THE LIQUOR PROBLEM

Evening Star, Issue 20254, 15 August 1929, Page 8

THE LIQUOR PROBLEM

INQUIRY IN BRITAIN TO BE MADE

ROYAL commission selected

(British Official Wireless.) Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. RUGBY, August 14. (Received August 15, at noon.) Tito highly controversial liquor question is -to be the subject of examination by it Royal Commission tn accordance with the promise made in Lite Speech from the: Throne after the present Labour Government had taken office, Mr J. R. Clynes (Home Secretary) announced recently that Lord Amnlroo (formerly Sir William Mackenzie) would act as chairman of the Commission. Lord Amulroe is one o'l the loremost experts on industrial arbitration and an authority on the law in relation to liquor and licensing. The names of ten members of 1 the Commission arc now announced. The liquor interests will be represented by Mr Thomas Skurray (president of the Browers’ Society) anj,! Mr John Morgan (chairman of the National Council of Retail Liquor Traders). The temperance associates on the Commission will bo the Rev Henry Carter (secretary of the Temperance Council of the Christian Churches) and Mr Arthur Shgrwel (who has written, much on the liquor trade). The other six members include two prominent track unionists, Sir Edwin Stock ton (who is a Manchester merchant), a club secretary, Mr Bryson (chairman of the Birmingham Licensing Bench), and Mrs Barton (secretary of the Co-operative Women’s Guild). These six members will constitute a central balancing body between the temperance interests on the one. hand and the liquor interests on the other.

Having regard to the. importance of the questions involved and'the magnitude of the interests concerned, it is understood that ten more members will be appointed, representing all sides of opinion, to reinforce this central balancing body. The inclusion of a medical representative ■is also advocated in some quarters. The terms of reference of the Commission are, however, “to inquire into the working of the laws relating to the supply and sale of intoxicating liquors and into the social and economic aspects of the question, and to examine and report on proposals which may be made for amending the law in England and Wales in the public interest.” The medical aspect of the question is therefore hardly within the scope of the inquiry. No members of Parliament will sit on the Commission, it being bold that they might bo subjected to pressure by electors. The inquiry is expected to last ns long as two or throe years. It will bo for the commissioners to decide whether they shall visit the United Stales to see Prohibition in practice.