On Tuesday the Lords discussed again and rejected by 67
votes to 24 Lord Balfour's Liquor Bill. No objection was raised to disinterested management, and existing Trust Houses were praised. What really killed the Bill was the Lord Chancellor's statement on behalf of the Treasury that the Public Works Loans Commissioners could not possibly undertake to provide all the money that might be required.- -The Commons took in Com- mittee the sugar clauses of the Finance Bill. The beet: sugar bounties and Imperial Preference came in for hard criticism. So did duties on mechanical lighters and on buttons. . The last " safeguarding " duty is just such a piece of Protection as Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Gladstone found it necessary to sweep away after experience. On Wednesday the House voted the ex-Speaker's pension, not without opposition, and Mr. Churchill had to explain the confusion over super-tax and surtax, and to stand up for the Betting tax and the proposed Totalisator.
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