§ MR. SMEATONI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that recent investigation has established the fact that in many quarters of London and other large towns every day of the week, from morning till late at night, the public houses are crowded with women, who not only bring their little children into the heated atmosphere of public bars, but also dose their infants with alcohol; that eminent export authorities attribute the physical and moral deterioration of certain classes of the people to the fact above stated; and whether, in the coming Licensing Bill, he will consider the urgency of including a provision that no child shall, under any pretext whatever, be allowed to enter a public house.
§ MR. GLADSTONEI do not think the state of affairs is quite so bad as is represented by the hon. Member, but I agree that the question—though by no means a new or recently discovered one—is serious, and it is engaging my earnest attention.
§ MR. LEAWill there be a clause in the Licensing Bill to prohibit this sort of thing?
§ MR. GLADSTONEI can add nothing to my Answer.
§ MR. GLADSTONEI will give full information when I introduce the Bill.