The time has come when it should be said that those responsible for our
country now stand on the very threshold of eternal glory or eternal
shame. They play and palter with the greatest enemy force outside
Berlin. The news from Vimy Ridge comes to a land whose rulers quail
before a foe within the gate.
Not for one hour has the full strength of Britain been turned against
her enemies. From the first day of the war, while our mighty Allies have
been striking down this foe within their gates, Britain has let this
trade stalk through her streets, serving the Kaiser’s purposes, and
paying the Government £1,000,000 a week for the right to do it.
She has let this trade destroy our food and bring us to the verge of
famine; she has let it keep back guns and shells and hold up ships; she
has let it waste our people’s wealth in hundreds of millions of pounds;
she has let it put its callous brake on the merciful Red Cross; she has
let it jeopardize the unity and safety of the Empire—for it may yet be
found, as Dr. Stuart Holden has so finely said, that the links that bind
the Pax Britannica are solvable in that great chemist’s solvent,
alcohol.
The witnesses are too great to number; we can only call a few. There is
no room for all those witnesses whose evidence is in the House of
Commons Return 220 (1915), showing the part drink played in the great
shell famine, in delaying ships and guns, and imperiling the Army and
the Fleet.
But the indictment is heavy. I charge this trade with the crime the King
laid at its door two years ago, the crime of prolonging the war; and the
witnesses are here at the bar of the people. The verdict is with them,
and the judgment is with those who rule.
_The wages of sin is death: What are the wages of those who fail in an
hour like this?_
------------------------------------------------------------------------