A letter from one of the most eminent public men in Canada:
“British Canada is intensely loyal to the Empire and the Allied Cause, but at present recruiting is almost at an end. Why? Partly because of considerable dissatisfaction with many of the conditions which prevail. Suffering, wounds, death, are expected as inevitable in war, but the evil influences, the lavish temptations of liquor and bad women which sweep down upon our boys in England, are not felt to be necessary, and the hearts of multitudes of Canadian parents are hot with indignation at the apparent indifference of the authorities to the moral welfare of our troops.”
Captain John MacNeill, with the Canadian troops in France:
“I say to you solemnly, if England should lose this war because of drink, or if England should unnecessarily prolong the war with great sacrifice of life in her effort to protect drink, or even if England should win the war in spite of drink, you will have put upon the bonds of Empire such a strain as they have never known before, and such a strain as we cannot promise they will be able to survive.”
From the petition presented to the Prime Minister of Canada, signed by 64,000 mothers and wives in Toronto:
1. That Mothers and Wives of Canada in giving their sons and husbands for King and Empire, asked and received from your Minister of Militia this only assurance that, in sending them into the ranks, we were not hereby irrevocably thrusting them into the temptation of Strong Drink.
2. We appreciated from the depths of our hearts, your action in abolishing the Wet Canteen from the Canadian Militia. We believe the Wet Canteen established in the ranks of the front to be a double danger, robbing our King of the success in arms which in these days comes only to the brave heart that is controlled by a clear head, and robbing us and our Canada of the Manhood which we gave into our Empire’s keeping.
3. We do not believe that the King will refuse the aid of Canada’s sons; nor that he will appreciate your patriotic efforts the less, if you keep faith with us and make known to His Majesty, his Ministers and Commanders, that our boys are sent forth on the one condition that the dispensing of intoxicating liquors shall be prohibited in the ranks.
From a Sermon preached in Ontario, February 25, 1917:
“Thank God, if any of our Canadian soldiers return to us with the drink habit formed and raging, we can welcome them to a land nearly purged of the liquor traffic, where they may have a chance to recover their manhood.”