SOBER ENGLAND

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 February 1930, Page 4

SOBER ENGLAND

HEALTH EXPERT’S EVIDENCE. (Times Cables.) (By Cable—Press Assn.— Copyright.) (Received February 17, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, February 16. "Many health problems remain, but the English are more sober, healthier, and ong-lived, presenting an amazing transformation compared with a century ago,” said Sir George Newman, the Health Ministry’s medical expert, on giving evidence before the Licensing Commission. . Ho surveyed London’s drinking lio* bits of two centuries ago, recalling that » in 1720-70, the deaths exceeded the births, owing to the orgy of spirit drinking, when gjn was a "real grand destroyer,” with a public house for every forty-seven people. Tavern signposts invited people to get diSink for a penny, or dead drunk for two pence, and there was a straw on which to sleep off the intoxication, free.” He added that scientific evidence did not exist to prove that alcohol fortified resistance. No great surgeon could be bettor for alcohol He expressed the opinion that before dinner, cocktail drinking was undesirable from the medical viewpoint. Alcohol mortality figures were highest among innkeepers, cab drivers and brewers. Alcoholism rendered victims more susceptible to pneumonia and tuberculosis. He believed that the American idea of the half-yearly medical overhaul was undesirable.

CANADA AND PROHIBITION. OTTAWA, February 15. As the result of a Cabinet split, the Government has dropped the proposal to ban all exportations of liquor to the United States. Several leading churches have been demanding the refusal of Customs clearance to liquor-laden vessels destined, for the United States. E. D. Euler, Minister of National Revenue, adopted the attitude that Canada should not in any way aid the United States in the enforcement of prohibition.