PROHIBITION VERSOS CONTINUANCE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11961, 12 December 1919, Page 5

PROHIBITION VERSOS CONTINUANCE.

f Published by Arrangement. ] .

REASONS FOR CONTINUANCE.

MR LLOYD GEORGE AND prohibition:

On the’6th day of April. 1917, the Prime Minister received a deputation at his official residence to listen to the arguments to be advanced by earnest temperance reformers, who had accepted State purchase as a solution of the Drink problem. In the course of his reply Mr Lloyd George stated the Government's own attitude and the practical difficulties which faced them in dealing with the situation. We reprint portion of the report as published at the time in- the Daily Chronicle;— Mr Lloyd George, after explaining what the Government had * already done to chock and reduce the sale of alcohol, replied as follows It is essential to carry the people with you, and to carry them through to the end. He wanted the strong hand of the State to be there, instead of a powerful interest which had already beaten them in the pas't. If they were to win, the working classes must bo with them. I regret that in 1915, when there was a reasonable opportunity of solving the problem by something like general agreement, some temperance representatives prevented it. 1 am glad that I have not the responsibility for that failure on my conscience. The* Government will weigh the qnes tion on its merits, and will reckon the forces. It would be folly on the part of any Prime Minister to attempt, at the present time to carry through any measure, unless there were pretty general assent behind it.’’ He hoped that they would reach a judicial conclusion. Were its advocates quite certain that prohibition would improve matters ? The previous week he had received remarkable deputations from Scotland. The representatives of the working classes, through Mr Smillie and other able and influential Labour leaders, had been declared against prohibition. 'Mr Ben Turner that day presented the sSme view. He put tc him (Mr Turner); Would the Trade Union Congress pass a resolution for prohibition ? Mr Turner: An amendment for State purchase would bo moved and would be carried The president of the Trade Union Congress had sent word that ho was unable to come and advocate purchase, which he supported up to the hilt. Mr Lloyd George urged temperance reformers to take into account the opinion of Labour leaders. It would be madness, he said, for any Prime Minister in the middle of a war to put forward a proposal in direct defiance of practically the whole of oragnised Labour in this country. The only comment it seems necessary to make on the above is to recall that whatever were the Government’s intentions as to State purchase on April 6th, 1917, they went no further with them, and were convinced that the total prohibition of the manufacture and consumption of alcoholic liquors was not a policy that would be accepted either by the workers dr their leaders.