14 APRIL 1917, Page 11

WHY NOT BEER RATIONS?

(To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECFAT0R."1 SIR,—I know you are all against the waste of good food by turning it into poisonous alcohol. But you have a pretty big crowd up against you, among whom are some perfectly sincere but mis- guided folk who actually think that alcohol is necessary to their well-being. The fair course, very manifestly, is to put us all on a ration, and in that ration make it permissible to take up, instead of food, an equivalent ration of beer or alcohol. Find out exactly the equivalent in corn or sugar, &c., of a unit of beer or alcohol, and let that be taken up in lieu of, and not, as at present, in addition to, the ration of corn and sugar, &c. I guess they'd soon start thinking out the thing for themselves then.—I