§ MR. CAINEasked the Judge Advocate General, The number of punishments for drunkenness, or for offences arising out of drunkenness, in the Army during the year 1881; and, if it is true that in the Recruiting Circular recently issued through the Post Office, four special advantages are offered to soldiers enlisting, one of which is that "Beer may be obtained from the Regimental Canteens at very low rates?"
§ THE JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL (Mr. OSBORNE MORGAN),in reply, said, that the total number of punishments inflicted on soldiers for drunkenness by court martial and by commanding officers in 1881 was 43,606. The total number of individuals so punished during the same period was 23,255. That number, he was sorry to say, was somewhat in excess in each case of the numbers returned for the year 1880, though very considerably less than the average for the last 10 years. As to the number of punishments for crimes arising out of drunkenness in the Army during the same period, he regretted that he was quite unable to give it, as there was no separate record kept of such offences, and it would be exceedingly difficult to make out such a record; but he might say that, as in the case of civilians, a very large proportion of the crimes of 1583 violence and insubordination committed by soldiers were committed by them while under the influence of drink. As to the second part of the Question of his hon. Friend, it was quite true that the purchase of beer, tobacco, &c, from the regimental canteen at low rates, together with other privileges, such as the use of a library, recreation room, and gymnasium, were offered as inducements to recruits to enlist by the Post Office Circular referred to in the Question; but he might say that the beer so supplied was of a very wholesome quality, and cases of drunkenness arising from its consumption were most rare; in fact, almost unknown. He would add that no spirits were sold in canteens at all, and he thought he might say that the real cause of drunkenness in the Army was certainly not the beer sold in the canteens, but the abominable stuff which soldiers obtained, under the name of spirits, in the low public-houses in the neighbourhood of their barracks, and for which the beer was intended, as far as possible, to be a substitute.