1. Sir HERBERT ROBERTSasked the Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that the auctioning of licences for the sale of intoxicants has been re-introduced in Bombay; whether the effect of this has been to increase the Excise revenue and the consumption of liquor; whether he is aware that the Excise Committee of 1905 recommended the abandonment of the auction system; and whether, in view of this recommendation and of the opposition of Indian opinion to this method of licensing, inquiry will be made into the operation of the system with a view to its discontinuance and the adoption of alternative measures of restriction?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for INDIA (Mr. Montagu)The fixed fee system was introduced experimentally in Bombay in 1907–08 and throughout the Presidency in 2650 1911. In a Press note of 13th December, 1917, the Bombay Government stated the reasons which had led them to revert to the auction system. They had found that the fixed fee system had not reduced consumption, that it had failed to secure a better and more honest class of licensees, and that it had led to illicit profits and corruption. I shall be happy to let my hon. Friend have a copy of the note, should he so desire.