NATIONAL EFFICIENCY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12066, 23 July 1917, Page 6

NATIONAL EFFICIENCY.

LIQUOR TRADE INDICTED.

SHIPPING PROBLEM DISCUSSED

"This supremo struggle, in which the vory existence of our Empiro as an Empire is at stake." said tJio Rov A. T. Thompson, at St Andrew's yesterday morning, " dem.iuds the mobilisation of our maximum strength in man power, in means, in munitions, in supplies, in shipping and in moral. At every one of these elements of our resources the clrJnlT traffic lias dealt its deadly and destructive blow. It has sapped the nation of its strength for i'tr, manifold activities in this struggle-, it has slowed down the speed of her inarch towards the enemy, it has denied our men adequate equipment and supplies when face ■to faco with the enemy, it has weakened the force of our blow when struck against the enemy, it has filled untold graves of tho flower of our nation, and has robbed every home/ in Britain of one pound of food per day during the period of the war.''

Lloyd George, Mr Thompson continued, had said " we are fighting Germany. Austria and drink, but the greatest of these is drink." Strong drink was the enemy protected within tho gates. But like the repeated warnings of Lord Roberts on the unproparednoss of (heat Britain, the. repeated warnings of the drink fighters had fallen on deaf ears. But in the nation's day of visitation tho thing was revealed as the enemy of their cause and country, and be or she who could make bold to defend it was not the friend of their country or their country's cause. They stood with the enemy, no matter how loudly or how long they might sing " God Save Our King.'' During the. past fifty years in Britain alone the trade had destroyed in man power a force equivalent to the wholo of the British Army at present bearing arms. One man in every ten that marched past was stricken down with a hideous, uunamable disease, and drink wa.s its main cause. This enemy made incessant war on the food supplies of the Empire, and writing at tb 0 heginning of the year Arthur Moo and Stuart llolden bad declared that since tho war began Britain would have been better off in food supplies by three and a half million tons but for the trade in drink, and that it had stolen one pound of food from everv home in (the country for every day of the war. Labourers in essential industries wore incapacitated , enfeebled .and rendered less efficient; valuable time was lost, works were delayed, guns, shells, submarines .and ships wore held up, all because, men must have liberty to drink while their fellows proved fatal marks for Gorman shot and shell. On the, best of authority, tho nation sacrificed a tenth of its' national working capacity through the evil. Bel'ovo the North Sea. battlo the Navy wa.s .short of torpedo craft through a single cause —drink. Admiral Tudor and Admiral Jellicoe both sent urgent messages to the authorities about delavs and tho impairing of the efficiency of" tho Navy, but tho British workman went on drinking under tho protection of the authorities. The Director of Naval Equipment gave it as his conviction that total prohibition was "tho most effective, act that could be taken to win the war." Anything els P could bo prohibited by War Regulation and Order-in-Council -liberty to speak -and all the rest- but liberty to drink was maintained by law. Transports bad been held up and troops <!clayed for tho front l>ecause firemen must be free to drink ; battleships were delayed because riveters must drink; ships short of their crew must press on at reduced speed, and so became a better target for German submarines, all in the interests of tho liberty of an iniquitous trade.

Shipping space was ihe problem of tho hour within the, Empire, Mr Thompson added. It. was the crisis ol* tbel war. and it might most painfully affect tho producers of Now Zealand at no distant date, but millions of cubic feet of space, must, forsooth, be given to the carrying on of the liquor trade. Australian wheat still lay unshipped, although offered to the Home authorities. The Transport Workers' Federation appealed in the interests of national well-being to take decisive action regarding the traffic in drink, but the Government remained silent. They lacked the men, they lacked the ships, but by tlv> authority of the Government they had the hem", fvoonoiny was the gospel that the authorities preached every day, but Britain was spending CI,'fXX),OOO a day on drink, more than was spent in shells. Drink was carrying on a. continuous war against the moral strength of the Empire. Politic.il leaders who perpetuated the evil still went on appealing to the. intemperate toi exercise. temp.-ran co. Did they really expect this appeal to succeed, when they continued to supplv that which robbed their fellows of .'-elfrespect? No appeal on behalf of tho Empire could succeed when a man's respect for his wife and children wa.s gone. The liquor trade stood Ncll'-con-df.nined as the enmy of the country and the country's cause, the enemy of liberty, humanity and goodness. Ho indicted the traffic as the chief childdestroying .agency in the land, and the great hotly and soul-killing agency, of his fellow-men, and he indicted nlors and governors who sat still and did nothing when they could withhold or prohibit the destroyer. Tho Kaiser himself had said, "'The nation that will win this Avar will be the one that is the most sober." Could they not take a lesson from their chief enemy?