§ MR. AGG-GARDNER (Cheltenham)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether Magistrates, who are proprietors of coffee taverns, wholly or in part, can adjudicate on and withhold licences from public-houses within the area in which their taverns are situated; and, if so, whether he will take steps to apply to such Magistrates the disqualification from acting in licensing cases which attaches to those Justices who are interested, however remotely, in public-house property?
§ MR. ASQUITHThe Magistrates in question are not disqualified from adjudicating in licensing cases. I do not intend to propose any change in the law applicable to the matter.