ABSTRACT
The practical man of the world, merchant and administrator, both directly interested, and the ultimate source of all power, the man-in-the-street, has not moved. While admitting that alcoholic excess is deplorable and by no means to be encouraged he asks whether it is certain that natives drink to excess. Not only did the abstaining Arabs rapidly reduce the drinking tribes in their neighbourhood but those tribes on which they imposed their rule of abstinence rapidly secured an ascendency also. When a section of a coloured African tribe came under their influence and became teetotallers that section rapidly dominated the drinking section. The upshot is that what with European officials, traders, miners, and their staffs of coloured individuals who may be served with drinks, the drinking population in the Muslim teetotal areas, and in the Pagan beer drinking areas too, is already very large and is likely to increase.
