been.no reason for regret. . ,

So the young manhood of Canada., rallying to the flag, was guarded from alcohol. She poured out her men in hundreds of thousands; they came to us from Prohibition camps; they came in Prohibition ships, and even hero this trade that has us in its grip was not allowed at first in the Canadian camps; the only condition that Canada made—a condition implied, but clearly understood—was properly regarded and obeyed. . ' • ■ .

We respected the desire of Canada, and kept her soldiers free- front drink in-their own camps. But a soldier cannot', keep in camp, and in the- villages around the Drink Trade waits in every street. The military authorities'were willing for the Canadian Government to have .their way inside the camps, buf drink Was free put-; side, and in these public-houses there ivaa sown the seed that may one day break this Empire. The Drink Trade was so rampant outside the Canadian. camps that, ProhibiiioD inside was almost • in vain.We had to decide between breaking the. word of the Canadian Government to its people or dealing with this .trade as Canada herself has done; as Russia ;has done; as France and America are.doing. It was the Empire or the drink traffic, and the 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 they came. The Dominion of Canada, giving freely to'the Motherland 450,000 boys and men, was moved to passionate indignation' that England shpuld scorn her love for_ them, /should ignore; the pleadings of their inothors and sisters, and should put in their way. the temptations from which they were saved at home. Canada does not want our drink trade; she lives side by side with the United States, she sees that great country building up its future freo from drink, and she :sees America, splendid Ally-in war, as a mighty rivaLin peace.,.,, ...

And Canada has followed tho Prohibition lead of the United States, and already she has ceased to bo a borrowing country. The very .first year of Prohibition has seen this young Dominion, for the first time in her history,' financially self-sustaining. Crime is disappearing; social gatherings are held in her gaols; she has set up vast munition workshops, apd instead of borrowing. money lot her .own, support she has made 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 the munitions the Canadians have used. Canada is.in deadly earnest. She kept her.men away from drink to make them fit; she has - swept it away to make a clean country for those who go back.

And what is England's contribution to this Imperial Reconstruction. _We have scorned it all. The Prime t 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 the lovo of Canada on our brewers' altar. We. can boHeve tho Canadian;, who; declares; his profound conviction that" but-for-this Canada would have sent us 100,000 more recruits; wo can believe it-is.-true-that where responsible Canadians '' meet together in these days the talk is of how long the tie will last unbroken that binds, the daughter to the Motherland. We can understand the passion that lies behind the resolutions that come to Downingstreet from Nova Scotia; we. know the depth, of tho 'yearning of those 64,000 mothers and wives of Toronto who signed that great petition to the Government of Canada begging it in the name of God to intervene., , ■„, ... .

We can understand it all; but let ua call the witnesses, and let, U6.6ee_ the price the Dominion pays for bur qualifying be.fore this Kaiser's trade. '

THE MEN FROM THE PROHIBITION CAMPS. Again 'and again we. have seen 'thepeculiar temptations:, of ''drink among Canadians. Officers, _ chief-constables, chaplains, newspaper^ the men thereselves, have, all borne witness that' to these men from Prohibition Canada,-the ' sudden temptations of our drink trade ! come with terrible power, and often they fall not knowing. The finest manhood of the Empire our taprooms and canteens destroy, not in isolated' cases, but in a host we dare not number. ■ •■■ .

' In an officers' mess of two double companies of Canadians only one officer drank on his arrival 1 in a, canteen camp in England; within three months thero was not an abstainer in the mess. —Facts told at Society for Study of Inebriety, January 10. 1916.

Theso men come mostly from districts in Canada where 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.

The Canadia-ns in most cases are. entirely lost when they arrive in this country, and are much more liable,, to- the temptation which is thrown in their way, but. when you givo a figure- such as this —that in one. camp" during lust year, and two months of tho ■ previous year, there wore 7000 cases—it seems . to" mo that it is about [ time >Vc realised the magnitude of the evil. "I do'"iiot know what has ha-ppened to them, except that I imagine a. large number hay« gono back to Canada, and havo not boon ablo to play the part they had hoped to play. —Captain Guest, in Parliament, 23rd April, 1917.

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, I th» fruo «"*■■' "■- r>-:'--. 1- '"onii have

t« fie« thit war-time rtctfrd of .waste at home, with its inevitable toll of debauchery :and crime.—Editorial in the Toronto Globe. : ..'■'.

While this book is. being written ona of tho greatest meetings ever held in Manchester was cheering a Canadian in khaki who declared that ho was not going hungry while brewers were destroying food, and he went on to' 6ay, this soldier and sportsman well known in tho Dominion:—

"Great numbers of. our. nlen. never saw France. Canadian ■ boys cried because they' had not munitions.. England' reeled and beer flowed like water while, thousands of our boys went down into their 'graves, Wo will never forget in Canada."

We may be sure Canada will not forget. She will not forget her deed; ehc will not-forget that the Drink Traffic sho has swept.away at home struck down her sons in 'the land for' which they fought.- "Wo -must■■• know who 16 to blamo," say?,, a- Canadinn paper; "wo presume they will have no objection to have .thoir names placarded before the country,' that-every mother may know." Colonol Sir Hamar Greenwood, M.P., has lately returned from Canada, and lS .thi6 is what he tells us:— '

"I met many fathers and mothers whose boys hadi been sent back to Canada, debilitated and ruined for life because they had been enmeshed by harpies, and again and again those parents have said to me, 'We do not mind our boys dying on the field -of battle for . old - England, but to think that we sent our sons to England ,to come back to us ruined in health, a-nd a. disgrace to. us, to;,them, and to tho country, is something ths Home Country should never, ask.us. to beat.' '.'

