Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter One A Tale of Temperance and Drink 1870–1914
- Chapter Two Vodka, Absinthe and Drunkenness on Britain's Streets in 1914: A Tale of Fear and Exaggeration?
- Chapter Three Best Laid Plans? Lloyd George and the Drink Question
- Chapter Four Restrictive or Constructive? The Early Stages of the Central Control Board
- Chapter Five The Carlisle Experiment: Lord D'Abernon's ‘Model Farm’
- Chapter Six ‘Helping our weaker sisters to go straight’: Women and Drink during the War
- Chapter Seven Reforming the Working Man
- Chapter Eight State Purchase and the Waning of the Central Control Board
- Conclusion: The End of the Central Control Board
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Chapter Eight - State Purchase and the Waning of the Central Control Board
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter One A Tale of Temperance and Drink 1870–1914
- Chapter Two Vodka, Absinthe and Drunkenness on Britain's Streets in 1914: A Tale of Fear and Exaggeration?
- Chapter Three Best Laid Plans? Lloyd George and the Drink Question
- Chapter Four Restrictive or Constructive? The Early Stages of the Central Control Board
- Chapter Five The Carlisle Experiment: Lord D'Abernon's ‘Model Farm’
- Chapter Six ‘Helping our weaker sisters to go straight’: Women and Drink during the War
- Chapter Seven Reforming the Working Man
- Chapter Eight State Purchase and the Waning of the Central Control Board
- Conclusion: The End of the Central Control Board
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
FROM MID - 1916 ONWARDS the government faced increasing problems providing food for Britain. Already stretched by the demands of war, the British were further rocked by the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany on 1 February 1917. From February to June 1917, 85,000 tons of sugar were lost, reducing the nation at one stage to merely four days’ supply with meat imports also badly affected. Of all participant countries in the war Britain was the most dependent on imported food with over 60% of its total food supply coming from overseas. Attention was naturally focused on possible foodstuff savings that could be made on the home front. The continued use of wheat, barley and sugar in the production of alcoholic drinks was criticised. Sir Alfred Booth, Chairman of the Cunard Company, remarked: ‘if we are to maintain our armies in the field we shall before very long have to choose between bread and beer.’ Essentially, the submarine action turned the drink problem into a drink and food problem. Another factor in precipitating this course of action was increasing criticism from the US and Canada, two countries in which anti-drink agitation was rising, concerning the justification of supplying Britain with foodstuffs when some of Britain's domestic supply was being used in the production of alcohol. Their support came with conditions attached.
In April 1916 the government passed the Output of Beer Restriction Act which limited the aggregate quantity of beer brewed in Great Britain to twenty-six million barrels for the year ending March 1917. This was a reduction of four million gallons on the previous year's output, and ten million gallons, or 28 per cent less, than that of 1914. It is testament to the patriotism of the trade that such a cut was accepted, especially given that further reductions were likely. This was the first act in an extensive period of reform concerning the use of foodstuffs in the production of drink.
For some these reforms did not go far enough. As The Spectator opined:
The brewery is wasting in the production of an unnecessary luxury the very life of the people … We are no teetotal cranks …
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- Information
- Pubs and PatriotsThe Drink Crisis in Britain during World War One, pp. 181 - 205Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2013