BEER-DRINKING COMPETITIONS

White Ribbon, Volume 18, Issue 4, 1 May 1946, Page 3

BEER-DRINKING COMPETITIONS

A correspondent in a nearby East Coast town has sent particulars of a “beer-drinking’’ competition held in connection with a money-raising carnival for the funds of the Returned Soldiers’ Association. Press cuttings accompany the letter, and the event held in one place is thus described: “It was a contest in speed, not in capacity, and took the form of relays between teams of six men. Two teams lined up, one either side of the table, with a glass of ambrosial liquid before each man. As the first man finished, the second commenced, and so on, the first team to finish entirely winning. Thirteen teams altogether entered. Unfortunately the Dairy Company, for sonic unexplained reason, did not compete.” Our correspondent also encloses a cutting of a letter published regarding the event. In it the question is asked: “W here is our civic pride' Has it dried up completely in the recent drought? What are our civic fathers dreaming about to permit such a method of raising funds for disabled soldiers and their families (or for any other purpose) as public beer-drinking competitions? The writer is a returned soldier, and as such is positively disgusted at such a method being countenanced by the R.S.A.”

The writer goes on to state that this and similar actions o/ the R.S.A. have had the effect in his own case, and that of a much larger number than the Association realises, of causing the withdrawal of their support from the R.S.A. He adds: “We have not forgotten our stricken cobbers; we are heart and soul ir, favour of raising funds for this particular purpose, hut surely there is ample stimulus to give without including such a method as this.” When it is remembered that up and down the land. W.C.T.1l members have for many years assisted in the Poppy I )ay sales, one wonders whether we ha\e not the right to enter our protect "n behalf of those who are, like the abo\c correspondent, keenly interested and anxious to help those who ha\e suffered for their country in the two wars, but who feel that they cannot condone such a proceeding by continuing to support the organisation responsible. It would seem that we ha'e a definite case to present to the Association as a whole. That the local Dairy Company did not enter a team for the spectacle is not surprising. One realises that there is some self-respect which would utterly repudiate the whole thing among its members; and one can only wonder that any decent organisation could lend its name to it. We arc grateful to the writer of the newspaper cutting, who expressed Hie feelings of many of his fellow townsmen as well as of his wartime cobbers.

In another nart of the paper sent is an advertisement for a similar competition, which was held later.