Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1903-03-21
METHUEN ON TEMPERANCE.
Tells of the Value of Royal Temper
Rnce Association in the Brit
ish Army.


The value of the Royal Army Tenn
Perance association of the British
army is we'll set forth in a recent ad-
dress delivered at Bristol, England.
by Gen. Lord Methuen. He said when
first the Army Temperance associa-
ton was started he had the honor and
pleasure of being asked to serve upon
its council, spS he thought it was only
right of him, 40 one of the council, to
let a large assemblage like that know
what progress temperance had made
In the army. They had as council
to go on the lines that Lord Roberts
had started in India for temperance.
Lord Roberts had not only spoken in
favor of Temperance, but he had taken
thoroughly practical interest in it.
AS time went on Lord Roberts became
commander in chief; in the course of
things he became president of their
council, and on that council they had
the chaplain general and other gem
erals, and last, but not least, a number
Of very good and earnest officers, whose
example in every day life amongst
their comrades, he would undertake
TO say, did as much as the work of any
one member of the council. With re-
gard to the details of temperance in
the army, they had 10000 total alb
stainers IL the army. They paid 4d.
month and the amount that they got
from that came to rather over $40, 900
year. Government had given them
$3.50 annual grant, and they also al
low them, wherever possible, a tenn
perance room in the barracks. At
their last annual meeting they asked
that, If possible, they should be able
to find funds in order to give them one
room in each of the,barracks that were
built. Their secretary, with an activ-
ity which did credit to the exhilarat-
ing force of non-alcoholic drinks, went
to the cape and succeeded in raising
$1,000, and, while remaining there
seven months, he succeeded in forming
so branches of the society. What did
he, as soldier, think temperance did
for him? Well, it did for the army
what it did for all civilians-it saved
prison, 40 ga v5Ji the nov litt5,ii, IL
1T economical. On service, too, it gave
him man far more reliable than the
man who would be soaked in drink.
Temperance saved his wastage; that is
to say, he did not have so many men
leaving the front for hospital or prison,
and he told them what it also did
that whatever country they fought in,
the civilians in that province would not
suffer the terrible cruelties and hor-
rors that accompanied wars in times
past, and which were often attribut-
able to an army soaked in drink Then,
If he looked at temperance from the
smallest point of view, he said that
as soldier it was the finest means he
knew towards the end-that end be-
ing to make a reliable and intelligent
man. But if he looked at it from a far
nobler point Of view, he recollected.
surely, that the civilians sent to them
many thousand lads every year, and
surely as they sent their lads to school,
and expected to get them back morally.
mentally and physically fitterat the end
of their school time than when they
went there so surely he to whom they
gave the care Of their lads from that
city was bound to return them those
Lads as men with a finer mental and
physical and moral equipment than
when they came to him. He considered
it reflection on the army if any man
were to come back to his home after
leaving them, having Joined the army
with pure thoughts, and be able TO saw
to his people, "All my coarse and inn
pure mind l gained from contact with
my comrades in the army"