[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sm,—The Report of the
Licensing Commission suggests that the hotel industry has been cramped by being treated on the fa-ne basis as public houses ; also that the insecurity of the necessary licence and close restrictions in structural alterations have also prevented the growth and improvement of the industry. This is quite true, but possibly one of the principal, if not the main reason, is the fact that hitherto it has not been possible to induce persons drawn from the educated classes to take up the industry seriously as a calling demanding a long apprenticeship at home and abroad.
The status of the hotel keeper is practically thesame as that of the keeper of a public house, and parents hesitate to allow their sons to enter an industry offering no higher status. The honie hotel industry will never be able to compete with that of the Continent until it is able to draw its personnel from as good a class of the community. On the Continent the status of the industry is a high one, and young men of good parentage are content to enter the industry and to undergo an apprenticeshiP of three or four years. Similar training to that available on the Continent will be supplied towards the end of this year by the London County Council Technical School in Vincent Square, at considerably lower fees than those obtaining on the Continent.
The recommendation that hotels and restaurants should have a separate licence, so as definitely to differentiate them from public houses, will have the effect of immediately im- proving the status of the industry.—I am, Sir, Bre:,
' A CORRESPONDENT.
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