Britain and Liquor

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 742, 15 August 1929, Page 9

Britain and Liquor

ROYAL COMMISSION NAMED Lord Amulroe as Chairman POSSIBLE VISIT TO UNITED STATES British Official Wireless Received 11.15 a.m. RUGBY, Wednesday. THE highly controversial question of liquor in Britain is to be the subject of an examination by a Royal Commission, in accordance with the promise made in the Speech front the Throne, after the present Labour Government had taken office.

The Home Secretary, Mr. J. R. Clynes, announced recently that Lord Amulroe, formerly Sir William Mackenzie, would act as chairman of the Commission.

Lord Amulroe is one of the foremost experts on industrial arbitration and an authority on the law relating to liquor licensing. The names of the ten members of the Commission are now announced. The liquor interests will be represented by Mr. Thomas Skurray, president of the Brewers’ Society, and Mr. John Morgan, chairman of the National Council of the Retail Liquor Trade. The temperance associates on the Commission will be the Rev. Henry Carter, secretary of the Temperance Council of the Christian Churches, and Mr. Arthur Sherwell, who has written much on the liquor trade.

The other six members include two prominent t"ade unionists. Sir Edwin Stockton, 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 constitute the 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 10 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, however, are:

“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 held that they might be subjected to pressure by the electors. The inquiry is expected to last as long as two or thr v ee years. It will be for the commissioners to decide whether they shall visit the United States to see prohibition in practice there.