New Britain herald., 1914-05-04
Three TeetOtaI Navies.
(London Daily Graphic.

How many teetotal navies are there in the world-navies from which the 'grog-tub'' has been banished, and the officers wine bill too? Probably not one person in a hundred knows
 the correct answer to this little ques-
 tion, which is made interesting by the
 recent announcement that all United
 States bluejackets and naval officers
 are henceforth to be total abstainers.
 If the United States navy be included, the actual number of teetotal navies
 in the, world is three; the other two
 are the fleets of Russia and Japan.
 And in few years time the Brit
 ish navy may make the fourth. Any
 Englishman who hazarded such a prophecy thirty years ago would have
 been asking for trouble, but the inn
 mense progress of temperance prin-
 ciples, both in the wardroom and
 between decks, during the last decade,
 has made the prospect of a blue
 ribbon British navy anything but an
 impossibility. Indeed, there are al-
 ready two "abolitionist'' ships under
 the white ensign; neither the Niobe
 nor the Rainbow, which have been
 lent to Canada, could muster tot of
 rum between them. ,...e
 The modern tendency was striking
 ly indicated only last year by the
 first lord of the admiralty himself.
 When the teetotallers in the navy had
 at last grown to a respectable per
 centage of every ships company, the
 abstainer was not required to draw
 his tot, and opposite his name was
 placed the letter T. Last year Mr.
 Churchill reversed the plan, and
 threw the onus of drawing the grog
 upon the man who wanted it; it was
 he who was made conspicuous by the
 addition of the letter G to his name and not the abstainer, who was infer
 entially regarded as the normal mem
 Der of the ships company.
 In lieu of the grog each abstainer
 draws 9-16 of a penny per day, and efforts are being made by highly
 placed officers to persuade parliament to increase this allowance to one pen
 ny. When the suggestion was put
 forward in the house, few months
 ago. Dr. Mcnamara said the extra 7-16 pence asked for would cost the admiralty an additional f25, 900 or f3O,0OO per annum. No better proof of the advance of temperance in the | navy could be adduced, and it is only just to acknowledge that the im-
 provement is in large measure due
 to the splendid work conducted by Miss Agnes Weston.
 There is a distinct limit to the size of British naval officers wine bill; !; but that limit is not hard-and fast | one throughout the service. The amount which subordinate officers
 drink is in the absolute discretion of the captain, and once he has ex- l pressed his views upon the subject, it is not generally wise for lieutenant to demonstrate difference of opin- l ion.
 Of the army, a similar story has to 1 be told. The royal army temperance association, which has been working 1 in India for sixty years, and in this 1 country for nineteen years, has a membership at home and abroad of 1 62,0OO men. Fifty-eight thousand of l these are total abstainers, the other 4,000 being pledged to discourage ex- ] cessive drinking. That the value of 1 the associations work is appreciated
 by the government is shown by the grant of f750 which is made every
 year for the work at home, and the
 payment of eight annas a day by the oo'SA AAiii'SHl oA AiioA" AoI every Ceo- l total Tommy in it's service.
 Only last October Lieutenant-Gen- 1 eral Sir Reginald Hart, commander 1 in-chief in South Africa, prophesied that within fifty years canteens would 1 be abolished with the consent of the 1 private soldier.
 The principal obstacle in the way of the work at home stations is the 1 absence of a special room in which , the teetotal soldiers can meet. Every 1 station in Inaia is furnished With a separate clubroom and coffee bar for, 1 it's total abstaipers.