THE BRITISH LIQUOR BILL

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2452, 4 May 1915, Page 6

THE BRITISH LIQUOR BILL

i ANXIETY OF THE " TRADE " London, May 2,

: '.The liquor trade is anxiously consider* ' irig the Drink .Bill. Generally, there is no quarrel with its scope or with the powers the' Government i£ taking, arid y. the trade is prepared to submit if it is • proved that the situat'on i 3 as serious as Mr. Lloyd George (Chancellor of. the Exchequer) describes it to bo. ' Hotels and clubs liave laid in immense stocks, particularly of whisky, the retail price of which is expected to be immediately doubled. JThe wine trade is anxiously organising in the hope of ail amendment as regards 1 the stringency of taxes, which,, it. declares,' would prove a death-blow to the trade. —("Times", and Sydnej "Sun" Services.) (Rec. May 3,11.30 p.m.) London, May 3. f A White Paper has been issued on which Mr. Lloyd George based his drink crusade. .The reports of the naval authorities in the various shipbuilding areas indicate that partial measures were useless, and that total prohibition , was the only remedy outside of martial law. Early morning drinking was chiefly responsible for the slackness. The Admiralty's Superintendent at the Clyde reported that some repairs to warships were so bad as to suggest that sober men could not have done ■ them. He would like to 1 see the -whole of Glasgow cut down to four o'clock 1 closing, and Dumbarton, placed within the drink question area. The Naval Director at the Tyne states that the whole labour outlook was deplorable, uncertain, and Extra wages accentuated the difficulty. Admiral Sir John Jellicoe wrote that • labour difficulties had delayed destroyers dooking for refits. _ ' Home Office inquiries show that the Siain reasons were staleness and fatigue, due to long hours and the -unusually .wages leading to loafing and drinking, but drink was the chief trouble.

EARLY CLOSING IN SYDNEY. (Rec. May 4,' 1.40 a.m.) ,• Sydney, May 3. At a public meeting held in the Town Hall, it was. unanimously resolved to favour the closing of hotels at ' six o'clock;