MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)"I beg to ask the Undersecretary of State for India whether his attention has been called to the recommendation of the Calcutta Excise Committee in favour of the acquisition of sites and the construction, at the cost of the Government, of a certain number of model buildings to be used as liquor shops; whether he will state the conditions upon which the proposal has been accepted by the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal; and whether, in view of the direct implication of the Government in the liquor trade which such a scheme involves, he is in a position to state that the experiment will be confined to a limited area, and will not be regarded as a precedent for general application.
§ MR. BUCHANANThe Secretary of State has seen the Report referred to. The Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal has directed that the proposal in question may be acted on in special cases, in which it is impossible otherwise to have proper sanitary safeguards, and an adequate supervision over the traffic. The sites chosen will be chosen with a view not to foster the traffic, but to control it. The experiment is confined to the Calcutta area, the conditions of which are quite exceptional.