§ SIR BARRINGTON SIMEON (Southampton)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the Mayor and justices of Weymouth, at the adjourned licensing sessions on the 10th March last, imposed as a condition of renewal of a licence that women or children should not be allowed to go to a public house where there is a slate club for the purpose of making payments; and, if so, whether he proposes to take any steps in the matter.
§ MR. COCHRANEEnquiries have been made in this matter and it appears that the licensing justices, having ascertained that in some cases young female servants and other women had to go at night to public houses to pay their subscriptions to slate clubs held there in, requested the Mayor to intimate to the licence-holders present at the licensing meeting that this practice was undesirable and might in certain circumstances lead to the licences being cancelled. The newspaper report of the announcement made by the Mayor goes beyond this intimation, but the Secretary of State has no power to interfere in the matter.