Girls Get Public House Habit

One of the features of WW II that I like is how the temperance twats carried on much as they had in WW I. But they were completel;y ignored by the authorities.

They held meetings, passed resolutions, wrote letters to newspapers. All to zero effect. It must have been quite disheartening. It almost makes you feel sorry for them. Almost.

Women drinking had been a particular obsession of these twats, as it had been in the 19th century. In fact, moral outrage at females daring to enjoy a drink lasts to this day amongst the scummier elements of the British press. Which is pretty hypocritical, given what a bunch of pissheads journalists are.

"GIRLS GET “PUBLIC HOUSE HABIT”
Our young people are getting into the public-house habit.” declared the Rev. Walter Steele, of Consett, at the annual Synod of the Sunderland and Durham district of the Methodist Church at Sunderland yesterday.

The matter was creating great concern, he said, as every night one sees crowds of girls in public-houses. A conductress of a bus actually ordered a pint in one to begin with. Mostly they are very voting people and what are we to do? 

"These are the days of increased wages, but when the milk bars are closed, and the cafes offering very little, and they find two nights of dancing sufficient, well, they are a loose end.

"I have,” he added, been talking to some friends whose daughters are in the Forces.

Their reports are very distressing. One girl told that every night in her hut at least two girls were drunk, and she had to hide her valuables under her pillow for fear they were stolen.

"Another girl in the Wrens said some of the girls did not arrive until very late, and four of them who were drunk said they had spent the greater part of the night on a ship.

”It is a serious position, yet our present Government goes out of its way to encourage brewers to push forward their trade. Lord Woolton’s speech in the House of Lords was amazing.”

CALL TO GOVERNMENT
He moved a resolution urging the Government to take the necessary steps to reduce the manufacture of alcoholic drinks, which destroyed barley and sugar.

The Rev. J. H. J, Barker (Thompson Memorial Hall. Sunderland) said he made it his business to visit a number of public houses every Saturday night, and there he saw girls of scarcely legal age drinking.

"As a Methodist Church we are letting our Bands of Hope and temperance societies slide,” complained the Rev. William Armstrong (Chester-le-Street).

Alderman Bloomfield asserted that gambling ought to be dealt with by the churches, instancing raffles.

The motion was carried.

Motions urging the Government to reduce the number of days allowed for horse and dog racing, and against the sacredness of the Sabbath being affected Home Guard and A.T.C.s being called upon to train on a Sunday morning were also adopted.

At a private session a resolution moved by the Rev. Prank Spencer (Sunderland) and adopted by a large majority, expressed the Synod’s strong conviction that the hopes and aspirations now being cherished for a better national and international life can only realised as they are the expression of the Christian spirit and of Christian principles."
Newcastle Journal - Thursday 14 May 1942, page 4.

There's some great sexist crap in there. Fancy a woman daring to order a pint? And weaselly phrases like "girls of scarcely legal age drinking". That is, women who were over 18 and as free as adult men to indulge in the odd drink or two.

Why did they keep banging on about women so much? Because it was easier to provoke moral outrage.  Complaining about soldiers or sailors drinking, I'm sure they realised, was much less likely to be accepted by the general public.

This was the swansong of the first set of temperance lunatics. They still behaved as if it still had the ear of the government, when it had long since stopped paying attention to their counterproductive demands.

Brewing beer does not destroy barley and sugar. The beer produced from these ingredients retains almost all their food value. This is one of the great - and oft repeated - temperance lies.