MR G. B. NICHOLLS IN REPLY.

Evening Star, Issue 12867, 17 July 1906, Page 3

MR G. B. NICHOLLS IN REPLY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Apparently the task set the Licensed Victuallers' Association is too difficult, and they are unable to reply to my open letter. It is not easy to justify "a practice for men that is unthinkably disgraceful for women, nor is it an easy matter to show that what id disgraceful for women at one side of a counter is not disgraceful at the other. In any case, while these questions remain unanswered, the traffic in intoxicating liquors, whether by grocers (probably the most harmful of all), retailers, or wholesale, stands utterly and completely condemned by those engaged in it, and by their own advocate. An anonycorrespondent, however, signing himself " Anti No-license," comes to their rescue and says: "Anyone with an eye in his head could see that the women there referred to were women of a certain class * I have re-read the report carefully, and am absolutely certain that this is not so. Will Mr Thomson declare that the twenty women he saw go into one hotel in less than twenty minutes and drink at the bar were all women of a certain class? Will the Licensed Victuallers' Association and Mr Ihomson declare that they approve of women in general drinking at bars and see no harm m the practice? Unless they will do this, the whole logic of my letter remains intact and unanswerable. If thev wish to show their straightforwardness and genuine desire for reform they must do this, or at least and at once cease to employ women in their bars. In any other case they stand exposed as insincere—l