CURSE OF DRINK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 8, 21 September 1943, Page 5

CURSE OF DRINK

NO LIQUOR, NO CRIME, NO ILLNESS

la 1885,, in his campaign to relieve General Gordon, in the Sudan, Lord Wolseley insisted on absolute j)ro* hibition of liquor throughout the Nile campaign. He said of lxis men: "The troops have been for hionths without beer or spirits, and no little army was ever more contented and no men could over behave better in camp or light."

In .1898 Lord Kitchener, in his Sudan campaign, enforced prohibit tion of liquor, and in a 15-mile des-. ert march, with manoeuvres instead of rests,, during the whole live hours, not a single man fell out of the ranks., Sir Frederick Treves, in the South African conflict said that drinkerscould be known by their falling out exhausted, as well as if they had a big "D" on their backs. Good water is plentifully available in this district; then why transport beer when shipping space is so precious. Beer creates thirst, water allaysthirst. The Downfall of France < Alcoholism 'is destroying our race. —Marshal Petain. Alcoholism has probably been more fatal to the French nation than to any other in the world. France had 32,000 drink shops; also 500,000 other places where liquor was sold. Of

150,000 persons who died annually ol tuberculosis, 135,000 were alcohol drinkers. Insanity was rife owing to peculiar strength of French alcoholic beverages such as absinthe, liquers, apertifs. The ravages of absinthe were appalling. In one district it was stated that it had cost France an anny corps.*