Lord Dufferin’s Government met my views in the most liberal spirit, and with the sanction of Lord Cross ‘The Regimental Institute’ became a recognized establishment, a fact which my colleagues in Council referred to as a second Jubilee honour for me!

At a time when nearly every soldier could read and write, and when we hoped to attract to the army men of a better stamp and more respectable antecedents than those of which it was composed in ’the good old days,’ it appeared to me a humiliating anachronism that the degrading system of the canteen should still prevail, and that it was impossible for any man to retain his self-respect if he were driven to take his glass of beer under the rules by which regimental canteens were governed.  I believed, too, that the more the status of the rank and file could be raised, and the greater the efforts made to provide them with rational recreation and occupation in their leisure hours, the less there would be of drunkenness, and consequently of crime, the less immorality and the greater the number of efficient soldiers in the army.  Funds having been granted, a scheme was drawn up for the erection of buildings and for the management of the Institutes.  Canteens were reduced in size, and such attractions as musical instruments were removed to the recreation-rooms; the name ’liquor bar’ was substituted for that of ‘canteen,’ and, that there should be no excuse for frequenting the ‘liquor bar,’ I authorized a moderate and limited amount of beer to be served, if required, with the men’s suppers in the refreshment-room—­an arrangement which has been followed by the happiest results.

At first it was thought that these changes would cause a great falling off in regimental funds, but experience has proved the reverse.  With good management, the profits from the coffee-shop and the soda-water manufactory far exceed those to be derived from the canteen, and this without permitting anyone outside the regiment to purchase from the coffee-shop and without interfering at all with local tradesmen.

Another measure which I succeeded in carrying through the same year was the amalgamation of the various sectarian societies that existed in India for the prevention of drunkenness in the army into one undenominational society, under the name of the Army Temperance Association, which I hoped would admit of more united action and a more advantageous use of funds, besides making it easier for the Government to assist the movement.  The different religious and ’total abstinence’ associations had no doubt done much towards the object they had in view, but their work was necessarily spasmodic, and being carried on independently of regimental authority, it was not always looked upon with favour by officers.