EMPHATIC DENIAL

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12195, 21 July 1925, Page 4

EMPHATIC DENIAL

AMERICAN SAILORS AND LIQUOR „ MR O. M. LUKE EXPLAINS. Per Press Association. ■ AUCKLAND, July 20. “Evidently the liquor trade is in a very highly nervous condition when it is so alarmed by the cabled statement that I waited on Admiral Coontz while in Honolulu in the interests of prohibition,” said Mr C. M. Luke, of Wellington to-day on arrival by the Niagara. Mr Luke gave a very emphatic denial to the suggestion that he had ■endeavoured to influence Admiral Coontz in tho matter of possible drinking among tbe men when the Fleet is in New Zealand waters. “I desire to say,” stated Mr Luke, “that I, with a delegation from the Y.M.C.A., waited on Admiral Coontz at Honolulu, in connection with the entertainment of the men when they arrive in New Zealand, and incidentally onlv was reference made to the men of the Fleet who had landed at Honolulu in batches of from 8000 to 10,000 daily. I remarked upon the sobriety of the men as I had not seen .one drunken man ashore. I asked Admiral Coontz if he had any fear as to consequences when the men arrived in wet countries, and he answered that he had not. He said he relied on his men when visiting wet countries to maintain the same high conduct that had marked them in all instances.