i2 4 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW 



States, that prohibition was impracticable, and 

 chiefly for the same reasons: the necessity of the 

 revenue for the support of the government, the 

 impossibility of enforcement, and the inopportune 

 time to burden the government with a drastic re- 

 form. But the impossible was the only possible 

 remedy. 



Under instructions from the Czar, all wine shops, 

 beer saloons, and vodka shops were closed during 

 the mobilization of the army. Instead of going off 

 drunk, as they did during the war with Japan, the 

 soldiers were sober, and they were moved with a 

 rapidity that thwarted the plans of the enemy. 



While beer held sway in Great Britain, retarding 

 the progress of its troops and delaying the juncture 

 with the French army, to the loss of Belgium and 

 the peril of France, prohibition sent the Russian 

 army to the front with such despatch that Germany 

 was forced to divide her forces between the East 

 and the West, to the salvation of Paris and, it may 

 be, of London. 



Then followed the Czar's ukase prohibiting the 

 sale of vodka during the war. At almost the same 

 time the Czar's veto was given to local authorities 

 to prohibit the sale of beer and wine. This is done 

 by petition of the people in a prescribed form, and 

 secures the prohibition of the sale of beer, wine, and 

 any form of intoxicating liquor in the district in 

 question, within a maximum period of three months. 

 There is no question of compensation, only the re- 

 fund of a proportionate amount of the licence fee in 



