LIQUOR IN BRITAIN

Evening Star, Issue 20995, 8 January 1932, Page 9

LIQUOR IN BRITAIN

ROYAL COMMISSION ON LICENSING PRINCIPAL RECOMMENDATIONS (British Official Wireless.) Tress Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. • RUGBY, January 7. (Received January 8, at 1 p.m.) The Royal Commision on licensing, which has been sitting for over two years, and has examined scores of witnesses representing different viewpoints on this highly controversial subject, has now issued practically a unanimous report, although three of the nineteen members dissent from certain proposals. The main recommendations are:—A uniform closing hour of 10 p.m. throughout the country for all public houses, but an extension in establishments where meals are served with drinks; a speedier reduction of redundant licenses; improvement in tho public house as a place of general refreshment; experimental expansion of public ownership; and the creation of a National Licensing Commission to stabilise a policy of more effective control of clubs and special hotel and restaurant licenses. THE COCKTAIL HABIT. RUGBY, January 7. (Received January 8, at 1.10 p.m.)' The Licensing Commission proposes that clubs should be subject to the same law as hotels, with police right of entry. It admits that it views with apprehension the growth of the cocktail habit among the young of both sexes, but in the face of considerable indulgence in the habit in private houses, the commission is unable to submit a recommendation. Lady Ernest Simon is the only straight-out advocate of public ownership.