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SUPPLY AND SALE OF INTOXICATING
LIQUOR.
(Previous
Reference: Cabinet 53 (27). Con- clusion 4.)
1
6. The Cabinet had before them a Memorandum.
by the Tome Secretary (Paper C.F.-182 (28)) on
the Liquor Disinterested Ownership and Management)
Bill, introduced in the House of Lords by Lord
Balfour of Burleigh, which was due for Second
The two main principles Reading on June 20th.
involved in the Bill were, first, that, given
certain conditions, there should be substituted
a system of public ownership and management in
the liquor trade for the present system of private
enterprise: second, that the question whether
such substitution should or should not be made
should be left to be determined locally by a poll.
In this Memorandum the Home Secretary reported
that, whatever the merits or demerits of the
principles in lved, the Bill was not good as a workable proposition, and probably not susceptible
of satisfactory amendment. Sir William Joynson-
Ficks suggested that opposition to the Bill should
be coupled with specific assurances regarding the
continuance of existing schemes for disinterested
ownership and management of public-houses.
After a short discussion the Cabinet agreed
(a) That the representative of the
Government in the House of Lords should oppose the Bill referred to in the Home Secretary's Memo- randum on merits and without making any declaration on the question of Government policy on the subject of disinteres ted management:
(b) That the Lord Frivy Seal should arrange with the Home Secretary as to which Minister would speak for the Government on the subject.
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