STATE PURCHASE OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
[To TH. EDITOR Or TIM "APROTATOR."] Ste.,—I have read with great interest the letter of Mrs. NoSl Paton on the above subject in the Spectator of November 6th. I am sincerely delighted to learn that there is in Scotland such volume of opinion in favour of prohibition. If this opinion will be organized and expressed in the Local Option polls, then Scotland will be ere long on the way to the solution of its own drink problem. While I rejoice that the prospects of prohibi- tion are so bright in Scotland, I would still point out that there is no prospect whatever of securing prohibition for the kingdom, for the simple but fatal reason that it finds prac- tically no support in Parliament. I am not aware of any Cabinet Ministers in favour of it ; nor is it supported by any of the four parties of the State; nor, indeed, do I know of a single Member of Parliament who is prepared to stand or fall before his constituents on the prohibition issue. And I am bound to confess sorrowfully that I think Parliament reflects fairly correctly public opinion on the matter.
The advantage of State purchase as a policy is that it is powerfully supported in Parliament. The late Cabinet was committed to it; it has strong supporters among the Liberals and Conservatives. It is also supported by such ardent temperance reformers as Messrs. Rowntree and Sherwell and Sir Thomas Whittaker; by such an ardent Free Churchman as Sir Joseph Compton-Riekett, the President of the National Free Church Connell; by such a distinguished journalist as Mr. T. P. Ritzema. and many others. It is because it is within the range of practical politics, and because it would when adopted hasten the day of prohibition, that I support the demand for the State purchase of the liquor traffic.--I am,
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