Drink-sense
Sir: In support of both Auberon Waugh's spirited campaign (12 December) against the drinking laws and the Home Secret- ary's idea of putting a health warning on wine bottles, may I suggest as text for the latter the following lines which have long given solace to the customers of a pub in my home village of Oberndorf near Salz- burg:
Alkohol und Nikotin Rafft die halbe Menschheit hin.
Doch ohne Wein und ohne Rauch Stirbt die andre HaIfte auch.
Half of mankind is done in By alcohol and nicotine.
Yet the rest, enjoying neither, Does not live much longer either.
The author is not known. For all I know, it may have been the parish priest of the village, Father Josef Mohr who, on a cold winter night on 23 December 1818, sat dreamily in his warm study with a (histor- ically non-verified) pipe in his mouth and a glass of clove-scented steaming Gliihwein in his hand (historically non-verified like- wise) and — becalmed and inspired by both — wrote 'Silent Night'.
May I also suggest that statistically drink has nothing to do with road accidents. The villain is speed which, true enough, may be influenced by drink. The horse-sense answer is therefore: permit any quantity of drink, but limit speed according to a strictly enforced scale: 40 miles per hour after 2 glasses of wine, 30 after 3, 15 after 5, 0 miles per hour after passing out. Leopold Kohr
170 Reservoir Road, Gloucester
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