12 MAY 1917, Page 2

The result-to us is quite plain, and will, in -our

opinioneprove great injustice- to the shareholders, who might-noweif those •who are -trustees for their interests- acted wisely, escape with comparatively little loss. 'What in our belief will happen in - the autumn is that the -force- of circumsterices—i.e., the impossibility- of allowing any more-foodstuffs to be turned into-intoxicants—will bring about automatic Prohibition. For-such Prohibition the brewers-and dis- tillers will receive no compensation whatever. This state of things will last for at least .a year. -But when the possibilityof reopening the breweries and distilleries comes at the end of .the war, they will not, we venture to say, be opened upon the old terms, or anything in the least like them.