SIR HERBERT ROBERTSI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether the Indian Excise Commission recommended the entire separation of the country liquor and foreign liquor licences in Calcutta, with such a redistribution of facilities as would not increase the number of sites; whether this proposal was provisionally approved by the Government of India; and whether effect has been given to the proposal under the resolution of the Government of Bengal recently issued upon this subject.
§ MR. BUCHANANThe Answer to the first two Questions is in the affirmative. With regard to the last Question the Government of Bengal has not given complete effect to the recommendation, as separation cannot, in their opinion, be effected in Calcutta without an undesir- 1216 able increase in the number of liquor shops. But it has issued instructions which will reduce considerably the number of cases in which licences for the two classes of liquor are held conjointly