An Amazing Remark.

BEFORE the Bombay Exemption Tribunal last week an employee of the liquor distillery claimed exemption from compulsory service on the ground that he was engaged on a work of national importance. The President of the Tribunal accepted the plea and said it was a work of national importance because it involved a revenue of Rs. 30 lakhs a year. It is an amazing remark because, surely revenue is not the main object of the Government in maintaining the distillery, and it cannot be said that the Indian nation will not live when its liquor distilleries are abolished. War service is surely a matter of greater national importance—than that of manufacturing liquor and if the question resolves itself into giving up the distillery or Home Defence, no one would hesitate to say which is unnecessary.