A SOBER NATION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 255, 16 July 1918, Page 6

A SOBER NATION

LORD D'ABERNON PRAISES THE ; TROOPS. Speaking at the City Temple recently Lord d'Abernon said that the military i authorities now; admitted that drunkenness, as a military problem, had" ceased ' to exist. Ships were not held up in port, as they were- at the beginning of the i war, through crews being unfit from insobriety to v take them to sea. Alj _ the evidence pointed to improved public order, improved health conditions, and improved care of children and of the homo from the drink restrictions during the war. As an illustration of these reports he had received recently a statement from the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, in which Sir Edwurd Henry said in 1913 the couvictions for drunkenness in the metropolitan district amounted to 64,617, in 1914 to B/,103, while in 1917 they had fallen to 10.507. These figures related to the 700 square miles of the metropolitan police district, with its population of over 7} millions. These statistics, . however, were an eloquent tribute to the generally admirable behaviour and sobriety of the troops in our streets. "I believe," declared the speaker, "we have now reached lowwater mark, and that no measure, not even of total prohibition, would be likely to bring about any further appreciable reduction in the number of charges of drunkenness." For the maintenance of the present satisfactory condition of af- ' fairs positive and creative measures were necessary, and the attainment of real . security'lay in the. provision of altarnatives for refreshment preterablo to the old deplorable conditions. "A large number of publichouses, tho speaker added "are redundant. 1 should not hesitate to devote 20 or 25 per cent, of the revenue from the/new taxes to get rid of them. I don't care who pays for them; I want to see the country rid ° Speaking at. a great public -lemonstr.il.ioii at the City Temple recently en the subject of employer and employee alter the war, Lord Lcverhulme Bald wewould have to <ind employment for HJ million of workers who were now eiiga"ed either in the services or war work. lilverv possible effort must be made to maintain, if not increase, tho present suimlara of wages, and this could be done only by cheapening the cost ol production. ,