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MR. LLOYD GEORGE ON DRINK

9 April 1915

SIR,—I OBSERVE FROM a report in the papers that Mr. Keir Hardie, addressing an Independent Labour meeting at Norwich, stated that workers who were putting in 84 hours a week had been “maligned and insulted and the lying word—on the authority of Mr. Lloyd George—had gone round the world that the British working classes were a set of drunken wasters.”

I need hardly say that there is not a word of truth in this wild accusation. I have only made two references to the effect of drinking upon the output of munitions of war. Speaking at Bangor on February 28, I said:—

“Most of our workmen are putting every ounce of strength into this urgent work for their country, loyally and patriotically. But that is not true of all. There are some, I am sorry to say, who shirk their duty in this great emergency. I hear of workmen in armaments works who refuse to work a full week’s work for the nation’s need. What is the reason? They are a minority. The vast majority belong to a class we can depend upon. The others are a minority. But you must remember a small minority of workmen can throw a whole works out of gear. What is the reason? Sometimes it is one thing, sometimes it is another; but let us be perfectly candid. It is mostly the lure of the drink. They refuse to work full time, and when they return their strength and efficiency are impaired by the way in which they have spent their leisure. Drink is doing us more damage in the war than all the German submarines put together.”

I call special attention to the italicized passages. I went out of my way to make it clear that in my judgment drink only affected a minority, even a small minority, of the workmen, and that the vast majority were doing their duty loyally. So that as far as the first speech I delivered on the subject is concerned there is not a syllable to justify Mr. Keir Hardie’s reckless assertion, but quite the reverse.

Now I come to my second reference to this topic. It was on the occasion of the deputation received by me from the Shipbuilding Employers’ Federation. The shipbuilders made it clear repeatedly that their complaints were confined to a section of the men. As one of them put it:—“There are many men doing good work, probably as good work as the men in the trenches.” In my speech in reply I said that the excessive drinking took place “among a section, may be a small section, but a very important section of workmen.” Neither in one speech nor the other was any reflection cast upon the men who, according to Mr. Keir Hardie, are working 84 hours a week. On the contrary, the complaint was against the men who failed at this critical time to put in anything approaching even 53 hours a week. On both occasions the work of those who were doing their best to help their country in this time of urgent need was fully recognized not only by me but by the employers, and I made it clear that my criticism was confined entirely to a minority and may be a small minority of the workmen.

I hope that after this explanation Mr. Keir Hardie will think it right to withdraw a statement which he must know must be very mischievous in its effect at a time when we are considering the best remedy for the serious limitation in output which is, at any rate, partly attributable to excessive drinking amongst a section of the workmen. He was, I believe, a supporter of temperance legislation for Scotland. His support was not due to any conviction that his fellow-countrymen were a nation of “drunken wasters,” but to his knowledge that a minority were so completely subdued by the drink habit that nothing but strong legislative action would enable the community either to protect them or protect itself against injury done to the state by them.

The difficulties are great enough without adding to them by exciting prejudices so easily excited when there is a suspicion of an attack being made upon a whole class of workmen. No such attack was intended—no such attack was made. On the contrary, the vast majority of the workmen engaged in the production of munitions of war were specifically excluded from any suggestion of excessive drinking that was made. The trouble is, however, that the drinking habits of the minority have the effect of diminishing—and seriously diminishing—the output of war material at a time when the success of the Allies depends entirely on that material being largely increased. The evidence upon which the Government has been reluctantly forced to come to this conclusion does not depend on statements made by employers, but upon independent inquires made on behalf of the Government. The result of these investigations will soon be published.

Yours, &c.,

D. LLOYD GEORGE

As chancellor of the exchequer, Lloyd George was to bring in new licensing laws which curbed all-day drinking for the next 80 years.