MR. FLETCHER ON PROHIBITION

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4898, 2 November 1925, Page 2

MR. FLETCHER ON PROHIBITION

iLTo the Editor}. Si r> —No one can dispute the fact that the Rev. Lionel Fletcher is an orator, but at the same* time he is very far from being a deep thinker. During the course of his lecture on Thursday night, while dealing with the liquor question he stated, that the British Government allowed the English people to starve during the war by curtailing their sugar and othi?r articles or diet, and at ,the same time allowed the sale of sugar in large quantities to the brewers for Che manufacture of beer or stout. Now, as every schoolboy knows, although sugar is a necessary article of diet — for without -its use certain food or • drink, such as tea, coffee, cocoa,’ and jam, would be unpalatable to some people, .while others again cpukl. use such articles without it —in no case hats it been recorded were anyone died from starvation by being deprived of the use of sugar. As, I have already •stated sugar is a necessary article of diet. It it both suitable to the palate and has a tendency to create bone and muscle, either when used in, the form of liquid or in a solidfied substance with other ingredients. The same may be said when it is, used in the manufacture of ale or stout. The (substances used in these articles are also strengthening because they are the extracts of one or more of wheat, oats, barley, rye, or other cereals, and when boiled to a liquid form 'they arc just as, strengthening as a bow) of soup made from a shin of beef. As famine and pestilence always attend at war, therefore the British Government could hardly be blamed for rationing its subjects, l>ot|h storekeeper and brewer a like, because, after all, a spoonful or .two of tsugnr in a bottle of ale or stout would enable a person to live longer than n similar quantity in a cup of Lea. Such being the case, I would w»y with SI. Paul in his Epistle to Timothy, “Do not still drink water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thy frequent infirml'tles." M. QUANE.