The Star. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1919. LIQUOR IN ENGLAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12754, 25 September 1919, Page 6

The Star. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1919. LIQUOR IN ENGLAND.

The cable informs us that a new Bill has been drafted for England and Wales, one of the clauses of which provides that the hours of sale shall bo twelve as compared with seventeen before the war, the hours being adjusted to the varying needs of the different areas. This is somewhat vague, but it may mean that in certain areas liquor may be sold from, say, seven in the morning until noon, and from five till midnight, or in a variety of other hours most suitable for customers. *ln the Dominion, it may be remarked, the hours are from 9 a.m. till 6 p.m., or nine hours in all, and although this curtailment of pre-war hours was resented at tho outset, the patrons of the bars have become so used to the system that it is exceedingly doubtful if they would support a reversion to the old order of things. In connection with the liquor question in England it is not generally known that at the beginning of the present month representatives of the American Anti-saloon League, which was largely, if not wholly, responsible for bringing about prohibition in the United States, were preparing for a big campaign to endeavour to swing England into line, joining forces with the temperance party in England. At the head of the American contingent is Mr William E. Johnson, referred to by the “ Daily Mail” as tho “Field-Marshal of the Prohibition Forces of North America,” hut known in his own country as “Pussy-foot ” Johnson. He is described on “ a stout, heavy-featured, bespectacled man with the gentlest, almost inaudible, pleasantly modulated voice.” He first made Oklahoma “dry”—it took him ten years—then Kansas, then, largely, the United States, ap4 now he intends to do his utmost to make England “ dry.” He and his colleagues frankly admit the difficulties ahead, owing to the hostility of moderate drinkers, and the lack of sympathy of a large proportion of churchmen, hut they intend to persevere in the campaign for at least six months. When interviewed on the coming campaign against liquor Lord D’Ahem on, chairman of tho Central Liquor Control Board, expressed the opinion that it raised the alternative of control or prohibition, but he believed that the “immense commonsense of the public” would save the country from prohibition. In the United States, where prohibition rules, one of the results of the new order of things, according to a New York correspondent writing to an Australian paper, “has been- the official organisation by the police of a special service bureau, composed of thousands of civilian volunteers sworn in to spy upon violators of the Federal law against alcohol. It is expected to be a real secret police, the members of which will hide their identity. 4 In New York alone Special Police Commissioner Shaw, who is a broker by trade, expects to enrol 7000 spies and spotters, including men who have entry to New York’s best clubs. These new agents will not make arrests—they will merely report to headquarters about their neighbours.” This sort of proceeding, one is inclined to think, is calculated to make the people of those countries which enjoy liberty of action —even if it is not the fullest liberty—in the matter of partaking of alcoholic refreshments, fight tooth and nail against the institution of prohibitive laws.