RUM FOR THE TROOPS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 285, 30 November 1914, Page 8

RUM FOR THE TROOPS.

In view ul the use that those earliest but misguided people the i’roliioitionists have been malting of .Lord Kitchener as an advocate of total abstinence in the Army, it will be interesting to discover what answer they are prepared to make to the news chat 1.50,000 gallons of nun is being sent to the front for the use of the troops during the winter campaign. ihe Prohibitionists have accepted Lord Kitchener as an unimpeachable authority concerning what is best lor the men. By the use of his name, and by attributing to his sentiments that he probably never uttered, they are bound to stand or fall by him. Lord Kitchener has decided that the troops ought to have rum for use during the winter campaign. He lias actually shipped 150,000 gallons of ruin to them which, as a. first instalment, works out at something like half-a-gallon per head teetotallers and drinkers alike. Having accepted Lord Kitchener as the best authority, and having asked the people to approve of Ms sentiments, are the Prohibitionists prepared to argue now that he is wrong? Ho they think that lie should have sent 150,000 of hop beer or lemonade instead of the rum ? Lord Kitchener, being a soldier, understands what ardous' campaigning means. The New Zealand Prohibitionists do not. Ho is concerned for the health of the men, and the success of our arms, and yet he sends 150,000 gallons of rum to the front! What does this mean? Does it justify the assertion of the Prohibitionists that Lord Kitchener condemned the use of liquor by soldiers, or that the war was to ho a teetotal one, or that soldiers would fight better or endure more severe hardships on tea and lemonade? We scarcely think so. It may he that Lord Kitchener has not consulted the Prohibitionists of New Zealand, and is unaware that his action is inconsistent with the sentiments they have so freely and publicly attributed to him, hut if sb the Prohibitionists must he prepared to give him credit for the best intentions. He is no feather-bed soldier, he knows what the men will he called upon to endure, and if he sends rum to the front it goes without saying that he believes rum is good for the men. Unless the Prohibitionists coincide with this opinion, they most certainly ought to cable their want of confidence in Lord Kitchener as Ccinmander.inChief. *