STATE ,PURCHASE OF THE LIQUOR TRADE. [To THE EDITOR OF
THE "SPECTATOR."] Pitton-Turbervill regards as unfair my comparison of "drunk "convictions in Carlisle (where the decrease between 1914 and 1918 was 71 per cent.) with the average decrease over the whole of England and Wales (84.50 per cent.). during the same period. Men, she says, "were pouring out of the villages. provincial towns, and-- countryside and into Carlisle," and she invites me to compare- the convictions in Coventry and Woolwieh... with those in Carlisle. -So far as -is _possible I comply. The convictions in Coventry in 1914- numbered 153. and in 1918 31, a decrease of about 80 per cent. Woolwich in the official statistics is included in "Part of Kent within the Metropolitan Police District," rind the comparison Miss Picton- Turbervill suggests as regards the Woolwich area is, therefore, impossible. But in the "Part of Kent within the Metropolitan Police District" the " drunk " convictions in 1914 were 593, and in 1918 139, a decrease of about 761 per cent. Even these two selected districts, therefore, compare favourably with Carlisle. The Carlisle and District Temperance League has recently made itself responsible for the statement that a similar comparison of Carlisle with 200 English boroughs is likewise unfavourable to Carlisle. It is perplexing to inquirers after truth to be told by Canon Rawnsley in your columns that the munition workers in Carlisle were to "a very large extent young women, with a few skilled male operatives," and to he assured by Miss Picton-Turbervill that during the war men were "pouring into" Carlisle. I believe the -fact is that in 1915 and 1916 there were 15,000 navvies in Carlisle, and that the departure of these men in 1917 had on the " drunk " statistics relating to the area a marked effect, the credit for which is appropriated by the Liquor Control Board.— I am, Sir, &c., G. W. TALBOT. [We cannot publish further letters on this subject for the present.—En. Spectator.]
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