The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-01-08 00:00:00

TEMPERANCE in the ARMY and NAVY.

In London, on Tuesday, a meeting was held in the
Egyptian-hall of the Mansion-house, under the
auspices of the National Temperance League, to re-
ceive information as to the progress of temperance in
the Army and Navy. The Lord Mayor presided, and
there were present Admiral Sir William King Hall,
Admiral Baillie Hamilton, Sir Robert Carden, M.P.,
the Rev. Canon Fleming, Sir John Bennett, Mr.
Andrew Johnston (High Sheriff of Essex), Mr. J. E.
Saunders, the Rev. Newman Hall, the Rev. J. G.
Gregson, and many others interested in the move-
ment.

Mr. Richard Rae, the secretary of the National
Temperance League, after reading letters from
Generals Lord Chelmsford—himself a teetotaller of
long standing, and Sir Frederick Roberts, expressing
their interest in the cause and their regret at being
absent, stated that the League had for many years
devoted great attention to the promotion of tem-
perance in the Army and Navy, with an encouraging
degree of success. In regard to the Army, tem-
perance branches had been formed in a large number
of regiments, brigades, and depots, some of which were
superintended by non-commissioned officers, and it
had been estimated that there were not fewer
than 20,000 teetotal soldiers in the service. Of
these about 8,000 belonged to regiments stationed in
India, where the proportion of abstainers was higher
than at home. The membership of the Soldiers'
Total Abstinence Association in India include a 63
officers, chaplains, and surgeons. Long before the
present coffee tavern movement was commenced the
National Temperance League obtained official per-
mission from the military authorities to supply
movable refreshment and recreation tents for the
soldiers engaged in the autumn manceuvres of 1873 and
1874, which were highly successful, and the expense
of the experiments (400) was defrayed by the League.
the progress of temperance in the Royal Navy had
been not le=s cheering. When the League entered upon
the work in 1873 the number of temperance branches
on board her Majesty's ships was 24, but now every
commissioned ship in the service, with very few excen•
tions, had its own organization with registrar and
other officials, acting with the full sanction of
their commanding officers. Of the 60,000 men in the
Navy, upwards of 7,000 were registered abstainers,
and the officers' branch consisted of 158 members.
Much attention had been given to the 4,000 boys on
board her Majesty's training ships, of whom more
than one-half were pledged abstainers. "Shore "
branches had been formed at the chief foreign naval
stations, and also at the naval hospitals and barracks
in home ports.
The Rev. Canon Fleming, Chaplain to the Lord
Mayor, next addressed the meeting, stating that he
had been a total abstainer for many years, and point-
ing out that what was good for the soldier and sailor,
was also good for the civilian.
Admiral Sir William King Hall, who said that he
took the pledge 18 years ago by way of example to
the men under his command, proceeded to sketch the
progress of temperance in the Navy, in which he said
tp here were now about 10,000 abstainers, pledged and
unpledgesl. He advocated the adoption of a more
liberal scale of money allowance for provisions, saying
that while a man could only get five farthings from
the Government for his two days' allowance of rum,