It is a bitter irony that while the men of the Empire have come to
France to fight the enemy of mankind, this foe within our gates has
struck a blow at the British Empire that generations will not heal. How
many Empire men this private trade has slain we do not know, but we know
beyond all challenge that it has weakened the bonds that bind our
Dominions to the Motherland. This trade that throttles us at home can
pull the Empire down, and it has started well. It has struck its blow at
Canada.
Let us look at the plain facts which in other days than these would have
caused a storm of anger that Parliament could not have ignored. Canada
has followed the King; arming herself with her full powers, flinging
herself upon her enemies with her utmost strength, she has swept drink
out of Canada almost from sea to sea. But even before she did this
Canada saw that alcohol must go from her camps if her men were to be fit
to fight for England, and long before the Prohibition wave swept across
the country, the Canadian Government removed all alcohol from the
training camps. It was the deliberate choice of a Government and its
people, and from that day to this there has been no reason for regret.
So the young manhood of Canada, rallying to the flag, was guarded from
alcohol. She poured out her men in hundreds of thousands; they came to
us from Prohibition camps; they came in Prohibition ships, and even here
this trade that has us in its grip was not allowed at first in the
Canadian camps; the only condition that Canada made—a condition implied
but clearly understood—was properly regarded and obeyed.
We respected the desire of Canada, and kept her soldiers free from drink
in their own camps. But a soldier cannot keep in camp, and in the
villages around the Drink Trade waits in every street. The military
authorities were willing for the Canadian Government to have their way
inside the camps, but drink was free outside, and in these public-houses
there was sown the seed that may one day break this Empire. The Drink
Trade was so rampant outside the Canadian camps that Prohibition inside
was almost in vain. We had to decide between breaking the word of the
Canadian Government to its people or dealing with this trade as Canada
herself has done; as Russia has done; as France and America are doing.
It was the Empire or the drink traffic, and the drink traffic won, as it
always wins with us.
It came about in October, down on Salisbury Plain. During one week-end a
number of Canadian troops gave way to drinking in villages around the
camps, and it was then that the grave decision was come to that the
drink trade should be allowed to set up its horrible canteens in every
Canadian camp. The change was made at the request of a British General,
and we have the assurance of the Prime Minister of Canada that the
approval of the Canadian Government was neither obtained nor asked. In
handing the Canadian Army over to the drink canteens, in deliberately
reversing the policy of the Canadian Government and its people, there
was no consultation with Canada.
It is important to remember that this decision, fraught with tragic and
far-reaching consequences for the Empire, was a pure and simple English
act. We may imagine the Canadian view from the remark of a Canadian
General, who said, “I know drink is a hindrance, but I can do very
little, because in military circles in this country drunkenness is not
considered a very serious offense.”
It would have been surprising if there had not poured in upon our
Government a stream of protests, and from all parts of the Dominions
they came. The Dominion of Canada, giving freely to the Motherland
450,000 boys and men, was moved to passionate indignation that England
should scorn her love for them, should ignore the pleadings of their
mothers and sisters, and should put in their way the temptations from
which they were saved at home. Canada does not want our drink trade; she
lives side by side with the United States, she sees that great country
building up its future free from drink, and she sees America, splendid
ally in war, as a mighty rival in peace.
And Canada is ready for the Reconstruction. She has followed the
Prohibition lead of the United States, and already she has ceased to be
a borrowing country. The very first year of Prohibition has seen this
young Dominion, for the first time in her history, financially
self-sustaining. Crime is disappearing; social gatherings are held in
her gaols; she has set up vast munition workshops, and instead of
borrowing money for her own support she has made hundreds of millions’
worth of munitions for which this country need not pay until the war is
over, and then need never pay at all for the munitions the Canadians
have used. Canada is in deadly earliest. She kept her men away from
drink to make them fit; she has swept it away to make a clean country
for those who go back.
And what is England’s contribution to this Imperial Reconstruction? _We
have scorned it all._ The Prime Minister has said that this drink trade
is so horrible that it is worth this horrible war to settle with it, yet
we have sacrificed the love of Canada on our brewers’ altar. We can
believe the Canadian who declares his profound conviction that but for
this Canada would have sent us 100,000 more recruits; we can believe it
is true that where responsible Canadians meet together in these days the
talk is of how long the tie will last unbroken that binds the daughter
to the Motherland. We can understand the passion that lies behind the
resolutions that come to Downing Street from Nova Scotia; we know the
depth of the yearning of those 64,000 mothers and wives of Toronto who
signed that great petition to the Government of Canada begging it in the
name of God to intervene.
We can understand it all; but let us call the witnesses, and let us see
the price the Dominion pays for our quailing before this Kaiser’s trade.