[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR].
SIR,—As Dr. Welldon seems to admit that gambling is always demoralizing (as it certainly is), the only serious difference between Canon Green and him seems to be whether taxation is calculated to discourage the practice or not. Now, those of us who object to " prohibition " of alcoholic drink as a tyran- nical attack on the moderate drinker generally agree that the traffic in drink should be very strictly regulated ; and, per- sonally, I should not object to mere " drunkenness " in public being made an offence punishable by law. I would discourage drinking by all reasonable means, and I cannot believe that raising the price of a bottle of whisky by taxation can possibly encourage anyone to drink it. On the contrary, I remember a friend of mine, a very moderate drinker like myself, declaring that he would " give up whisky and take to light wine.' "
At the same time I quite agree with Canon Green that the newspapers are the chief offenders ; and as betting in the streets is an offence I do not undersand how they escape prosecution for " aiding and abetting " by publishing " the odds " all the afternoon and so promoting the waste of the nation's wealth and demoralizing the public at the same
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