§ SIR HENRY KIMBER (Wandsworth)I beg to ask the Prime Minister what is intended by the Government to happen under the Licensing Bill, either during the fourteen years time-limit or at the end of that period, as regards hotels of which the following are examples, namely, a hotel built on ground held on lease at a ground rent of £1,600 a year and on which £1,50,000 has been spent in building and equipment, such hotel having or not having a tap, and a hotel built on a freehold site, acquired and built expressly as a hotel, at a cost of, say, including equipment, £50,000, and which only supplies liquors to its internal guests, and having no tap.
§ MR. ASQUITHIt is quite impossible to answer an abstract question such as this, or even to say what will happen in a concrete case during or after the next fourteen years. But it may be pointed out that hotels, to which the holding of a licence is merely auxiliary, such as, perhaps, the hon. Member has in mind, are to be given special consideration both in regard to the reduction scheme (see First Schedule, Modification No. 2) and in regard to prohibition (see Clause 2 (6)).
§ MR. AKERS-DOUGLAS (Kent, St. Augustine's)Does the Prime Minister intend at the close of the Second Reading debate to move to refer the Licensing Bill to a Committee of the Whole House?
§ MR. ASQUITHYes, Sir.
§ LORD R. CECIL (Marylebone, E.)Is it intended that the provisions of subsection 2 of Clause 3 shall apply to all licences existing at the end of the reduction period?
§ MR. ASQUITHsaid that subsection 2 of Clause 3 would, in the absence of fresh legislation, apply to all licences existing at the end of the reduction period; but it was quite clear from the wording of the subsection that further legislation on this subject was contemplated as necessary.