"OUR DEADLIEST ENEMY."

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 278, 25 May 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

"OUR DEADLIEST ENEMY."

.*» "There is a familiar phrase that rings out nightly in a hundred thousand taprooms ill this country—"Time, gentlemen!' It means that the time has eome to put our drink away, to put awav this source of weakness, and £0 to sleep and seek new strength. We are well in the third year of the war, and the hour has eome when a nation, burning with shame, is saying to the Government, 'Time, gentlemen! It 13 time to put away this thing and seek new strength.' " In these striking wards Mr. Arthur Mee commences ;. vigorous oiticle, published on the eve of the great offensive, in denunciation of Britain's greatest enemy—the drink traffic. Sir Douglas Haig is confident. He knows the sources of his power, ha knows the men about him and behind him. Out there they are impregnable. thsy know what courage is in France. The past is past, with all its heroism and all its errors; its tragedies and glories have their place in history. Let it go. Let us assume that we have dino our best, and matched our men in matchless sacrifice. But having done this, the question remain?, How do we stand at this hour? "We stand," savs Arthur Mee, "in need of strength for the greatest trial a nat'on ever had to face. We shall pay for it in the lives of men beyond all counting, but wo shall win a mighty victory for freedom. Out there will 'e nothing of shame; there will be no stain across that shining page; but wo at home, the second army 111 th<s fignt—are we worthy of those who endure in the shadow < f death:" In answer to this question, the writer frames a terrible ndictment. He savs:—

History will thin'i us mad, but wc are supposed to !)0 sane, and in our sanity wo in these islands, imperilled by submarines and threatened with lack of food, allow our brewers to destroy the food supply of the entire United Kingdom cue day every fortnight. I have drawn up in the new edition of ''Defeat or Victory?"' which is published this week, a calendar that our brewers will find bandy. It shows the days on whicli they aro permitted to destroy the food supply of 46,000,U00 people who aro short of things to cat. It is abundantly imder the mark, but wo may take it as i* stands; and it shows that every 12th day these food destroyers are allowed to throw away the very source cf life of a nation fighting for existence. If we take tho whole war, the drinK trade has destroyed food that would have kept the nation"nearly half a year; ?, splendid cupboard full of food that would have been for our Food Contrj'ler. We should havo had food to last the United Kingdom while Admiral Jcliicoe prepares the proper welcome for these new devilries. But we have not kept tins food; we have thrown it away. Wo have turned it mostly into poison, and used it to consume our strength. But let us keep to our calendar. It shows that all through tho early war, while tins food peril loomed on our horizon, the drink trade destroyed our food supply for one day ev?ry week, and that even now with tho crisis hard upon us, it destroys our food one day Hi twelve. On All Fools' Day we are to cut clown its destruction to one day in 18. There is wisdom in tho choice of dates; it is fitting that wo cut down our folly on April Ist, and wo have cut down our Fools' Days from r>o a year, first t > 36 and then to 24. But why should wc be fools at all? It is timo wo closed the gap in our defences, tuno we developed all our strength and saved our energies; time wo were ashamed of destroying bread while children want for it, of wasting sugar while wounded soldiers have such need for it. It is time wo knew that every atom of this sugar that our brewers destroy can be used as food. Tho destructon of food is criminal at any tune; ft is tho act of a traitor now. Ho who destroys our food lights not for Britain, but against her. Mr lite anticipated the Government's ani'ouncemcnt about the sacrifice of everything for sheer necessities. He invited the Prime Minister 'o '•'look around before he speaks,"' and lie told him what he must have already known, v'z., that "drink is wasting all those things that are most vital now to our existence." Concerning four < t th.se essentials, ho says :

Think of tonnage. Saving food is saving tonnage, says the Prime Minis* tor, and tonnage is life and death {o us now. Then why have wo wasted 2(X) million cubic feet of shipping on drink, and why, with docks and warehouse.-) filled to overflowing, packed with rum as they have never been 30 years, packed with so much rum that it can never be drunk till 1920, why, with a state of things like this, aro shins now on the sea bringing rum to England for 1921? Think of railways. W'c aro not to travel if we can help it: we must pay dearly if we do. We have wakened up a little late, says the Prime .Minister, to dis- over that, railways are a great military machine, and France has need of our engines and wagons. But, t tint i-- so, why are there on our railways hundreds of drink trains every W-H'S? Why has this drink trade been allr.veu to use a hundred thousand tr.iius since the war began, each weighing 200 tons. Think of money power; think of this pleading with our people lo save tneir pennies and their pounds, and remember that during the war we have spent tM-Vj,1100,000 on drink, and as much again on controlling its results, so that, liiid we followed Russia with Prohibition at the beginning of the war, wo could have saved for the War Loan 100(1 niillon pounds. Think of man-power, and remember that- Mr Lloyd George told us IS months ago that by stoppng drink we should add to our armament works alone labour ciuni to 100.000 men. It dees not in'tier what you think of, drink pulls us back :.nd destroys our powers.

Surely every loyal Briton everywhere ni'nt agree that it is time these things were true no more, time the saerifi ■:• bean at home, and time Ihe (Jovernne nt that has not feared to order men to give their lives should dare to order in.n to g've their luxuries. As MY Arthur Mr" well says, the nation waits I he order that will bring us victory, th ■ rail of the State for tin common wicril;i • i,i' ;ill ; iii tii<j-.■ wlio will not ri e m voluntary si'-rliice, who will not give up thi!r luxuries for victory, i he time has come for the Stale t.) say that llbcrh' is ,i,l'lr sacred tTinii luxury, lint, broad is more sacred than Ik-it, and that .11' wdl no! have our liberties, threatened

aed our food imperilled for the satisf.et'on of an iippetite that can well wait 11 be appeasi d ill happier ilavs.