The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WELLINGTON, AUG. 19, 1918.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 278, 19 August 1918, Page 9

The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WELLINGTON, AUG. 19, 1918.

The Temperance forces are mustered, drilled and ready for a grand advance all along the line. We have started upon the last battle in the long campaign against the Licensed Liquor Trade. There will be two distinct stages of this light. 1 he first stage is the Petition, the second stage the Poll. Kre this reaches our readers they will already have received Petition Forms. This Petition is one praying Government to grant a Referendum upon the question of National Prohibition. This Petition must speak with no uncertain sound. It must b" the largest petition ever presented to Parliament. It must contain so many signatures that it will compel the Government to recognise the fact that the people of this Dominion demand a Referend nn, and will insist upon having one. This demand is a »eas >nabl/' one. In view of the condemnation pro-

nounced upon this trade by Statesmen, Admirals, Generals, Medical Experts, Business Men, and Social Reformers, surely it is a fair thing to ask th.it the people be allowed to express an opinion, at the ballot-box, as to whether this enemx within the gates shall be outlawed and banished; whether this foe to national etficiencx shall be allowed to continue its deadly work. General Joffre says: “Alcohol, b> diminishing the moral and material strength of the Army, is a crime against national defence in the face of the enemy.” Colonel Nicholson, of l .S.A., says “A soldier who geti drunk is only 40 percent, efficient, and this country is not looking for men xxho are so loxx in efficiency.” In this Dominion an Efficient}' Board, consisting of three keen and capable business men, was set up bx the Government. After taking evidence from lpeople of all shades of opinion, it expressed its conviction that for the sake of national efficiency the Liquor Trade should he closed down, that the importation, manufacture, and sale of intoxicating liquors should he prohibited. Their recommendation also allowed a reasonable compensation to the Trade, whi'h they estimate x\ ill not he more than 4! millions. The N.Z. Alliance and the W.C.T.U. have always held, and still maintain, that the I iquor Trade has neither legal nor moral right to < »>mpensation. But hard facts have to he faced, and the hardest fact of all is this, that if we could get an election before the end of this year, and sourc a three-fifths majority against the Liquor Trade, then by an iniquitous law, this infamous and unpatriotic trade is allowed 4I years 10 carry on its work of ruin and destruction in direct violation of the will of the people as expressed at the ballot-box But wc are hoping and expecting to s°e our hoys home long before four years have expired. And we have resolved that they shall come back to a dry Dominion. Experience has shown how deadly is the open bar to the returned soldier. We know how wounded Canadian soldiers were driven mad by drink given in direct disobedience to medical orders, and we know how an indignant doctor said to the liquorridden authorities of England, “Don t be surprised if you lose Canada over this !” If our wounded boys, with their weakened bodies, and racked

nerves, came back to the temptations of the open bar, many of them will yield to its spell and forfeit all chances of recovery. The open bar means death to the wound ’d soldiers. Bearing in mind these fans, we say in this petition that we are willing to pax a commutation in money to ge t rid <>t the four years, and to secure immediate prohibition on a hare majority. The Liquor Trade cosis our Dominion ten millions annually to take care of the moral, mental, and physical wrecks made by the drink trade, and from a financial standpoint it will pax us handsomely to get rid ot it at the price named by the Efficiency Board. But when xve consider the cost in human life, in tears and suffering of 4 1 years extra trading, xve >ay emphatically to the Liquor Trad,*; “You are holding us up like a nighwax robber, and saying, ‘Your money or your life.’ Well, sirs, take cur money, but hands off’ our hoys and girls. “Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide In the strife with truth and ■ rror for the good or cxil side; Some great cause, God s new Messiah, offering each the* bloom or blight, Barts the goats upon the left hand, the sheep upon the* right, And the choice goes on for ever, ’twixt the darkness and the light.’ It is the age-long strife with evil; the repeatedly offered choice, “( hrist or Barrabas.” The issue is clearly defined, “Boys or Dollars?” The brewer is working to save his dollars, the mothers to save their boys. Who is to xvin." One word of caution to our workers. Don’t under-estimate the enemy. We are started ujxm the ‘tiffest bat.le of the long campaign. It must be a fight to a finish. We are not going to a warfare at our own charge Ihe battle is the Lord’s, and he wins who fights xvith God. “Careless seems the great ivenger, history pages hut record One death grapple in the darkness ’twixt false systems and the Word, Truth for ever on the scaffold, xxrong for ever on the throne, But that scaffold rules the future, and behind the dim unknown Standeth God xvith in the shadow, keeping xvatch a boxy? His oxvn.”