WET CANTEENS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 November 1939, Page 6

WET CANTEENS

11 PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY V r RESOLUTION s REFERRED TO COMMITTEE FOR CONSIDERATION. 1 SLUR ON R.S.A. RESENTED. s (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. I The Government’s decision to allow i wet canteens at military camps was I considered by the Presbyterian Gen- ; eral Assembly today, when a resolu- ) ticn on the question framed by the Assembly’s Temperance Committee I was referred to another committee for consideration. J The convenor of the Temperance i Committee, the Rev C. J. Tocker, said , the findings of different bodies often seemed to represent the propaganda . of the liquor trade than a free expression of public opinion. He referred particularly to the attitude of the Returned Soldiers’ Association. Mr Tooker said he was not prepared to ask the Assembly to protest at what had been done, but it was in his mind to congratulate the Government on the step it had taken. He urged the Government to take similar action concerning hotels near camps and said that if “the boys" went to Alexandria or Cairo, better care would have to be taken that was the case in the last war. A motion sponsored by Mr Tocker expressed opposition on principle to the establishment of wet canteens, but recognised that the Government had done well in excluding spirituous liquors, and in reducing the alcoholic content of ale. The Rev H. J. Ryburn described the comments on the R.S.A. as an underserved slur, and, on Mr Ryburn’s motion, the resolution was referred to a committee for report.