THE ALLIANCE BREAKS ITS SILENCE

NZ Truth, Issue 755, 6 December 1919, Page 6

THE ALLIANCE BREAKS ITS SILENCE

A Reply to "Truth"

To the Editoi. Si r,—l am sorry that m breaking the silence of the Alliance," which was given you such deep concern, I am compelled to charge "Truth" with having forgotten its own name. I Your statement that the United Kingdom Alliance "is a spent force, and has abandoned," what you are pleased to call "the utterly futile and Vicious policy of Prohibition for the ' more rational policy of State Purchase ' and State Control," is so contrary to ' fact that I am surprised that an editor or even your remarkable courage would be prepared to make it. Sir Thomas Wlhittaker, who has often been quoted by "The Trade " and I think by yourself, as having abandoned Prohibition for State Purchase, made it perfectly clear that this was the very opposite of the truth. He said: j When it is said that State Pur- ' ! chase is put forward as an alternative to Prohibition, and that the issue is Prohibition versus State Purchase, the whole position is misunderstood and misrepresented. There is no such antagonism as is suggested. On the contrary, some of the greatest 'supporters of State Purchase are Prohibitionists. It is said that if the State purchased the Trade, the financial interests it would have m continuing it and deriving the largest revenue from it, would prevent Parliament and the nation from enacting further alterations, and would effectually bar the way to Prohibition. If I thought that would be the result I would not support the proposal for a single instant. This is typical of a great bulk of the Prohibition people m the United Kingdom. There are others like > Rowntree and Sherwell, who abandoned Prohibition many years ago. The simple fact however, is that State Purchase and Control m Great Britain is as dead as Julius Caesar. Lloyd George has abandoned it and it is matter of common knowledge that nothing is being done by the Government m this direction. What do you ;. say to the following from the author f of State Purchase and Control m Carlisle, Lord D'Abernon himself: — I have no desire to-day to draw any general conclusion respecting the advisability of nationalisation or general State Purchase. The question is a very vast one, and the financial responsibility involved enormous. Moreover, this question does not stand where it did. The example of the U.S.A. and of Canada, where the drink trade has been suppressed without compensation, cannot be without its effect on public opinion m this country. When action of this kind has been carried out by an advanced community on the other side of the Atlantic, it becomes increasingly doubtful whether public opinion m this country, m a time of severe financial pressure, would consider the payment of a sum like £500,000,000 to the trade as either sound finance or generally expedient. (Published m the "London Times," August 28.) Even you, sir, will hardly contend that what Lord D'Abernon himself is J not prepared to recommend for Great i Britain, should be adopted here where ' Prohibition is certainly possible of i achievement without any expenditure j whatever. — Yours etc., R. J. GRAY. November 25, 1919. (Published by Arrangement.)