§ SIR THOMAS DEWAR (Tower Hamlets, St. George's)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, seeing that the new Licensing Act which lately came into force confers no new powers on magistrates in regard to the reduction in the number of licences in their districts, will he consider the advisability of intimating the present state of the law on the subject to licensing benches throughout the country.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers Douglas.) Before the new Act came into force I issued circulars showing what 484 changes it made in the law. It was clear that the powers long possessed by licensing justices in regard to the refusal to renew licences were not increased by the Act; and I do not think that there is any further communication on the matter which I can properly address to the justices at the present time.