"That in the opinion of this Council, the most effective and necessary means of saving money for the purpose of the war is for the Government to deal effectively for the period of the war with the drink traffic by limiting the imports for its manufacture and curtailing throughout the country its hours of sale."

Such a resolution is quite out of the commonplace for a meeting of the Luton Town Council or any other municipal authority, but, as a result of the lead given at Tuesday's meeting by the Mayor (Alderman J. H. Staddon), it was passed by a considerable majority, and is to be laid before all the Corporations of the country with a request for support.

This arose out of an official communication asking the Mayor to set up a new War Savings organisation. A great effort was made in Luton and district not long ago in this direction, but it was quite unproductive of result. Because of this, the Mayor very candidly declined to set on foot any further organisation of the kind, believing it would be a waste of effort. He followed up this by a sturdy speech calling for the limitation of the drink traffic, at any rate during for the duration of the war, as being the means readiest to hand where a great and wasteful expenditure could be stopped.

Coming from the Mayor, who is outside the regular ranks of temperance advocates in this district and who quite candidly stated that he was not a teetotaller, his argument was all the more striking. Although, as was to be expected, all the members of the Council did not agree with him in the line he took, the resolution was carried by 15 votes to three.

The Mayor's comments and subsequent vote followed correspondence from the National Organising Committee for War Savings, who asked what was being done at Luton.

The Mayor said he hoped he would not be misunderstood. A campaign of war saving emanating from official sources and directed to the working classes was one which came with a very poor example, and he did not think the working classes would listen to it very much.

In Great Britain in 1915, £182 million was spent on drink. It was a perfectly legitimate trade, but if there was a national wastage, that was the greatest and most glaring waste the country was faced with. Unless those in high places were prepared to do something to prevent this waste, the Mayor said he personally was not going to spend five minutes of his time on their War Savings Committee.

On the question of the prohibition of imports, the Mayor said things which were being prohibited were things people wanted to use in everyday life.

"If we as a nation are going to save money, there should first be taken some drastic action in connection with the drink traffic, whereby some millions might be saved. At present I consider it a wilful and unnecessary waste of people's money," said the Mayor.

He said he had given vent to his feelings, and could not be considered extreme or a fanatic on teetotalism. He was not preaching teetotalism or the shutting up of public houses, but unless something was done he was not prepared to call any committee together for the question of war savings.

[The Luton News: Thursday, April 6th, 1916]