20 SEPTEMBER 1919, Page 12

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]

Sia,--Your advocacy of the Nationalization of the Liquor Trade is a valuable public service which it is earnestly to he hoped you will prosecute to a successful issue. The present position is one of serious menace to the national well being. Labour is giving a fine lead; will not other sections of the community follow its example? Some of us see a new peril, born of war conditions. This is an alarming growth in drinking among women and young girls. During the war many of the latter, anxious to show good fellowship to soldiers home on leave, acquired new habits of drinking in the foyers of hotels and other places of resist+. In the Midlands and the North especially the evils of this are often painfully apparent. Under State control, tht legitimate social instincts, of which this new phase is but one expression, might be indulged free from the worst of its attendant perils.—I am, Sir, &c.,

WALTER LEWISHAM.