Scots Wha The Minister of Shipping has ap-Hae Not for the Bristol Channel ports. the pointed regional representatives ports from Holyhead to Silloth and the Clyde area to supervise all matters affecting the expeditions handling of deep-sea shipping in those districts. The Glasgow dockers are still obdurate on this question of speeding-up the turn-round of ships, believes the "Economist." {A recent meeting of 1.100 of them again rejected Mr. Bevin's scheme for reorganizing their employment and work. Now the Scottish 'Trensport end General Workers' Union has called fcr a general ballot of dockers—the total number is 4000—to settle the matter. Unfortunately. the matter will not be settled. It is Mr-. Bevin's view that his plan to pool dock labour in each area under Ministry of "Transport direction. with a guaranteed weekly wage, is estimated to get the 30 to 40 per cent. increase in the turn-round of ships that he believes is possible. That being so. it is his duty to enforce the plan. It is true that congestion in the ports has diminished. It will Go while sinkings are heavy. But there is every need. sinkings or no sinkings. congestion or no congestion, to clear ships quickly. Failure io do so is tantamount to torpedoing tenn: 4 and the Glasgow dockers. who have everything to gain in the long run from regular employment and assured wages. will be unwise 'li as unpatriotic if they continue to resist, Simply because of the short-run advantage of being able tọ earn all they want, where they want how they want and when they want Rationin; A recent article, replying i i lying tô a Of Senn" cleric who accused Britain of having a standing army of 500- 000 drunkards and a lady who thought that grain and sugar were merely wasted if con-Verted to a liquid beverage, naturally drew upon "Truth" a shower of comment. Many people supported the teetotallers' demand that beer should be rationed, forgetting that the brewers are as much rationed as anybody else. Their position is similar to that of the producers of newspapers—the ultimate purchaser is not rationed for the product, but the product itself is rationed for its materials. Aptly enough there has followed the article a news item cabled to the "Daily Mirror" by John Walters. It reads:—"The longest party in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, memory ended yesterday, when revellers raised their glasses in a last toast to the late J. Norman Scott. of an illustrious temperance family, who left £250 in his will for it. Scott's will ordered that immediately after his funeral pall.bearers and friends should retire to an inn and drink £250 worth of liquor. Last ofa family which for generations had or temperance, Scott often bought people drink up for the joy of my family killed attitude to what. for some reason, is known as "the drink ques-best indicated by a verse from the ellads,' wherein an honest working man remarks to a teetotal fanatic:
"I takes my pipe, I takes my pot, And drunk I'm never seen to be, I'm no teetotaller, and not sot, And as I am, I mean to be Let us by all means restrain the drunkard. and punish him if he is/disorderly, but let us not forcibly deprive the bulk of the nation of its traditional liquor. Particularly, let us not tolerate any sectional group trying to take advantage of the war to enforce on the majority the special fad—whether negative or positive—of an untypical minority.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.