SIR HERBERT ROBERTSI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that the Indian Excise Commission recommended that liquor shops in India should be closed at 9 p.m., and that this recommendation was approved-by the Government of India; and whether any special reasons exist for the extension of the hour of closing to 10 p.m. in the case of liquor shops situated in the neighbourhood of mills in Calcutta.
§ MR. BUCHANANThe Indian Excise Commission recommended that as a general rule the closing hour should be 9 o'clock, but that this limit should be relaxed in special cases, when a special fee should be levied. The Government of Bengal has been advised by the Calcutta Licensing Committee that extension is necessary in the case of particular shops in certain localities where owing to late shifts at mills, docks, etc., the workers do not leave work until a late hour. Such cases are dealt with on their merits by the Board of Revenue, under power given to it by the Excise Act.