[To the Editor of the SeHerATond
SIR,—I have to thank you for correcting my statement that the expense of the polls following the Oxford Bill would fall on the taxpayers' shoulders. As you point out, the expenses would be met out of the Compensation Fund. This fund would consist of money paid thereinto by the drink trader and of profits from " disinterested " houses. That is to say, the trader would not only have to see his occupation taken away ; he would have to provide the rope for his own execution, a state of affairs with a true Gilbertian favour.
I am afraid I cannot yet see any practical difference between control of the drink trade by a public body like the B.B.C. and actual Government control. In any case, " Popular Control-" is rather a misnomer.
Mr. Harold Backe, in quoting John Stuart Mill, does not back the quotation with any evidence that the alleged " intoler- able hurts and troubles to the commonwealth and the community'.' are great enough to justify an infringement of individual liberty. I submit that, especially now that temperance is making such remarkable progress, the hurts are not enough to justify the infringement and moreover that the infringement would aggravate what hurts there are.--I am, -
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