§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill."
§ Mr. HOPEThis is a somewhat recondite and abstruse Clause which should not pass without some explanation from the representative of the Government. Sub-Section (1) appears to give a somewhat wide dispensing power to the Treasury, or at least to the Commissioners of Customs and Excise, to state what substances should be mixed for making industrial methylated spirits and mineralised methylated spirits respectively. The second Sub-section seems to suppose that the vicious custom has arisen of drinking methylated spirits. If prohibition prevailed here I could well understand the need for such a provision as this, but I have never heard of it being a practice of any section of the community to drink mixtures of methylated spirits, and I ask either the Chancellor of the Exchequer or the Financial Secretary to state the reason for this Clause.
Mr. GRAHAMThe object of the Clause is to deal, at all events in part, with the problem to which the right hon. Gentleman has just referred, and to try to make methylated spirits more objectionable in order to cut down the consumption of that spirit as a commodity in the nature of what might be called "refreshment." That raises certain rather obscure and difficult questions turning on the Spirits Act and other legislation of the past, and what we had to do was to frame this Clause in such a way as to be consistent with that legislation. In the second place, we had to be perfectly satisfied that any steps we took would not interfere with the full and free use of methylated spirits for industrial and other purposes. The Committee will not expect me to go into the various classes of methylated spirits which now exist, but may I 1048 say that the object is to introduce something into the spirit which would make it objectionable but, at the same time, will be non-poisonous and non-alcoholic, which will not interfere with its industrial use and which will fulfil a variety of other conditions. I am not, even in the most remote sense, by way of being a chemist, but I think it is pyridine which it is proposed to add. I am advised that the admixture will not impair the spirit for industrial use but will make it so abominable that only in very desperate cases is it likely to be consumed as a beverage. I am bound to tell the Committee that it is possible to exaggerate the extent to which methylated spirit drinking has grown in this country within recent years, and I do not propose to make any dramatic declaration upon that point, but there is a very complete Home Office statement—prepared by the police authorities—which shows that in certain centres in South Wales and, I regret to add, also in my own country of Scotland, the consumption of methylated spirits, especially among women, has increased. The result is the rapid and, I am afraid, in many cases the complete degradation of the victim. While the aggregate number of such cases is not large, they are undoubtedly tragic and it is the duty of Parliament, if it can do so, to devise a means of making the spirit more objectionable without impairing its industrial value. I believe, on the basis of the evidence from chemists and others which we have seen, together with the legislative scheme which we have adopted, we have reached that result and with that explanation I invite the Committee to give a trial to these proposals in the hope that they may deal with a very real social evil before it grows to greater dimensions.
§ Mr. HOPEAs I understand the Financial Secretary's explanation, it does not cover the first Sub-section. I should imagine that Sub-section (2), which requires security to be given, including a requirement for the observance of special conditions in connection with the making of spirits, was sufficient. There does not appear to be anything in Sub-section (1) which bears upon the point referred to by the Financial Secretary. Do I understand that the whole of this Clause is directed towards a. measure of social reform and has no fiscal bearing at all?
Mr. GRAHAMIt is true there is no fiscal element in this Clause at all, but I am advised that the first part is necessary in order to secure elasticity, which is not possible under existing legislation. It was in order to make the remainder of the Clause more effective and more certain that we introduced Sub-section (1).
Lieut. - Colonel LAMBERT WARDWhat is the substance which it is intended to put into the spirit? We do not want to make matters worse than they are at present, and, if this substance has not been carefully experimented upon and tested, possibly it may have more disastrous results to the unfortunate victims of this tragic vice than the drinking of the original methylated spirits. I do not know if it is a secret, or if the hon. Gentleman will be disposed to state what is the substance?
§ Major Sir BERTRAM FALLEIs it a colourless substance, so that methylated spirits may be so treated as to be readily distinguishable from the delectable liquor which is drunk by some of the hon. Gentleman's constituents?
Mr. GRAHAMThis discussion really calls for the presence of the Government chemist. I think I am correct in saying that methylated spirit sold in small retail quantities is already coloured, and my information is there will be no interference with that arrangement. As regards the question put by the hon. and gallant Member for North-West Hull (Lieut.-Colonel Ward) I am obliged to read the exact description of the element which it is proposed to introduce. It is:
A quantity of crude pyridine, a constituent of bone oil which is an exceedingly repellant and nauseous substance and which is not readily removable from the spirit.I always apologise for reading anything to the Committee, but I think in the circumstances I may be forgiven on this occasion.