The Spectator

From ‘The Racing Problem’, The Spectator, 20 March 1915: We are not temperance fanatics. We do not suggest the prohibition of the public sate of intoxicants in order to penalize any one or to punish people for having sold alcohol in the past. We do not regard either the sale or the consumption of alcohol as a crime. A moderate consumption of alcohol does no more harm either morally or physically than a moderate indulgence in other unnecessary luxuries like smoking. We know, too, that a permanent temperance, a temperance worth having, can only come by a change in national habits—through freedom, not through interference with liberty. What we are asking for is merely war prohibition in order to produce national efficiency at the moment.

From ‘How We Are Blockading Germany’, The Spectator, 20 March 1915: We are, indeed, fighting against a thoroughly unscrupulous enemy, and we have to consider how we can bring the war to an end in the shortest possible time. If we shorten the war, we shall save life—the lives of the non-combatants at sea who are threatened by Germany's diabolical engines—and shall redeliver to the world the seas free and open to traffic. We shall sustain Liberty against despotic dictation, and vindicate the sanctity of national pledges. Beside such objects temporary commercial inconveniences are really small matters. We cannot help feeling strongly that we shall make a great mistake if we try to argue solely on legal grounds.