[TO TWE EDITOR 07 TE1 4.sprersren."] Srn, — Notwithstanding the vigour with
which you are attacking in your columns the use of all alcoholic drinks at the present time, I will venture to ask the following questions, and to appeal to your sense of justice to find room for them. (1) Are you aware that beer, the national drink of the English people, is regarded by the working classes (who are the chief consumers, not only as a drink but also as an important food asset? (2) Are you aware that beer is made from corn and sugar, two of the moat sustaining foods the human race possesses P (3) Beer is not vodka, and I would ask if you are aware that in the mild and light beers most consumed by the working classes there is not a great deal more alcohol than there is in ginger ale? (4) Do you consider it right or just to take advantage of the war to endeavour in every way possible to prevent the masses of sober working men all over the country from obtaining that which, whatever may be your opinion, they believe to be a most important part of their daily diet (and which has indeed formed an important part of the daily diet of their forebears in England for now at least a thousand years) because a quite small percentage of their fellows are unable at times to resist taking more than they should take ? (5) Will you consider whether it would not be more just and more wise to direct your efforts to limiting as far as possible at the present time the sale of spirits (and perhaps some of the strong ales), from the use or abuse of which alone Bu t& drunkenness as there is [We would ask Mr. Bailey whether he is aware (1) that drunkenness has proved a most serious hindrance to the provision of munitions of war; (2) that, though whisky is a worse offender, a great deal of drunkenness is due to bee* (3) that severe local war restrictions on the sale of spirits, beer, and intoxicants have decreased drunkenness in the United Kingdom, and that in Russia prohibition has put an end to it; (4) that the belief that beer is a nourishing food is a delusion; (5) that corn and sugar by being fermented and turned into beer lose the greater part of their food value, and are economically wasted.—ED. Spectator.]
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