THE RIGHT WAY WITH DRINK
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—It is difficult to understand on what grounds, social, material, or ethical, the writer of the article in your last issue on " The Right Way with Drink " favours the extension of the Carlisle experiment in the control of the Drink Trade. The writer is in error in stating that the Royal Commission made such a recommendation. The Commission thought " it desirable that public ownership should be applied else- where under circumstances which will submit the system to a further test of both in a social and in a financial sense," but " we do not refer specifically to 'extension of the system of management as precisely obtaining at Carlisle. There are certain aspects in which we think modification is desirable," and the Report adds, " We think that the management should be removed further from direct State and Treasury control."
The Scottish Commission recommended that the scheme be wound up S3 far as it extended to the Scottish areas, and the Select Committee on Estimates reported that the administration of the scheme was unnecessarily expensive, and that " the time had come when the organisation should be reconsidered." The writer also stresses the fact that the Carlisle system is based on the principle that the incentive of private profit should be eliminated. Yet the supporters of the principle of public Ownership boast of the profits that are being.made at Carlisle, and the managers of the houses confess that the State is in the business for profit. The more drink they sell the better the Board is pleased, they say, and that if there is a decline in sales the Inspectors want to know the reason why.
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