PREFACE 
THERE is nothing in English history more dramatic 
than the story of Drink Control. For 300 years 
statesmen and reformers devised remedies for the 
abuse of alcoholic liquor which marred English efh- 
ciency and gave this country a bad pre-eminence. 
Most of the remedies advocated were declined by 
public opinion—those that were adopted proved in- 
effective. So ineffective were they that the view became 
accredited that regulation was impossible; so that 
nothing short of total prohibition would achieve 
sobriety. In trade circles, as among the more advanced 
temperance advocates, scientific regulation found few 
outspoken advocates. 
To such a pass did failure to regulate the Drink 
Traffic descend, that in the first year of the Great 
War national efficiency was seriously impaired, and 
defeat threatened through absence of war munitions, 
the supply being impaired by drunkenness among 
munition workers. 
The Government of the day, acting upon the 
initiative of Mr. Lloyd George, took the matter in 
hand vigorously. They gave a Commission—named 
the Central Control Board (Liquor Traffic)—draconic 
powers to deal with the whole matter, in the interest 
of war efficiency. 
The result of the work of this Commission was that