We had not space in our last issue to mention
the debate in the House of Lords on Thursday week. But Lord Lansdowne's speech on the Defence of the Realm Amendment Bill was a splendid example of candour and courage, which we hope has not passed unnoticed in the country. Lord Lansdowne knows, as we all know, that the fact that Mr. Lloyd George's drink proposals have been dropped owing to the powerful resistance of the trade and its allies has not suddenly changed the situation and brought it about that the topers of a month ago are now sober. Lord Lansdowne described the amount of drinking as "not only a national scandal, but a national peril" He showed that from various sources of evidence— including evidence from the Labour Party—the facts about drinking were "proved up to the hilt"
"I think," he said, "there is a tendency to be rather too mealy- mouthed when we are discussing queetions of this kind. . . . If I had to preach a sermon at the present moment I should take for my text: 'Speak ye every man the truth unto his neighbour.' ... Those Ministers who have had the courage to state the facts fairly and squarely, as have the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for War, deserve credit, and are doing a better service to the public than those who have sought to slur over the difficulties.'
Perhaps members of the Labour Party may be found to acknowledge that when their own valour fails the House of Lords sometimes steps in.
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