THE EARLY-CLOSING PROBLEM.

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 818, 3 March 1916, Page 8

THE EARLY-CLOSING PROBLEM.

And No Wet Canteens. MEi. Allen says distinctly that he will not agree to wet canteens at the camps. But the Minister for Defence is not the only member of the Ministry, and it may be that a.majority of his colleagues do not share his views on the liquor question. Mr. Allen seems, on the other hand, to favour six o'clock closing of the hotels. Surely this dual attitude savours, of inconsistency, and a curious ignoring of the facts of the case. For our own part, despite everything that was said at the meeting held last week, we fail to see any necessity for the general public, especially. in a city such as Wellington, where there is always such a large number of travellers passing to and fro from other centres, to be subjected to the inconvenience of not being able to procure alcoholic refreshment after six p.m. More especially as so few cases of serious abuse of liquor by the soldiers have been reported. ■» # *• Arid if the soldiers do abuse liquor, what are the military police doing? What are they paid for? It seems to us that if the military police carried out their duties with a little more energy and common sense they could stop even what slight abuse of liquor does go on. . Let them make their rounds of the hotel bars with reasonable frequency and warn any young fellow who shows signs that he has had enough drink to go quietly away. We feel sure the original intention of the Defence authorities in appointing the military police was not so much to arrest drunken soldiers as to prevent the men from getting drunk. •» * •» We are convinced that it would be a very wise thing to introduce the wet canteen system. Could the soldier but get a couple of pmts or even a couple of quarts of good wholesome ale a day out at the camp he would not, when he came into the city, be so apt to make" a bee-line for the nearest pub there, very often to drink something much more potent than a light and refreshing beer. It's no use our Minister for Defence thinking 'he can treat New Zealand soldiers as a lot of molly-ooddles. The great majority of them have been used to taking a modest social glass, and it is far better to recognise this fact and act accordingly than to do as Mr. Allen wants to do, that is, deny them a reasonable supply of good liquor at a wet canteen, and then let them go into town to fmd the bars closed at six o clock. The inevitable result of this partial will be to encourage a_ certain section of the men—the wilder, more irresponsible spirits—to rush the bars between five and six and "get in a. good soak" as one eorrespond-

ent has put it before closing time. It would bring about still greater evils by driving the traffic into disreputable resorts where the liquor would be vile and the results deplorable. * * * * All who desire to see our soldiers avoid the abuse of liquor when in town should agitate for the sale of a pure wholesome and, above all, a light class of ale at a wet canteen at .the camp. To penalise the whol© community because a few cases occur where the soldiers abuse liquor is mere midsummer madness, and may, in the long run, defeat the very objects the well-meaning reformers have in view.