CREYHOUND RACING.

Evening Star, Issue 19788, 11 February 1928, Page 6

CREYHOUND RACING.

Thk evils of the new greyhound racing are receiving more attention at .Home at present than its virtues, the chief ot which have been found in its humanity (since there can be no cruelty to a tin hare) and its cheapness, which makes special advantage for it as a sport for the masses. Its real attraction, alter the lit'sfc novelty, which threatens an enormous spread of it if it is not restrained, would appear to lie in the gambling that accompanies it, and it is on this feature that recent criticisms have been concentrated. An influential non-party deputation which waited on the Home Secretary recently was unsparing in its condemnation of this aspect. The sport, it was contended, means little or nothing. The gambling is everything. “ It is an abominable thing,” said Mr J. H. Thomas, “if the Sunday dinner of thousands of children is dependent on the result of a dog race on Saturday night.” And even that, allegedly, is not the worst part of the evil. According to a contributor of the ‘ Westminster Gazette,’ one of the most liberal as well as most responsible papers in England, greyhound racing has extended (he habit of more or less regular belting to hoys and girls. A manufacturer, whose works are near one of the now greyhound racecourses, won quoted by him as saying that gambling is tho most threatening social evil of the ago. The Home Secretary was in entire sympathy with the deputation which waited on him. He stated that ho had already examined the powers of the Homo Office to deal with juvenile betting, and, if necessary, a Bill would bo introduced this session. Beyond that the “grave evil ” would ho considered as a whole in the moral interests of the community, He warned those who were investing money in the new sport that the Government would “devote serious attention to it.” This despite the fact that the Government, through its betting tax, has been deriving a certain amount of much-needed revenue from greyhound racing. The amount, however, has been disappointing. The bets, though legion in number, arc too small. Shillings and half-crowns form the bulk of them, and the tax also is smaller than that on horse-race betting done off the course—2l as compared with 3i per cent. Unfortunately, it has boon pointed out, it is the large and growing army of small gamblers wiio stand to suffer most from the betting habit, and of the steady increase in their number there is declared to bo no question. Opponents have not waited lor tho Government to bring down a Bill. New as the sport of greyhound racing is, there arc several committees dedicated to its condemnation, and one of them is bringing forward a measure empowering local authorities to veto the construction of tracks for racing within their areas. The Home Secretary also has been reminded of his promise to deni with juvenile bet-

ting. For a lime it vvaf thought thatMr Winston Churchill, as Chancellor of tho Exchequer, might find sweet uses in tin-haro racing. The balance of evidence now suggests tho same verdict on it which an outspoken admiral pronounced on Dreadnoughts; “No use at all.”