LIEUTENANT-COL FYFFE AND THE SOLDIERS' RUM RATION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3131, 9 July 1917, Page 6

LIEUTENANT-COL FYFFE AND THE SOLDIERS' RUM RATION

Sir,—Lieutenant-Colonel W. K. Fyffo raised the subject of the soldiers' ruin ration in the Synod and made some assertions which, coming from ft member of the medical profession, would iiot stand much investigation. Does the doctor know that some of the foremost medical men in Britain to-day condemn alcohol in every case? Is the rum ration necessary or a good thing? I hopo the doctor is not basing his arguments on the statements' of Sir George Cave, British Home Secretary. If he does, then he is opposed to both science apd experience. Alcohol is the worst possible stimulant to employ when men are at their lowest vitality, before break of day, when Uio damp chill is penetrating every fibre of the body. Will the doctor explain why alcohol is forbidden to men engagod in Arctic and Antarctic expeditions? What a man needs «a a stimulant in these moments of lowered vitality 16 something very different from alcohol. He needs real heat, not imaginary heat, and food, not narcotic drugs—hot milk, or coffee and milk, or hot pea soup. This is what the soldier should get, and he could get it if only our military authorities, would ■ learn the lessons of science Mid use the resources of science. Why should a soldier be in a worst position than an Arctic explorer or an Alpino climber? Why should he be put off with mischievous out-of-date narcotics which modern science absolutely forbids? Sir. the ration of rum which the doctor talks about i? beside the issue altogether. We have been lectured from the Throne down to practice economy, and if men will be 60 ■selfish these times as not to see the abU6e of strong drink in time of war, then it is the duty of the State to compel them to see these things, in spite of all the doctor prates about the liberty of the etibject and the curse of Prohibition. What had the doctor to wy about the restriction on the opium habit? Does that not interfere with the liberty of the sub-ject?-rain, m _ July 8, 1917.