The House of Lords- on Thursday, July 19th, gave •
Lady Astor's Drink Bill a second reading, with the approval of Lord Dawson of Penn, who agreed that. it was only logical to protect young people under• eighteen from the effects of alcohol. Lord Dawson's speech was, however, mainly a defence of • the temperate drinker. Alcohol, used in moderation by adults, was a stimulant and not a narcotic, and it " lightened the mental touch" of a man tired by a hard day's work. Lord Dawson. said that at a recent public dinner he had watched a table full of Prohibitionists, most of them high eccle- siastics, and' had noticed that their talk was " the one dull grey spot in the whole of the dinner." He inferred that' they needed-the " uplift " which a little. wine might • have given them. The example is • inconclusive; for some men are very dull and sullen in their cups. But in Lord Davison's main argument most. Englishmen will concur. True temperance is-• not synonymous :with,: tectotalis' m, and Prohibition here has kw supporters:
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