Evening star., 1928-11-18
Will England Forsake Rum?


public houses" he concluded, "are the
twin curses of civilization"
Then Lord Birkenhead, eX-lord chan
cellor and now secretary OF state for
India. massive, sardonic, with the love
of champagne, old brandy and fine
cigars etched deeply on heavy brood
ing face, heaved up. He scarcely
thought the noble lord contributes very
much by giving us nlrid sidelight
upon what after all must be only an
episode in his life" And ne wondered
nunciation of pubs, had never pointed
tc tae CT of Multiplication Of clubs.
Are Political Strongholds.
The noble lord was crushed. The
chamber threw out the bill by 81 votes
to "a. There was no answer to Lord
Blrkenhead'S taunt. How could there
be? The clubs are the chief political
strongholds of the kingdom A politi-
clan who denounced theIn would be
taking his political life in his hands.
And no politician, at least in this Par
lament, cares to do that.
Bills for the reform of the public
house, for the state purchase of the
liquor trade, for revolution in saloon
control and management, for local op-
ton, for prohibition, for direct state
management of saloons keer cropping
up. They all get thrown cut on one
excuse or the other.
They might have a better chance II
the drys were as solid as the vets. But
the drys suffer from lack of unity
| They quarrel among themselves. The
1anatlcS refuse to work with anybody
who will not come out boldly for imme-
| d1ate abstinence for the individual anc
prohibition for the state. The local
option crowds are at loggerheads with
the state purchasers.
| The aStute vets joyfully drive wedges
between the rival factions and run or
ganizations which disseminate drinI
propaganda under the headings of "trut
temperance" freedom" reform" anc
other moving words calculated to dope
the reasoning faculties of the crowd.
TheSe methods of warfare are formid
able and effective--which is less sur
prising when one knows that they were
devised by no less an expert than thu
wartime chief of the Navy secret serv
ice, Admiral Sir Reginald Hall.
Brains Are Employed.
1t was fear of the dry wave sweepiny
eastward across the Atlantic which in
duced the liquor interest after the wa
to capture the best brains in sight tt
direct the counter attack. Admiral Hal
had business talk with the head of tn
biggest brewing firm and retired from
the post of director of naval intelli
gence to a seat on the board of Barclay
brewery and got elected to Parliament
He proceeded to revolutionize anti-dr,
propaganda by applying smoke Screel
tactics to 1t. There arose the Fellowship
OF Freedom and Reform, with the adj
miral as first president. The Fellowshi,
passed as temperance organization
and got support and subscriptions il
that guise. Actually it fought the vets
battles behind the scenes and sent paiS
speakers out to attack any parliamentar,
candidate suspected of dry sympathies
A more serious aspect of this new ag
| reSs1Ve-defenSive war is the deliberat
policy OF stirring up prejudice agains
America, the idea being that If tn
crowd can be got to hate America it will
by the simple process of the relation o
ideas, hate prohibition also.
Thus one finds Admiral Hall at
board meeting of the Barclay-Perxin
brewing firm declaring that America
going to Versailles after the war ant
recommending the League of Nations
furnished an example of its dictation t,
Europe. They practically forced it (th
! Continued on Fourth Page.)