“NO PROHIBITION!”

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 December 1929, Page 11

“NO PROHIBITION!”

SCANDINAVIA & TEMPERANCE. A war against prohibition is a war for national temperance, said Professor Carl Gustaf Santesson, famous Swedish physician and writer, at the recent congress in Stockholm of the Scandinavian Anti-Prohibition Society. His statement was enthusiastically applauded by the 40 delegates representing Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, says the Stockholm correspondent of a United States exchange.

Professor Santesson, who presided at the congress, is president of the Swedish Association for Temperance Without Prohibition. This society is conducting its propaganda by 'means of lectures, articles in the Press and the distribution by mail of a booklet entitled “Liberty and Responsibility.” Its activity -is particularly directed against any attempts to force prohibition on the people by means of local referendum. It advocates, instead, a sound temperance, based upon the conviction and responsibility of the individual.

“We have found,” continued Professor Santesson at the congress, “that prohibition leads to a change for the worse in temperance matters and to a growing disrespect for the law.” In Sweden, where all liquors can be purchased under the restrictive Government plan, the number of arrests for intoxication in 1927 was less than onehalf per 1,000 inhabitants than in 1913. Since then it has decreased even further.

Speaking for the Norwegian delegation, the Rev. Peder Christensen said tb.at the church should participate in. the war against drunkenness, but that it must remain neutral when it comes to formulating .temperance laws. He stressed, however, each individual’s right to oppose prohibition, quoting the Bible on the subject of personal liberty. A picture of the conditions obtaining in. Finland since prohibition went into effect there was drawn by Major E. Hultin, of Helsingfors. Despite all laws and regulations and the vigilance of the police, intoxication is on a steady increase. Statistics’ show that in 1928 the customs service seized 1,000,000 litres of alcohol of 96 per cent, proof without causing any noticeable lack in the supply. The number of arrests for intoxication rose from 27,000 in 1920 to 101,036 in 1928. The country’s prisons are crowded to capacity and 10,000,000 marks have just been granted for the erection of a new central prison. In Denmark, where there is no prohibition, conditions are incomparably better, according to the two Danish delegates, Professor August Mentz and J. Byskov, former Minister of Education. Both speakers reported a satisfactory progress in the work of the Danish Anti-Prohibition Society against any measure for having prohibition introduced by national referendum.