Guinness vs Whitbread Stout

Remember this bit from "Beer Knowledge"?

"When the British government imposed restrictions on malting and beer strength during the First World War, the dry Irish style stole a march on its British counterpart and, aided by both canny advertising and the missionary zeal of Irish Diaspora, it's become the benchmark for stouts."

I just found something in one of Whitbread's spreadsheets that throws some light on this assertion. A bucket of cold light. It's a document with incredibly detailed sales records. Both of Whitbread's own beers and ones from other brewers. Like Guinness and Bass.

If that quote is to be believed, a tide of Guinness washed away British Stout after WW I. So in, say, 1943, you'd expect Guinness to be outselling Whitbread's Stouts, right? Let's see if that was the case.

First, Guinness sales:

Whitbread's Guinness sales 1943
Town Guinness	barrels
Guinness pints	12,399
Guinness half pints	7,991
Total Town Guinness	20,300
Country Guinness
Guinness pints	2,501
Guinness half pints	1,902
Total Country Guinness	4,403
Total Guinness	24,703
Source:
document LMA/44503/C/08/063

So a little less than 25,000 barrels. Not bad. But what about Whitbread's Stouts?

Whitbread's own Stout sales 1943
Town Stout (including Kent)	barrels
London Stout pints	18,484
Special Stout half pints	14,100
London Stout quarts	12,045
Total London Stout	44,629
Oatmeal Stout pints	1,985
Oatmeal Stout half pints	119
Oatmeal Stout quarts	1,396
Total Oatmeal Stout	3,500
Milk Stout pints	9,284
Milk Stout half pints	6,347
Milk Stout quarts	3,980
Total Milk Stout	19,611
Total Town Stout	67,740
Country Stout
London Stout pints	9,460
Special Stout half pints	821
London Stout half pints	547
London Stout quarts	661
Total London Stout	11,489
Oatmeal Stout pints	24,235
Oatmeal Stout half pints	4,812
Oatmeal Stout quarts	2,394
Total Oatmeal Stout	31,441
Milk Stout pints	25,906
Milk Stout half pints	19,041
Milk Stout quarts	1,196
Total Milk Stout	46,143
Total Country Stout	89,073
Total Whitbread Stout	156,813
Source:
document LMA/44503/C/08/063

Just a little bit more. And those figures are just bottled Stout. Whitbread still sold a fair bit of draught Stout. And they sold 20,000 barrels of Stout in Scotland that I haven't included.

In 1943 Whitbread sold more than 6 times as much of their own Stouts as they did Guinness. More than 25 years after Guinness was supposed to have swept British Stouts away.

Can we agree that story is bollocks?