[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, - I cannot forbear saying
to you what multitudes are feel- ing. We are thankful for the strong line you are taking on the drink question. I am a total abstainer; I can be nothing else in my position and in view of the terrible evil in our widet. But I have always thought that the Temperance Party has been one of the chief obstacles to reform. That is why I so delight in your attitude. The only hope is in getting the question removed from the realm of party politics and taken up earnestly by all men who pray and labour for the welfare of the State. I hold myself detached from any panacea for the evil, and free to help in any way I can any plan which will boldly grapple with the evil, even though it does not go as far as I should like. Continue to urge the Government. Now is the time for a, Coalition Government to deal with the question. Your "leaders" on this terrible crisis are an en- couragement to many of us. I am thankful for my Spectator-• more so every week. I would not intervene a few weeks 'ince anent the part Nonconformists are playing, because I understood the spirit of your article and did not feel aggrieved as some did. But I am preaching all over the North on Sundays, and the thing that most impresses me is the way in which our young fellows are answering the nation's call. I think the smallest, poorest little churches have done best. Forty-six have gone from our village church. The Anglicans and Wealeyans have done just as well, and our population is about three thousand. Fifty per cent. of my own students have joined up. I think before the month is out every fit man will have gone. There are some obviously unfit. I feel that we who are long past military age and unfit have a very hard trial to bear. Oh for twenty-five years of life back again to Tile College, Rawdon, Leeds.
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