LLOYD GEORGE'S CONVERSION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 3, 28 September 1918, Page 8

LLOYD GEORGE'S CONVERSION

Sir, —It is a great pleasure to me to read Mr. W. S. Rolliugs's statement in Thk Dominion concerning Mr. Lloyd George. Ho puts forward certain challenges, which I -will deal with. Mr. Lloyd George has not abandoned temperance reform through State purchase. His conversion from being a rabid Prohibitionist to State purchase and control is complete. He has not repented of his advocacy of State purchase, and it was ho who instituted the Central Hoard of Control, and in Carlisle alone four breweries and one hundred and four public houses aro being run by the State, showing a profit of 15 per cent., after paying the general and liquor taxation. Russia r The Honourable J. .11. Clynes, speaking in the House of Commons ou March 12, 1918, said this: "The prohibition of vodka in Russia has failed to strengthen that country cither militarily or morally, in fact it is possible that this prohibition accounted for the discontent in Russia, and finally produced the revolution." That statement is from a. Minister of the Crown, speaking with all tho responsibility of his position m the liouso of Commons, and we in New Zealand know enough to be ablo to say that the enormities which followed Prohibition in Russia aro too appalling to contemplate. Mr. Robert Wilton, who has been sixteen years Russian correspondent for the London "Times," attributes the revolution in Russia to Prohibition, which was' the result of reactionary intrigue, the emanation of the council of Rasputinism, that was not without German prompting. I could say a great deal moro upon this question', but space forbids. I hope to have another opportunity of enlightening the dark places of the Prohibition mind on what Prohibition has clone for our unhappy ally, Russia.—l am, etc.,

E. KENNEDY

[Wo have consented to modify our decision closing the controversy on the liquor question in order to allow'-Mr. Kennedy 'to reply ,to. certain questions put to him by 'Mr. Rollings. Owing to pressure on our space, Mr. Kennedy's lotter has been considerably curtailed.]