§ MR. MACVEAGH (Down, S.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether the attention of the Government has been called to a recent decision of the Justiciary Appeal Court of Scotland, declaring it illegal to describe and sell as brandy a mixture of patent spirits and brandy, and upholding a conviction by the Sheriff Court of Hamilton, under the Food and Drugs Acts, for this offence; whether he is aware that the officers of Excise and Customs are compelled by their regulations to allow, in the Government bonded warehouses, German spirit to be labelled as brandy, and English spirit as Scotch whisker; and whether he will see that such legislation is promoted, or such alterations made in the Excise and Customs regulations, as will make it impossible for these frauds to be perpetrated under official supervision.
§ MR. VICTOR CAVENDISHThe regulations of the Boards of Customs and Inland Revenue merely prescribe that Revenue officers are not to concern themselves in any way with labels placed on spirits issued from bond for home consumption, beyond seeing that the labels do not contain any expression implying official supervision. It is not possible under the rules that German plain spirit should be labelled in bond as brandy.
§ MR. MACVEAGHIs it not the fact that officers of Excise are compelled by 199 the regulations to permit these frauds to be perpetrated.
§ MR. MACVEAGHI have seen the regulations, and it is so.