LICENSING REFORM.
(To THE EDITOR OF THZ SPECTATOH."3 Sia,—Many of your readers will be disposed to agree with your correspondent, "A Barrister," in his suggestion that some change in the present system of licensing Is desirable, though they may not all agree as to the precise changes that are desirable. You, Sir, have frequently advocated the method of State Purchase and Control as in operation at Carlisle. This experiment in State ownership has proved most successful, and during the past few months additional testimony to this effect has been forthcoming. For example:— 1. The Conference of Labour delegates from the Trade Unions of the district where State Purchase operates, representing some 45,000 workers, when by a majority of 219 votes to 1 a resolution was passed urging upon the Government to continue the present control in Carlisle and to extend it to the rest of the country. 2. The memorial signed by 81 per cent. of the Church of England Clergy and all the Free Church ministers placing on record their general approval of the work of the Control Board in Carlisle and earnestly trusting that there would be no return to the old system.
3. The Chief Constable in his report for 1919 states, "The continuance of sobriety I attribute almost entirely to the system under which intoxicants are solct in Carlisle, where none of the managers have any interest in the amount of liquor sold, and all are given strict instructions not to serve customers who appear to have had enough."
Several deputations have visited Carlisle recently and reported favourably. Only a few days since a number of ladies, prominent in Social Reform movements, spent some time in inspecting the public houses and the methods in operation, and in the course of a letter addressed to the Prime Minister recording their opinions, said : " The difference in general tone between the public house in Carlisle from those we have seen in other places must be seen to be realised. It cannot but have a favourable effect upon those who visit them and be con- ducive to sobriety and temperance." The public house must certainly be reformed, but it cannot be done through the present system; personal interest in making profits must be
eliminated.—I am, Sir, &c., A. F. HARVEY.
Secretary, Temperance Legislation League. Parliament Mansions, Victoria Street, S.W. 1.
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