A Drink-With-Meals Bill A mild little Bill, the main purpose
of which was to allow bona fide hotels and restaurants (i.e.; establishments where receipts from food bear a reasonable relation to receipts from liquor) to serve intoxicants with meals up to midnight in London and 11 p.m. elsewhere, was debated with rather surprising ardour in the House of Commons last Friday. The Second Reading was carried by the substantial majority of 203 to 23, the Government giving. it a qualified blessing, subject to various changes in Committee. That is, on the whole, the right course to take. IsIO question of principle is involved in the extension of an hour for drink with meals, but there is a considerable tendency for the meal to be a fiction and the drink a reality. It is no doubt that contingency againSt which the Government is anxious to guard. The pur- pose of the 'licensing laws in this country is to prevent such consumption of alcoholic liquor on public premises as may belikely to lead to intoxication. It is no part of their flinction to prevent a man taking a late meal from drinking a glass of beer or wine with it. But it is quite essential that the meal shall not be merely a pretext for evasion of the 'law which limits drinking pure and simple to certain hours.
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