COSTLY LAW.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 December 1925, Page 1

COSTLY LAW.

—>—cd a < PROIIIBITIOX IX F.S. CORRUPT COASTGUARDS. [Australia & X./. Cable Association.] WASH IXOTOX. Dec. |u. A group of Wet. members of both Houses who. immediately Congress was convened, introduced a barrage of Bills lor tiie modification of Prohibition, declared their action was no idle gesture, and they would demand the serious consideration of the measures throughout! the session. This is the first; time since the Prohibition l.aw has been etfeelive that such it move for modification has been co-ordinated in both Ileuses.

The Wets advocate the repeal of the Prohibition amendment or the revision • f the Volstead Enforcement Act which limits the alcoholic content to a halt per cent, to harmonise with the amendment, which merely banned intoxicating lii|iinr. ■Senator Edge, the \ew Jersey Republican, leading the Wets in Senate, -aid: "A normal person would not become intoxicated on fi.77i per cent, heel’ or light wines which my Bill provides. We are not supposed to legislate laws on uoruial people for the I eneiit of abnormal or subnormal members ol society. In jbe House of Representatives. Mr II ill introduced a measure to withdraw (lie privilege of diplomats to bring in liquor for their own use. The Treasury Department. in a statement, says that more than oneninth of the entire personnel ot Ibe Coastguard whose duties include the

suppression of smuggling, have been court-mil rt ini led in ISCJo for olfenees ranging from unauthorised absence and desertion to conniving with bootleggers. Thirty-six were convicted ol Hie latter and sentenced to a year’s hard labour. Officials claim the morale ol Hie enlisted men is unusually weak. Congress will be asked to aut-hunse an increase ot the coastguards’ personnel from !K)l»0 to 11.000 to man ion new cutters, which will have a crew ol p.ti officers and men. a speed of seventeen knots, and equipped with throe, five-inch guns, machine guns, and an anti-aircraft gun. The Navy will he asked to give the Coastguard a number ol old vessels. When the new contingent is added, the Coastguard will have .')(i lirsi-elass and lit second-class cutters, fid destroyers. ;td() launches, and several minesweepers and six aeroplanes. President Coolidge. in a Budget message. recommended the appropriation of approximately fifiJHKMMN) dollars lor increasing the Coastguard s scope. Officials state ii is impossible to stop liquor smuggling immediately. It will be nei.es-.ary to build up an organisation capable ot operating etlieiently against liquor for years to come.