The revolutionary suggestion has reached me that the British working
man should, in view of the grain-shortage, drink synthetic beer. Actually he has drunk quite a lot of it already—when he was in uniform in North Africa. There were no hops there, and not much barley, if any ; there was, on the other hand (so I am told), a useful formula captured from the Germans. The result was a liquor which, whatever its title to the name of beer, was handed out as beer and pronounced quite tolerable by some at least of its habitual drinkers. So why, I am asked, not produce synthetic beer here? Personally, I see no reason at all why not. If it is better than nothing people who run short of ordinary beer will drink it ; if it is worse than nothing they can go dry and still survive. As a matter of fact, experiments are going on with the use of every kind of grain for beer, and synthetic beer is, I believe, being actually produced in one South Coast town. I leave the place nameless ; its citizens might start vat-smashing if they found what they were drinking.
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