Correspondence.

White Ribbon, Volume 21, Issue 243, 18 September 1915, Page 6

Correspondence.

(The Editor is not responsible for opinions expressed by correspondents.) (To the Editor.) Madam, —From a foreigner’s point of view the English people have always appeared to be a mad race, and one cannot wonder th.it we should be called insane by the onlookers. it is the onlooker who sees most of the game. Take the present position at Home. England is lighting tor the security of her position as the ruling nation or the world, and for her very existence as a free and self-ruling nation. Thousands of her men are being slain in the struggle by the German War Lords, and yet in the very midst of her people is tolerated a more deadly enemy, who is slaying thousands more. Nine million lives are lost every year, directly and indirectly, by the drink traffic. The greatest men of our nation, from the King down, have said and acknowledged that intoxicating drink will throttle England if England does not throttle the drink traffic.

Who is ruling England during this crisis? The Government and Militarv authorities? No! England is being ruled by the Drink Lords, who have pooled their immense wealth and joined hands with others to frustrate anv scheme of the (iovernment to increase the efficiency of her soldiers by doing away with the temptation to drink. The Drink Lords’ profits must not decrease, though England perish. The people of New Zealand have said again and again, “We will not have *he drink traffic,” and the Drink Lordl h.tvr >.tid '*loll -hall'" And we have it. It is still here. And these men sit on our public bodies, and these questions must not be discussed for fear of anftoving them. The military authorities say our men must be absolutely efficient, and therefore they must not have alcohol. The hotel-keepers are still selling it to them, and we see some of our men who are to defend the Empire in an intoxicated condition about our streets. Our Government has placed lessons in the schools, teaching the children that alcohol is a narcotic poison, and is to be classed with chloroform, strychnine, and opium, and then the same (iovernment issues licenses to men to sen this poison to anyone who w ishes to buy it. If the men who sell this poison were Russian citizens they would be court martialled and treated as traitors to their country. If they were Chinese thev would be beheaded. Russia has dealt with that enemy at one blow. France has taken the first opportunity of enforcing on the people what she has been teaching for so long. America is busy cleaning .up the awful mess the traffic has

made. Other countries are experimenting in various ways to rid themselves of the traffic. It remains for the English people—a Christian people— to protect their greatest enemy, to shout themselves hoarse over the generosity of the Drink Lords. It is seen how little some of those in authority understand the nature of alcohol when Mr Allen thinks it necessary in strengthening our men to resist temptation in foreign lands, to give them an opportunity to form a habit that destroys the brain and willpower, before they leave New Zealand. Is it not enough to ask of the women of New Zealand to give their sons to protect the nation, and that after months of anxictv thev should be returned to them crippled for life, but that they should have the added burden of receiving them in a drunken condition ?

Madam. I protest that no punishment is too severe for the man who tempts a wounded man to drink alcohol. The civilised world was horrified to read that the Germans had poisoned the drinking wells in Africa What <an we think of a Government who allows this alcohol poison to be given to its own soldiers? Truly .he English are a great nation. They should rule the world ! They cannot rule their own people. And they should sing that grand old li*. “Britains never shall be slaves.” They are already slaves to the Drink Lords, and they are licking the feet of their masters. Women of New Zealand, will nothing make you think but a national disaster? Will you wait till vou see your daughters violated by (ierman soldiers, your little children flogged bv German soldiers for praying in their own language, your sons shot in the streets for not walking in the gutter, that a German soldier may have the whole of the pavemeni : vour husbands having to cringe before German officials for the permission to earn a living? You may have time then to curse the strong drink that helped to lay England’s might in the dust. Insist on the bars being closed during the war. That is the least we should ask for at this time, and be readv to do your best to help in any fight that may be waged against the greatest of England’s foes—the Drink Lords. —I am, etc., PR ISC A CRABB. (To the Editor.) Madam, —Can you inform me why girls have not been permitted to sit for the Junior Civil Service examination for the past two years ? I he.tr the girls are not allowed to enter for this examination this year, which will make the third year that thev have been prevented from entering for it. 1 consider this is very unjust.—Yours faithfully, A MOTHER. (Our correspondent is quite right. It is cruelly unjust to our girls to debar them from entering the Civil

Service, for this is practically what it amounts to. Both boys and girls should be allowed to sit for the examination, and cadets should be chosen by merit, irrespective of sex. *W hv don’t the mothers of this Dominion stir up their representatives in the House to get justice done to their daughters? Mothers have the vote. Vote only for the man who will v ork to remove this injustice.— Ed. ‘/W.R.”) (To the Editor.) Madam, —Our Napier Union wishes to dr.iW the attention of the readers of “White Ribbon” that a mistake has been published ir Miss Gibsen’s letter re Miss Parkinson’s case. No str< ng movement i> on foot in Napier, lust the petition being signed, and tlv Union passed a unanimous resolution “That no steps be taken in the natter Yours sincerely, MAUDE FOSSEY, President. Napier, Sept, i, 1915.