PROHIBITION IN EXCELSIS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 5, 7 January 1908, Page 3

PROHIBITION IN EXCELSIS.

The Finnish. Parliament has passed .one of the most extraordinary of licensing measures. Based on a Bill originally drafted by a temperance .society, it amounts, says the fielsingfors correspondent of The Times, to a total prohibition of all traffic in spirits, beer, and wines. Only for medical and technical /purposes may spirits be priaduced as a State monopoly. The enactment actually forbids the use of wine in the sacrament; some non-alcoholic beverage must be substituted. One member —not a woman, to the credit of her sex—said he could not see why churches should be the -only taverns left in the country. No •.one may keep liquor in his house, un-less-he can prove that it came into his posession before the law was passed; the police may at any moment search, a house on "reasonable grounds of suspicion; and the penalties- for breaches of the law range from a fine of £4 up. to penal servitude for three years. No provision is made for compensation ,to those engaged in the trade, but there are "vague hints of the possibility of future legislation on this point. The Diet, it may be stated, is elected on universal adult suffrage, and nineteen of its members are women. "Opponents of the total prohibition principle pointed in vain-to-the grave-dangers attending such a drastic measure, as, for instance the revival of the now practically extinct smuggling trade, the inquisitorial powers conferred on the police, and the general contempt for the law which they fear will result from an enactment not wholly supported by the community." The attitude of the supporters of the measure was indicated by the words of one of the nineteen women, that m dealing with a social question, of such vital importance, it was quite time "to leave reason" aside and let sentiment prevail!" Sentiment prevailed so much that the Czar is unlikely to sanction the measure, which, besides leing tyrannical, probably conflicts with the rights of other nations under treaties. The Times remarks editorially that "in its theoretical aspect as a manifestation of the extreme democratic spirit in a single Chamber, in its contempt for freedom, its worship of sentiment, and its negation of reason, the action of the Finnish Diet is not without a wide and ominous significance."—Press.