The Departmental Committee who inquired into the Shops Acts have-
issued their Report. These Acts were part of the general working of the Defence of the Realm Acts (generally known as D.O.R.A.), and they were, of course, a necessary contribution to national efficiency and endurance during the War. Even for some time after the War everyone gladly accepted restrictions upon unnecessary labour and upon the consumption of luxuries. But D.O.R.A. had outgrown most of her usefulness and had, as a matter of fact, become intensely irritating. Why should the prohibition in theatres upon selling cigarettes after eight o'clock and sweets after nine, o'clock have been continued for so long ? It was not as though a deserving class of people were being saved from excessive hours of labour ; the staffs of theatres have to be in attendance in any case. The Committee recommend that the embargo should be raised. The only objectors are retail tobac- conists and confectioners, whose grievance cannot be seriously supported.
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