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Looking Back: The Church Of Scotland and the Temperance Act

From 1923


The Church Of Scotland and the Temperance Act

By the Rev William Swan, DD, Convenor of the Assembly’s Committee on Temperance

 

It cannot be denied that the problem of what should be done with alcohol is now compelling world-wide attention. The daily newspapers, the weeklies, and all the magazines bring it before the notice of people all over the world. It is at present a problem of peculiar difficulty for such a Church as the Church Of Scotland. Divergent views are widely held within its borders. It cannot therefore be too much studied and discussed. Agitation and discussion are invariably the forerunners of a change in the general attitude. At last Assembly the finding was of considerable importance. The deliverance (paragraphs 4 and 5) runs as follows. Paragraph 4, ‘The General Assembly instruct the Committee to support all efforts whether voluntary or legislative which are likely to remove the morally destructive effects associated with the alcoholic habit and the wasteful expenditure on strong drink, and authorise the Committee to continue to seek to secure the reduction and abolition of licences by means of the procedure provided by the Temperance (Scotland) Act, 1913, especially at the forthcoming polls.

Paragraph 5. The General Assembly further instruct the Committee to pay all due heed to the former policy of the Church, so as not to divide and thereby weaken the forces which are at work within it for temperance; recognising that the present Act has in its wording revealed serious defects in that No-Licence in one ward injuriously affects adjacent districts; recognising further that many who desire to promote the temperance cause in every reasonable way are of the opinion that additional options should be given by the electorate in the Act, the General Assembly instruct the Committee to consider the need and the desirability of urging an amendment of the Temperance (Scotland) Act, 1913, and to report to the next General Assembly.

The former policy of the Church was the threefold option of Prohibition, Disinterested Management, and the Present System. This afforded a wide scope in a Church where a choice of solutions was favoured. The special object of this reminder is the avoidance of anything that will weaken and divide the forces working for temperance. It is a fact that there were many defects which a revision of the Act will reveal when either the Churches or Parliament attempt it. The existence of any facilities whatever for liquor selling in a ‘No-Licence’ area except for strictly medical purposes is a major defect in the Act from the point of view of many others as well as the writer of this article. The Committee therefore will consider with the utmost care, from all legitimate points of view, the need and desirability of urging an Amendment of the Temperance (Scotland) Act with a view to its report to the next General Assembly.

The immediately important part of the Deliverance is that the Committee is authorised to continue to seek to secure the reduction and abolition of Licences by means of the procedure provided by the Act. It is the mind of the Church that licences should be abolished where people wish it. The experience of the last poll shows that the limitation, by twenty-five per cent, of licences in a district is an ineffectual remedy for the misery and ruin brought to young and old, to families and to homes by drunkenness. The abolition of licences, on the other hand, does bring happiness and prosperity to many households. Is it any wonder that the benediction of the Church rests upon those unselfish workers who labour in the face of indifference and opposition for so desirable an end? The experience of such places as have gone ‘dry’ is sufficient proof of the wisdom contained even in the imperfect Act of 1913.


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