PROHIBITION IN MANITOBA.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Will you allow me to make a tardy addition to the expressions of thanks for the strong lino you are taking on the drink question? The recent liquor plebiscite in Manitoba provides a full endorsement of one item at least in your " Drink and Economy " article of the November 13th issue, just come to my hand. Public opinion just now favours any drastic and fair legislation dealing with the liquor problem : this appears to be the case East and West. Events
have proved here whit you surmised for England—i.e., that public opinion, far from being passive, is vigorously and overwhelmingly in favour of anything and everything that will make it easier to win the war and to overcome this national sin. Since the recent Referendum in this province it has become commonly known that dipsomaniacs and drinkers of almost every degree voted for pro- hibition : the soldiers bless the project and voted for it in companies. The main opposition to the Act is found in the ranks of very moderate drinkers, and of those, in fact, who drink really nothing, but who in principle object to State control in a personal matter of this kind. The outcome as revealed in Manitoba is a general desire to be delivered at any coat from this evil. One after another the provinces are going "dry," and one may venture the opinion that in five years Federal legislation will carry Dominion prohibition.—
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