[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
have neither the time nor the inclination to pursue Mr. Angus Watson into the maze of loose reasoning and chop logic in which he is seeking cover. Facts, as he says, speak for themselves, and I have confined myself to facts which he wisely declines to challenge.
The only test of any temperance policy is whether it will reduce drunkenness, and if statistics prove anything Carlisle's figures for drunkenness show that private management in the Trade is more successful in the cause of temperance than State Control, for Carlisle has had throughout a higher rate of drunkenness than most towns of similar size. In 1934 no fewer than 54 of the county boroughs had a lower rate of drunkenness than Carlisle, and convictions rose from 49 in 1933 to 66.
Carlisle Temperance Union issued a manifesto stating that "Convictions do not adequately represent the amount of drunkenness," and that "State prestige of Carlisle taverns draws in those who previously shunned licensed houses," and Carlisle West End Temperance Society passed a resolu- tion stating that State Control as a measure of temperance reform had proved a failure. "inasmuch as the reduction of drunkenness that had taken place was in no greater ratio than in other boroughs of similar size throughout England."
Licensing reform is not one of the urgent problems which are making anxious controversy in the country today, except in regard to a loosening of restrictions. Proposals to solve it on heroic lines have grown old-fashioned, and many people are turning with useful intention to public-house reform. It remains to be seen whether the public-house under private management can be made what; with all its failures, it always has been in hard fact, the club and forum of the people, but any proposal to establish a national beershop will meet with determined opposition from all sane and sober men.
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