LIQUOR IN QUEBEC

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 1 September 1928, Page 6

LIQUOR IN QUEBEC

(To the Editor.) Sir,—The secretary of the Licensing Reform Association rallies to the defence of the Quebec liquor system, which is not. light" wines and beer, biit Government sale of all kinds of intoxicating liquor, including spirits. In Canada,'even under provincial1 Prohibition, the manufacture ef native wines, beer, and spirits has never been suppressed at any time, and Quebec Province has nisver had even provincial • prohibition. Premier Taschereau who introduced the present system, without a vote of the people, is.- a liquor advocate, and the secretary of the Licensing Re form Association knew him to bo such when he cabled him. In March this year Premier Taschereau described some statements by the Quebec League against alcoholism as incorrect, he was publicly invited to point out the inaccuracies, de- j clined to do so, and has never done so yet as far as I know. The statement concerning increased drunkenness in 1927 was contained in a Canadian Press dispatch dated from Montreal 7th February, 1927, the heading being "Montreal Alarmed by Blind Pig Evil. Young Girls of Good Families in Resorts." The message was: "Arrests for drunkenness in Montreal during 1927 were 50 per cent, greater than in 1926. Of late a number of young girls of good families have been found in 'dives,' and the evil arises from the 'blind pig,' Alderman A. Desroches declared to-day at a meeting of the City Council." There may be some misprint with regard to the year or some omission that would indicate a month of 1927. But there is the statement. That the evil was not a new one is evident from the "Montreal Standard" (opposed to Prohibition), which in 1925, 28th November, ran these headlines: "The Curse of Blind Pigs in Montreal." "Menace is. Baffling the Best Efforts of the Police Force. Also, "Selling Liquor Illegally Leads to Other Crimes." "Raids Discover Young Girls of Good Family Sodden with Liquor." The Hon. Justice Coderre, of the Supreme Court, following on an investigation into charges of corruption against the Police Force of Montreal, said: "The proof .weala that in defiance to the bylaws certain of these establishments (cafes) . . . remain open up to 3 and i o clock in the morning, and consequently it was precisely at forbidden hours that-the greatest disorders took place. . . Some of these establishments held licenses granted by the Liquor Commission. . . . Prostitution itself, commerce in human flesh, m its most shameful form and most degrading effect, operates and nourishes in Montreal like a perfectly organised commercial enterprise." The ■ Liquor Commission s own report for 1926-27 says: "We must record a sudden and almost mysterious increase in arrests for.drunkenness effected by the Montreal Police during the last months. Then on p. 74 the report makes this candid and illuminating remark: "An increase ivas inevitably bound to come some day." So that while. Premier Taseheroau is busy demonstrating declining drunkenness the board that manages the liquor business for him says quite frankly that there was an increase, and more than that, an increase was bound to come. So it was,' seeing that sales of wines and spirits increased 17 per cent, in the year mentioned, beer sales increased- 14 per cent., 18S illicit stills were seized, and 3030 prosecutions for liquor law violations woip instituted. This is what the secretary, of the Licensing Reform Association blandly calls- a "temperance trend." Distributions of free beer by breweries and free beer Riven away in restaurants aJs<> doubtless assist the "temperance trend. The secretary of the L.R.A. makes contradictory assertions, namely, vvo have no real drunkenness problem in .New Zealand," and that "our record of temperance, splendid as it is, will be capable ot improvement." If wo have no real problem, how can wo improve? Well Ohincmuri shows how we can lmproyo. In eighteen months of license restored there we find that there were moro drunkenness convictions than in six years 'and a half mirier Nn-license, and in the same cifihtecn months as nutny1 prohibition orders issued as in W\<s years under Nb-liecn«v. I would bo glad to sec wh.-u the secretary of the L.R.A. has to say about that. —I am, etc, J. MALTON MURRAY, Executive Secretary, New Zealand Alliance.