Themes

'Well the problem of the rum issue was one of drunkenness. The problem of replacing it with something else was money. You couldn’t say to the sailor “we’re going to stop the rum issue, but we are going to give you the money it costs instead, and that will be tuppence.” Well you can hardly win the men over for tuppence, can you? So, if you were going to replace it you had to provide something that was, if possible, equivalent to it. Something which carried as much use or enjoyment to the sailor as the tot did.'

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