“_No complaints have reached the War Office of youths who were total
abstainers having become confirmed drunkards since enlistment._”
So we are told in the House of Commons. The records of the War Office
are clearly incomplete, and the information from the camps may here be
supplemented by unchallengeable witnesses of what happens in the
horrible drink canteens run by the Army Council.
A soldier who was wounded at La Bassée, a total abstainer until
then, was sentenced at the Old Bailey for killing his uncle while
drunk. He was a newsvendor, aged 21, and had no memory of the
tragedy in which he killed his uncle at a Christmas party.
_Facts in “Daily Chronicle,” January 13, 1916_
A private in the Royal Scots Fusileers, aged 17, was charged with
murdering a bugler boy, aged 16, in his regiment. The private became
mad drunk in the camp canteen, went back to his hut, locked himself
in and fired two shots, one of which entered another hut and killed
the bugler. “Was there no one with power to say how much drink
should be given?” asked the judge, and an officer said there was no
one. “Then it was high time power was given to the commanding
officer,” said the judge. “Was there to be no restraining hand to
prevent young boys from fuddling themselves in canteens?”
_Facts in the “Times,” November 21, 1916_
An old man sat in a tram in great distress. He had lost his boy at
the Front. When he joined the Army he had never tasted alcohol, but
when he came home on leave to see his mother he was drunk every
night. He was drunk the night he went away, and in three days he was
dead. “The last we saw of him,” said the poor old man between his
sobs, “was his going away drunk, and his mother, who is
old-fashioned in her faith, cannot get it out of her mind that no
drunkard can enter the Kingdom of God.”
_Facts told by Dr. Norman Maclean_
Many young officers, called upon to share the wine bill at mess,
naturally say, “If I have to pay I may as well drink my share,” and
one man accounted for ten glasses of champagne. On a Guest night in
his mess several more “were under the table.”
_Facts in “Dublin Daily Express,” April 1916._
A boy got his V.C., and came home wounded. The publican in his
street sounded his praises in the taproom, where they subscribed to
the bar for 120 pints for him when he arrived. He came home and
began to drink it, and was nearly dead with it before he was
rescued.
_Facts related by Bishop of Lincoln_
When the Scottish Horse Brigade were at Perth whisky was literally
forced down the men, and they were inundated with floods of bad
women.
_Brigadier-General Lord Tullibardine_
A teetotal household had two boys in an officers’ training camp, and
they gave pitiable accounts of drinking. Boys from school had a
drunken sergeant put over them, and a canteen in the midst of them.
“Our boys never saw drink before,” one father wrote.
_From a letter to Dr. Norman Maclean_
A boy of 17, discharged from the Navy, spent 8_s._ one night on beer
and rum, and created a disturbance in a workshop at Sheffield.
_Facts in “Sheffield Star,” November 11, 1916_
Mr. Justice Atkin, charging the Grand Jury at Bristol, said that in
nearly every case where a soldier was tried in the Western Circuit
the defence was drink. One lad of 18 was treated to eight pints of
beer in two hours, and did not know what happened. That sort of
thing, said the judge, must seriously impair the efficiency of the
troops when sent to the Front.
_Record of Bristol Assizes, Autumn 1914_
Two boys, 15 and 17, were fined for being drunk in munition works.
One was discovered just in time to save him from carrying molten
liquid.
_Birmingham Munitions Tribunal, Dec. 1916_
“A boy joined the Royal Navy as a carpenter, living in barracks and
working on shore. Every day he was given ‘grog’ for his rations,
although he never asked for it and never took it.”
_Facts in letter to the Author_
Such are the tragedies of boys handed over in our camps to drink and its
temptations. What of the girls in our munition shops? They have learned
to drink in thousands since the war began—respectable girls leaving home
to go into munitions, respectable young wives alone at home. With no
restraining hand upon them, with new companionships and pocket-money
flowing freely, it is not surprising the temptation should be too strong
for them. We can take only one or two cases.
The girl-wife of a Cardiff seaman died in the street from exposure
after drinking in publichouses with other girls.
_Records of Pontypridd Coroner, December 27, 1916_
A publican at Lincoln was fined £5 for allowing children to be drunk
on his premises. Ruth Onyon, 14, and Rose Herrick, 16, were found in
his house with a soldier. They had been in five houses and had ten
drinks each and reached home helplessly drunk.
_Facts in “Sheffield Daily Telegraph,” Sept. 1, 1916_
A number of cartridge workers were summoned for taking drink into a
munition works. One young woman was led to the surgery drunk at
half-past four in the morning; another was discharged because she
could not stand. Sixteen girls subscribed for four bottles of wine
and whisky.
_Records of Leeds Munitions Tribunal, April 28, 1916_
Two girls of 16 and 17 were fined for being helplessly drunk in an
explosive works, the magistrates pointing out that their conduct
imperilled the lives of other workers.
_Records of Coventry Munitions Tribunal July 24, 1916_
The men and girls at a large armament works drank all night. Girls
would lurch into the dormitory dead drunk at 2 a. m.; one lady was
up till 4 a. m. letting in drunken girls. As a result of drunkenness
there was an explosion at these works, two men being killed and six
injured.
_Facts in “Spectator,” Jan. 20, 1917_
A Dublin publichouse was found full of girls and soldiers, all
drunk. Three drunken girls were taken away by six soldiers.
_Facts in “Irish Times,” April 20, 1916_
In half an hour 367 girls entered Birmingham publichouses, scores
under 18. Stout and beer were chiefly drunk, but whisky and water
also, and some port wine. Ten young girls were quite drunk.
_Facts in “Birmingham Daily Post”_
Will some Member of Parliament please ask,
=in view of the fact that American soldiers are not to touch alcohol,
what arrangements the Government proposes to make for them in this
country?=
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