A WORLD-WIDE PETITION.

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 89, 28 February 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

A WORLD-WIDE PETITION.

v Petition of the World's Women's Christian Temperance Union for the Protection of the Home. — Addressed to the Goverments of the World. — Honoured Rulers, .Represented vee, and Brothers, — We, your petitioners, although belonging to the physically weaker sex, are strong of heart to love our homes, our native land, and the world's family of nations. We know that clear brains and pure hearts make honeßfc lives and happy homes, and that by these the nations prosper, and the time is brought nearer when the world shall be at peace. We know that indulgence in alcohol and opium and in other vices which disgrace our social life, make misery for all the world, and, most of all, for us and our children. We know that stimulants and opiates are sold under legal guarantees, which make the Governments partners in the. traffic by accepting as revenue a portion of the profits ; and we know, with shame, that they are often forced by treaty upon populations, either ignorant or unwilling. - We know that the law might do much, now left undone, to raise the moral tone of society, and render vice difficult. We have no power to prevent these iniquities beneath which the' whole world groans, but you have power to redeem the honor of the nations from an indefensible complicity. We, therefore, come to you with the united voices of representative women of every land, beseeching you to raise, the standard of ' the law to that of Christian morals, to. strip away the safeguards and sanctions of the. State from the drink traffic and the opium trade, and to protect our homes by the total probibition of these curses of civilisation throughout all the territory over which your governr _nt extends." ! This petition is now being circulated in Great Britain, Scandivavia, India, China, Japan, Ceylon, Australia, and Sandwich Islands. Two million names are to be secured. It is tobe the gnat polyglot petition of history, asking legal protection against the greatest curses that afflict humanity. When the full list of names has been secured, it will be presented in its completeness to all the Governments of 'the civilised world by delegations of representative women appointed for that purpose. :