Dear Sir, In answer to your inquiry, the only limitation in the size
of cases consigned to officers in the Expeditionary Force is that
they must not exceed 1 cwt.
We can guarantee delivery right into the front trenches. The cases
are handed over at Southampton to the Military Forwarding Officer,
and the A.S.C. see them right through. We are shipping hundreds of
cases weekly. Yours faithfully,
_Letter from a Wine and Spirit firm in London_
So drink finds its way to the front, to weaken our troops, with all
their matchless heroism. Let us call the witnesses who have seen the
work it does.
Soldiers at the front, tried for drunkenness, have declared that
they have received drink from home. Men sometimes receive flasks in
the trenches. They are exhausted, the stimulant revives them for a
minute or two, and the harm is done. “And then (says Col. Crozier)
they get about two years’ hard labour.”
_Letter from Colonel Crozier, commanding 9th Royal Irish Rifles_
As a result of a Court-martial investigating charges of excessive
drinking among the officers of a regiment at the Front, the Army
Council removed the commanding officer from his post.
_Records of Court-martials, 1916_
In the torrid climate of Mesopotamia, in defiance of all military
medical history, rum was issued to the men instead of food and
sterile water, and the presence of cholera, dysentery and other
diseases, was attributed to this by Sir Victor Horsley. “Our gross
failures and stupidity,” he said, “are in my opinion due to whisky
affecting the intellectual organs and clearness of our leaders. They
do not realise that alcohol in small doses acts as a brake on the
brain.”
_Facts in a letter from Sir Victor Horsley, May 13, 1916_
[Illustration: THE JUNKER’S LITTLE BROTHER]
Battalion Headquarters—colonel and chaplain present. Enter Adjutant:
“The rum ration is due tonight, sir; am I to distribute it?” The
colonel (nobly and in a voice audible all over the trench): “No!
Damn the rum! To hell with the rum!”
_Chaplain’s letter in “Alliance News,” June 1916_
At a court-martial in Newcastle, a sergeant-major, charged with
misappropriating funds of the sergeant’s mess, pleaded that during
this period a resolution of the mess had come into effect, providing
free drinks during Christmas and the New Year.
_Facts in “Daily News,” April 17, 1916_
“In the Flying Services one has seen more than one good man go to
the dogs through drink, or become fat and flabby and useless through
just the excess of alcohol which falls short of taking to drink in
the usual acceptance of the term. More men take to drink because of
the ‘have another’ custom than because they like or need alcohol,
and simple Prohibition would stop all this nonsense straight away.
This kindly note is not the outpouring of a teetotal fanatic, for I
suppose I have paid in my time rather more than my share of the
nation’s drink-bill; it is merely a perfectly sound argument in
favour of increasing the nation’s efficiency at the expense of its
chief bad habit.”
_The Editor of “The Aeroplane”_
A lieutenant in the trenches, knowing that the rum ration made him
cold, threw his rum on the ground. His captain saw him, and
threatened to report him. “You do, sir,” said the lieutenant, “and I
will report you for being drunk on duty.”
_Facts in possession of the Author_
A seaman serving on a ship in Cork Harbour died from alcohol. Found
drunk and unknown, he was put on a stretcher and died.
_Facts in “Cork Constitution,” December 9, 1915_
“Over three-quarters of the court-martials I have had anything to do
with are due directly or indirectly to drunkenness. Many thousands
of competent N.C.O.s and soldiers have been punished, and become
useless to the nation during their punishment, as a result of drink.
“I have never been a teetotaler, and have rather opposed the radical
temperance agitation, but am now changing my views as I see our
success over here hampered and our progress towards victory retarded
so obviously by drink.”
_Letter from a Lieut.-Colonel at the Front, seen by the Author_
The captain of a British merchant ship, drunk on the bridge, ordered
his chief gunner to fire 50 rounds of shell at nothing. The gunner
fired four rounds to appease him. Going through the Mediterranean,
the drunken captain ordered his gunner to fire at a British hospital
ship, and the incident led to a struggle for life, which ended in
the captain’s being put in irons, tried, and sentenced to five
years’ penal servitude.
_Record of Devon Assizes, Exeter, February 2, 1917_
An officer was left in charge of a British ship. Mad with drink, he
went among the men and shot one dead. He is now in an asylum.
_Case reported to the Admiralty_
The crew of a Dutch ship arriving in the Tyne was placed under a
naval guard after a drunken riot in which three were killed.
_Facts in “Daily News,” September 14, 1915_
The captain of a Norwegian barque mysteriously disappeared, and the
vessel arrived in port from the North Sea. The mate, who had been
drinking heavily, was seen, with a hammer in his hand, with the
captain in a corner, bleeding from wounds about the head.
_Facts in “Daily News,” April 8, 1916_
A seaman ashore in Glasgow, “wild with drink and passion,” was
terribly wounded in a quarrel in a public-house, and died the same
night. A youth of 19 was sentenced to five years’ penal servitude.
_Records of Edinburgh High Court, Dec. 1916_
A barge-loader at West India Docks died from alcohol, and three
other men were removed in an ambulance after drinking rum.
_Facts in “Daily Chronicle,” May 9, 1916_
Orders were given on a steamer for the boats to be swung out in
readiness for submarines. The first and second officer, having been
drinking, could not do their duty.
_Records of Liverpool Marine Board, April 13, 1917_
The jury returned a verdict of murder against a youth of 19 who,
after drinking one night, went on to his ship and killed the second
officer.
_Records of Hull Coroner, April 24, 1917_
A drunken captain in command of a drifter landed with an armed party
on the Isle of Man. He posted the men on the quay, and gave them
orders to allow no one to pass. Declaring he would shoot every
person who came within reach, he fired twice, and threatened to kill
two police officers.
_Facts in “Times,” October 6, 1916_
Such is the work of drink wherever it finds a soldier to entrap—the
drink the Navy carries free from Southampton to the trenches; and from
America comes the news, as this page is being written, that the Army and
the Navy of our Western Ally, like the Army and the Navy of our Eastern
Ally, are to be under Total Prohibition.