The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WELLINGTON, DECEMBER 18, 1915 RUM RATION AT THE FRONT.

White Ribbon, Volume 21, Issue 246, 18 December 1915, Page 9

The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WELLING TON, DECEMBER 18, 1915 RUM RATION AT THE FRONT.

In spite of every protest from kin*; and Kitchener, from Bishop and Army officer, from physician and social reformer; in spite of petition from wife aud mother ; in defiance of every dictate of reason, and every demand for efficiency, the rum ration still continues to be issued to our boys at the Front. A letter received from a boy at Gallipoli, a sapper, tells how, on returning from a day’s heavy toil in the trenches, he was handed out a biscuit and a tot of rum. This young man is only twenty, and left New Zealand a life abstainer. Now, we ask is it fair to these boys, is it fair to ihe mothers who have given them to their country’s service, that they should be compelled to drink rum or go without any liquid refreshment? And this in

a country where water is one of the scarcest things. Is the British Government deliberately trying to manufacture drunkards for the benefit of the brewer anti distiller? It looks very much like it. l)o :hey know that when a man is faint and weary, and physically ex hausted, then to give him rum, with its false feeling of warmth and comfort, is the best way to create an appetite and foster a craving for this deadly drug? Just as to the man in pain opium is given, that pain may be lulled, then at every return of the pain comes the craving, w ith ever-inc reusing force for the magician who can deaden that pain, so to the man faint with toil comes the false stimulant, rum, and with every return of tliefatigue comes the craving for the rum. If the British Government does not know this, in the face of modern scientific research, then its ignorance can only be described as criminal. Ihe wives and mothers of Canada, through their Prime Minister, have sent a petition of over (13,000 signatures to the Imperial Government protesting against the rum ration. Shall not the wives and mothers of At w Zealand ask our Defence Minister to request the Imperial authorities that "our boys” shall not be compelled to drink rum or nothing, but that some nourishment, such as cocoa 01 soup, shall be provided for the.n in place of ruin. That the drunkard’s appetite has been formed “at the Front” the experience of one poor mother proves. Ihe mother of a wounded soldier writes: “My boy has been wounded in the trenches, and is invalided nome. That is not the worst. He has been more sorely wounded by false friends in public-houses. He h.is not conichome sober a single night since his return, and he will not be twenty-one years of age for some months.” Why is it that rum is still given to mar the efficiency of our soldiers and to make drunkards of our young men ? Because influential men in Great Britain are making money by the sale of this nation-destroying poison, and for the salvation 01 .in 1 Empire they are not willing to forego their unholy gains. The “London Evening News” says “that eight dukes, seven marquises, fifty three earls, eighteen viscounts, seventyseven lords, 880 knights, 1000 army and navy officers, and over 1200 min is-

tens and c lergynien are shareholders in ihe liquor business. On May 10, 1905, the “Daily News” gave the following summary table of “Brewery holdings of clergjnien and ministers: Personal. Trustee. Churc h of England-

On April the iotn, 1905, the “Daily News" published the names of 96 members of the Houses of Commons and Lords who had brewery holdings. Some resirii tion of this traffic has had to be enforced, or the Empire would have gone down in utter ruin, but what shall we say of the Cabinet which cowers at the whip of the brewer and distiller, and dare not deal drastically wiih tne liquor traffic because its friends are unking money out of national disgrace? Thoughtful women, in view of the great sacrifices asked of them for the defence of the Empire, .ire beginning to ask, “Is the Empire, which cowers like a pack of whipped hounds .it the c rack of the lash, wielded by the unpatriotic brewers, worth the sacrifices it is asking for its salvation?” In other words, “Is the Empire lying unde*! the heel of the brewer worth saving.'" Mothers of New Zealand! \ c>u have votes. Ise them to s.ive your boys from the rum ration, the first step on the waj to a drunkard’s grave.

Home $50 862 Irish 74 45 Abroad 16 3 Total Roman Catholic 940 310 Home 3o 12 Irish 74 81 Churdi of Scotland 16 3 Wesleyan 5 — Congregational 2 1 Baptist 2 —