A captain in the Royal Flying Corps drove a motor-car through London, knocked a man down, drove on, and ignored the police, who eventually mounted the footboard and found the officer drunk.

A lance-corporal on Chesterfield station was so drunk that he walked off the platform and fell on the line as a passenger train came up.

A corporal of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, leaving the Front with 150 rounds of ammunition and his service rifle, came out drunk into the streets of West Ham and began firing his rifle.

A soldier who had received a cartridge from his son at the Front, put it in his rifle, and while drunk fired it in the streets of Manchester.

In the early hours of the morning two unarmed soldiers were fired at in Woolwich by a drunken soldier, who chased them for a long distance, firing shots all the time, until he was arrested.

Drunkenness among soldiers and sailors is appalling. Unoffending travellers are delayed by drunken sentries. Sailors landing after weeks of arduous toil in the North Sea find it easy to get so drunk that some are drowned, some die from exposure, and many return to their ships in a condition of helpless inebriety.

Two drunken soldiers entered the parish church at Codford, set fire to the vestry, threw down the altar cross and candlestick, broke a stained-glass window, and tore leaves out of a Bible 200 years old.

A drunken soldier at Cannock was imprisoned for drawing his bayonet in the streets. “If I meet a policeman I will murder the dog,” he said, and, meeting one, he threatened to cut off his head.

400 soldiers tried to get a drunken man from the police in Grantham.

A drunken sergeant was found forcibly detaining a girl at Hornsey. On the police interfering, the drunken soldier drew his bayonet.

Three splendid-looking fellows, minesweepers, were traveling on the Highland Railway. “All were married men,” said a fellow passenger, “happy and proud of their homes, and they spoke with ache still in their hearts something of their lives and work. Well, these men succumbed during the journey. A change of trains was their opportunity, and I left them in a nearly helpless condition.”

A lady visited a soldier’s wife and found her at home with all her clothes in pawn. Her husband and brother had both been home from the Front, and in one week had spent £8 on drink.

A labourer, home from tunnelling work at the Front, was fined 13s. for drunkenness on his 33rd appearance, having spent £45 in seven days.

A disabled soldier was selling papers in Kingsway, London. He was proud of his military record and the character his colonel gave him. He was trying to compound for a pension; he thought he would settle for £50. “Mind you,” said he “there is not a better character in London than mine, and I shall get the £50. Then I shall have a month’s booze.” “What, with that fine character of yours?” a gentleman said to him. “Yes,” said the man, “when I came home, and could leave the hospital, there was £50 due to me, and I had a regular booze.”

A soldier with twelve years’ clean record in the Army was sentenced for felony after being made drunk by his friends.

A house in Westminster reeked with filth and drink and drunken overseas soldiers, “and it would be better,” said the Crown Solicitor, “if power were given to the police to sweep such places off the earth.”

A sapper seaman was found dead at the quay. Another seaman said his friend had seven drinks. They left the publichouse arm-in-arm, and went to the quay. There he saw a corporal, who was boatswain for the night, and was drunk. Leaving the sapper, he got the corporal into the boat, and went back for his friend, but the sapper had disappeared.

The lieutenant: “The deceased was one of the quietest boys who had ever been on the ship, and one of the best oarsmen. The whole trouble was that it was pay day.”

The Coroner: “Prohibition during the war would be a blessing to all. It seems to be a very rotten state of affairs.”

The foreman: “Drink.”

The lieutenant: “Prohibition would be the best thing.”

The Coroner: “This poor man, unfortunately, is one of many.”

A publican at Dover was fined £20 for selling a bottle of whisky to a sailor. The Admiral said drink undermined the efficiency of the patrol vessels, and those who supplied it directly assisted the enemy, and might be the cause of the loss of very many lives.

A private in the Northumberland Fusiliers, aged 23, was charged with burglary while drunk. His father and three brothers were in the Army. He took part in the battle of Loos, was wounded at Salonika, and was recommended for distinction for helping to save a wounded officer.

During the whole of Christmas leave he was drinking, made drunk by his friends who were probably proud of his having held part of a trench against a German bombing party. His captain described him as a good soldier in peace, and brave in action—a man whose disgrace would be felt by the regiment.

Mr. Justice Rowlatt said everyone was hoping for the time when millions of brave men would come home after facing incredible dangers, and we must look forward almost with terror to having these men exposed to drink and its temptations. What would be the state of the country in such a case unless we could make a clean sweep of drink? We should have to face this question over and over again, and the sooner we faced it the better.

Whoever allowed soldiers or sailors to drink to excess, said the Mayor of Tynemouth, should be tried by court-martial for treason. He would be recreant in his duty to God, to himself, and to the citizens, if he did not call attention to the brutalising of so many townspeople and the callous conduct of the “waster” element in the drink trade. He had no quarrel with those who conducted their business properly.

The Aldershot command appealed for the closing of half the publichouses, to save the men from temptation when the troops are demobilised and return with their pockets full of money.

The Army and Navy Gazette, in an article disapproving of the Prohibition Campaign, issues a terrible warning which should be printed on the door of the room in which the Army Council meets. These are its words: