THE SOBRIETY OF WEST AFRICANS 303 



503. " The Honourable Mr Sapara Williams : ' I rise to support 

 the remarks which have been made by His Excellency the 

 Governor relative to the extracts which he has read from the 

 speech delivered by Bishop Tugwell before the Native Races and 

 the Liquor Traffic Committee, and published in the Diocesan 

 Magazine of the Western Equatorial Africa for July 1908. I have 

 read the speech as published, and standing here as an Unofficial 

 Member of Council, I am bound to say that it is the duty of 

 this Board to take special notice of the same and to denounce the 

 utterances therein contained. Every one knows that I am an 

 abstainer and one who is entirely opposed to the evils of intemper- 

 ance ; but that fact does not impose on me the obligation to 

 shut my eyes to facts in order to endorse these false statements of 

 the Bishop.' " * 



504. " I do not say that every missionary who makes untrue 

 statements on this subject is an original liar ; he is usually only 

 following his leaders and repeating their observations without 

 going into the evidence around him. ... I have no hesitation in 

 saying that in the whole of West Africa, in one week, there is not one 

 quarter the amount of drunkenness you can see any Saturday in a 

 couple of hours in the Vauxhall Road, and you will not find in a 

 whole year's investigation on the Coast one-seventh part of the 

 evil, degradation, and premature decay you can see any afternoon 

 you choose to take a walk in the more densely populated parts of 

 our own towns." 2 



505. " One of my native colleagues also gave a temperance 

 address. I shall not soon forget the earnestness with which he 

 exhorted his hearers to fight the gigantic demon strong drink. 

 { For,' said he, * unless we put forth our best efforts in this direction, 

 there is a danger of becoming as drunken as the people of England.' 

 This was a rather startling way of putting the case, but it was 

 decidedly refreshing, as I remember there were so many in England 

 who appear to be under the impression that whole territories are 

 being depopulated by the importation of spirits. The statement 

 expressed by my colleague was forceful, but I unhesitatingly 

 endorse it. ... A friend of mine, a most ardent temperance 

 reformer, was appointed District Commissioner of Cape Coast a 

 few months prior to my first residence. At the end of his first 

 term of service he took the opportunity to write to a temperance 

 paper in this country to say that the friends of temperance would 



1 Op. cit., p. 1283. 



* Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, pp. 492-5 



