BREAD OR BEER.

White Ribbon, Volume 21, Issue 249, 18 March 1916, Page 6

BREAD OR BEER.

Mr Alfred Hooth, Chairman of the Cunard Steamship Company, lately made a speech at Liverpool, in which he said:—“The most glaring example of a form of consumption which we could perfectly well dispense with is the drink traffic. I am not thinking now of the temperance side of the question. Important though that is. we have got far beyond that now. 1 am thinking of the demand which the Lade makes upon the services of our ships, our railways, and carts, and of our labour. Thirty thousand tons a week of barley and other produce are brought into this country lor the brewing and distilling trades! Thi ik of the demand whic h this means on the depleted resources of our mercantile marine. Then all this stuff, together with the larger quantity which is grown at home, has to be carted and hauled by rail to the brewery or distillery. Then it has to be brought back again and distributed to the consumer In addition to this, six thousand miners are kept permanently employed getting coal, and thirty-six thousand tons of eoal have to be sent every week to these breweries and distilleries. Taken in the aggregate, the services absorbed by this trade aie

on a gigantic scale, and the net result of it all is a decrease in national efficiency. 1 say in all seriousness that, if we are to maintain our armies in the held, we shall before long have to choose between bread and beer.