WAR SPIRITS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 14, 16 July 1918, Page 2

WAR SPIRITS

' TO THE BDITOR. t Sir, —I am glad the Rev. John Dawson is ready to accept the truth for once regarding the great service alcohol rendered in saving the Empire from the domination of the vilo Hun. That would not have been co if the Rev. John Dawsons of England'had had their policy of prohibition oarried out three years before the war. It was the failure of prohibition of England, therefore, that saved the Empire, and all patriots are more opposed to prohibition now than formerly.

But why, the Rev. John Dawson na-' turally (asks, are war spirits coming to New Zealand now? There was seven years' supply of potable spirits, i.e., spirits made for human consumption; and for nearly three years the distilleries j have been employed in making raw alcohol for high explosives. Although in the earlier months of the war the refined spirit was used ■ in abundance for explosives, the constant and abundant manufacture of raw spirit has set-free the refined stocks of spirits, and made them available for. Home and overseas demands. When the Rev. John Dawson made the statement: "My complaint is that all this liquor takes up valuable shipping space," #tc, he knew that no cargo was excluded by the liquor shipments. This reverend gentleman als.O knew that the vessels bringing whisky were not half- . loaded; that there was room for general cargo; but it could not be loaded up in time to suit the hour of the vessel's departure ; and ho also-knew that shipping companies do' not abandon freights , unlees the safety of their vessels is j threatened. The Rev. John 1 knew all this, I say, because he had in ■Ms possession a copy of the High Comj missioner's «ible, in which all this was stated. Yet he has the effrontery to complain that "all this liquor takes up valuable shipping space." It was the i hope of the Rev. John Dawson that the ; readers of The Post would, not know, or that "Merchant" would not enlighten them. '.■,'■ The reverend gentleman•- does not ■ re- ; turn to this point. He slides away after the Carterton case of a man who took rum and cloves to kill the microbe of ■ influenza. It appears the alcohol fought 1 the microbe, and-in half an hour the man i was again normal. I wonder how much i rum and cloves it would take to kill the | microbe of prohibition, which has intoxij cated some men and women for more than half their lifetime? The microbe of prohibition, even in parsons, prevents normality. They want even to stop rum : rations to soldiers, for whose benefit the British Government ias commandeered all the rum spirits of Jamaica. Yet it is this "war spirit" such persons as the Rev. John Dawson and R. G. Denton would stop soldiers from having. A soldier was a prohibitionist in New Zealand, and returning, was asked about the rum, ration, and then invited to have a drink. "No, thanks," he.said; "I'm a teetotaller when on leave ; but there are no teetotallers when the rum ration comes round on.cc a day in France. Mud, sir, is hell, and 5 a.m. is the devil's noon, but rum's Christian charity." And it is this Christian charity the Rev. John Daweons would deprive the soldier of I when his back is turned.

What the Rev. John Dawflon should do is not to call upon Ministers and others to do what he wants to do, but to turn over a new leaf himself; to stop making use of the war to advantage him and. his political party $ to stop his efforts to compass the selling of our soldiers' liberties during their absence for a mess of potage, and to cultivate that charity which thinketh no evil, even of war spirits coming in half-empty ships.— I am, etc., ■ MERCHANT. 15th July. •■-,.. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I Bee it was mentioned ia the Chamber of Commerce that there was enough whisky in the Dominion to last ten years. On the face of that it .would be interesting to know why the merchants are charging t 40s a gallon for whisky in bond when the pre-war rate was Bs. Another little thing that it would be interesting to know is why should brewers have thought it necessary to further increase the price of beer by 6s per barrel as from the 15th?—I am. etc., ■ A POOR PUBLICHOUSE RETAILER. 16th July.