INDIA RIPE FOR PROHIBITION

White Ribbon, Volume 20, Issue 4, 1 May 1948, Page 7

INDIA RIPE FOR PROHIBITION

Addressing a meeting in London, under the -auspices of the Native Races and Liquor Traffic United Committee. Sir Alfred Watson, a distinguished writer on Indian affairs, iate editor of the “Calcutta Statesman,’’ and a resident of long , standing in the country, said that the future of the drink traffic in India it to jie decided by the Kr.aiant themselves, now that they have power to do *o. The control of the liquor traffic is in the hands of the Provincial Governments, and ‘there can be no doubt what the decision of those Provincial Governments will be. . , The drinking of today is going to oe exceedingly difficult for any Indian Government to control. ‘You may suppress it in the cities and still leave it in the villages. Fortunately, as I have said, he number of addicts is small, yet the mind of India is ripe for prohibition. There are great forces on its side . . . with the sympathy of the two major constituencies, India may yet set an example to the w-orld.” —“The International Record.” NOTE THIS Ihe real task of the temperance reformer is to eliminate the drink traffic and the drink habit rather than to engage in discussion on the relative disadvantages of different methods of selling alcohol. The supreme fallacy which attaches to the advocacy of the nationalisation of the drink trade is a belief that under State ownership it is possible, in some magical wav to de-alcoholisc alcohol. The fact remains that under whatever conditions alcohol is sold, its effects upon the individual will remain the same. The drink problem will only be satisfactorily and finally solved when drink itself has been sw-ept away from our civilisation by the action of an enlightened people. —"Union Signal.” LIQUOR IN AMERICA Doctor’s Observations The retiring president of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Karl Bow-man, claimed that American? spent 17.000.000.000 dollars anmiallv on alcoholic beverages. Disease, crime and poverty cost the nation 750.000.000 dollars a year. Tt was conservativelyestimated that there w-ere 750.000 chronic alcoholics in America Dr. Row-man recommended that 10 per cent, of the revenue from alcoholic beverages should be devoted to research into the problem of alcoholism. He said alcoholics died in eaol because societv was not vet willing to provide hospital care for them. —"New- Zealand Herald.” A LESSON LEARNED “Unlike some last war pilots, the hovs w-ill not touch a drop of alcohol before flving. Thev know- the daneer and respect it. Even the wild fighter boys

were no exception. I have known them go all the way o\er to tell their host that they were ‘on’ that night and refuse with an iron will anv attempt on his part to make them have one, even for the road. To them it would mean at the most d ath, at the least a ‘raspberry’ from the CO. But worse of all, they might injure somebody else.” —Extract from ‘‘Enemy Coa: t Ahead,” bv \\ ino Commander Guy Gibson, \ .C., D. 5.0., D.F.C.