.From a.Resolution received, by Mr. Lloyd George from ' tho Social Service Council of "Nova Scotia.—" That we, representing the social, moral, and spiritual forces of this part of the Ba'.tish Empire, who-have" proved- our loyalty by the thousands of men this small' province has sent overseas, do record our most earnest protest against Britain's inaction in this matter, which'We are sure must result in longer and increased ■ suffering for the men we have sent to help her win tho war; and do most insistently plead with the British Government and tho British Parliament that they afc once exercise the power vested in them to strike the blow that will dispose of 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, 25th February, 1917.—Canada has the "right to .make' this demand ,'on the Motherland from the. simple standpoint of political, economics.-.. That, we niight. put the Dominion into the best possible shape to givothe utmost of our strength in men and irmnitions, we; have .an-almost Domin-ion-wide- Prohibition, and no .intelligent ".person, >yill deny .that, our '.contributions jtp the war from the first have been multiplies and intensified by that action. Why should little Johnny Canuck abolish drink that, he might conserve his manhood arid material resources' in the interests, of the Empire's war, and. big John Bull refuse to abolish the traffic to-tlie great waste of his material resources and the undoifig of his efficiency? ' ..,,,,,,,.. „.

A Public Mar^with Three Soldier, Sons wrote to the Toronto- Globe.—" Canada, for efficiency in-war,.casts out the drink evil. Is it too v much to expect Great Britain, in-fairness, to do the same? ':ls if, not. a mockery for. the British Isles-Vt.o face our common struggle" with"this palsy in her frame?"' '"'■;, ■>■■■- ■■■■

: Letter from one- of the Most Eminent. Public Men . in. Canada.—" British Canada is intensely loyal to the Empire and the Allied cause, but, at'present .recruiting, is almost at an end. 'Why? Partly because of very ■"considerable-■dissatisfaction with many of the. conditions which prevail. Suffering, wounds, 1, deaths- are"'expectedias inevitable in' war; \but 'the -evil -.influeneefe, < the lavish temptations-, of .liquor and4>ad women,, ,which sweep down t upon our boys in England''aro'licit "felt to" bo .'necessary, and 'the' Ihearts' of multitude of Canadian parents are. hot--with .indignation at "tie apparent indifference of the authorities .5 to the moral welfare of the'troops." .;v '

- From the Petition, presented" to rMio Prime Minister of Canada, signed ;by 64,000, mothers and -...wives .in .Toronto.— 1. That:mothers,and wives of .Canadajin giving their sons and husbands' for King and Empirb" -asked and " received from ■ your Minister-of. Militia, this .only assurance, that,' in sending thorn' into tho' ranks, we were * not hereby irrevocably thrusting; them into the temptation !of strong drink. 2. We appreciated, _in *.the depths of •our hearts, your action -in abolishing the wet ■ canteen from the Canadian' Militia: We : believe the Wet canteen established in tho ranks at tha front to be a- double danger, robbing 1 ow King of the success in-arms which ...in these days comes onlytto. -the; bravo heart that is controlled by.-i clear-head, alid robbing us .and ..our. Canada of;-thc manhood 1 :which<; we-gave' into our.Empire's keeping. 3.. We do not believe-.that the King'will refuse the aid of X Canada's sons; nor that"he will appreciate your patriotic efforts'the less-if you keep faith witbUus and rna'ka*;:known;to;His Majesty, his Minister and Commanders,'-- that ,our boys are sent forth on tho one condition that tho dispensing of intoxicating: liquors shall be'prohibited "in tho ranks.

THE WAY FOR THE GOVERNMENT,

' There is one clear way. before "'the Government;" it 'is the only way jof straightndss and' patriotism and honour. It is to wind up this enemy trade, and move from our path the greatest hindrance to tho ' winning '.of the war. It. is 'to take 'our side' honourably with - our great .Allies, to, bring to an, end tho shariieful isolation of.Great' Britain in the drink map of.;the great free How long are wo to blush/ when, we look at a drink map of the world; to see these little islands still as black as Mexico? -,

If there" .are- difficulties:.thejr;.'."can be v met;'.we"have been doing diflioult things, for nearly, three- years. If the trouble is that this trade is so strongly entrenched ■ in parliament '.that ■; it , cannot; fes treated like an honest trado that has not-made-its interest its politics, let ua -iuiow it. If the trouble is with party-funds, let us know that. But if the real reason is.'that the Government is afraid of our;own people, then let that be said- plainly, for this nation has not waited uutd now to makol up its mind that a Government afraid of Britain .is not the Government ■ to beat the.Germans. , ' ;

Id the highest interests of the nation and tho war, let this bo 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 nation would rally to the Government instantly on an Act of a few words such as this;

That the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages be totally prohibited in the United Kingdom for,the.period of th« war and demobilisation, and that a committeebe' appointed to deal with all the private and public interests concorned; and " f

thaj it be resolved, upon, here and now, that reconstruction be accompanied by universal local.option.

If the Government is afraid of the workiug man, let it say so, or let it try him. If it is afraid of temperance people, let it rally them to its side as one man on..the platform where they meet. If it is-afraid ■■of- the Drink Trade, then tho tinie'has come to. sdy so, for \vq who send out our millions to tight a foreign foo are not going to starve for bread through fear of'enemies-within our gate. The Prime 'Ministcy- gave tho Army its munitions; the Army, will use thorn in-vain unless tho mnnitiohs' of life come' into our homes.