The increased consumption of alcoholic beverages in Canada since the outbreak of war is one evidence of this.
Regardless of what one's attitude towards prohibition may be, temperance is something against which, at a time of war, no reasonable protest can be made.
When gasoline and rubber are rationed, electric power and transport facilities are becoming increasingly scarce, and manpower shortages are developing, it is difficult for people to understand their increased use for other than the most vital needs of war.
Only the man who disciplines himself strictly can stand for long the terrific pace of modern war.
Workers in industry are the partners in war of the fighting forces.
Let it be remembered, too, that at a time of war, nearly every one is under great strain.
From the outset of the war, the Canadian people have clearly shown that it is their desire to help in every way to make Canadas war effort as effective as possible.
No one will deny that the excessive use of alcohol and alcoholic beverages would do more than any other single factor to make impossible a total war effort.
If the military might of Germany and Japan are ultimately to be crushed, the United Nations, one and all, must definitely and urgently strive toward a total war effort.
On behalf of the federal government, I wish now publicly to appeal to the provinces to lend their co-operation in furthering our country's war effort by effecting at as early a date as may be possible this much needed restriction.
The greatly increased consumption of alcoholic beverages is very largely a direct result of the increased purchasing power created by wartime expenditures.