LIQUOR RESTRICTIONS
Sta,—Last week, " Janus " referred to the advisability of reviving the 1914-18 liquor restrictions. An experience or recollection of those restrictions may be interesting. Practically every day or night (often both) throughout the whole period I sat on my ambulance in Villiers Street awaiting the arrival of hospital-trains running into Charing Cross. It was an unsavoury street, and for the first twelve months we used to reckon that after, say, 9 p.m. one man in three was definitely drunk. Each year the proportion was less, and during the fourth year there was practically no drunkenness. Those particularly interested must have formed some opinion—no doubt the police did— about the shorter drinking-hours, the weakness of the beer, the increased cost of it, or the no-treating order. I ant perfectly certain that though the no-treating order could not be strictly enforce 1, it was mainly responsible for the astonishing improvement.—Yours truly,
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