§ 33. Sir W. de FRECEasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, if he will call for Reports upon the attitude of the state towards the taxation of betting in the United State of America, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Hungary, and Spain?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. G. Locker-Lampson)On the 1st May, 1923, a Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed
to consider the question of imposing a duty on betting, and to report whether such duty is desirable and practicable,and for this Committee Lord Curzon procured very full information as to the law and practice of France. The Foreign Office have also a certain amount of information as to Spain, Italy, Japan and Germany. This seems to be a fairly representative selection, and my right hon. Friend is unwilling, unless the wish of the House be clearly indicated, to impose at the present juncture on His Majesty's Ambassadors and Ministers abroad the task of compiling further reports. I shall be happy to show my hon. Friend those now in my possession, if he will make an appointment to come to the Foreign Office.
§ 26. Mr. THURTLE,asked the Postmaster General if he is in a position to state approximately the amount of revenue obtained annually by the Post Office, through the medium of telegrams and telephone calls, as a result of betting transactions?
§ The ASSISTANT POSTMASTER GENERAL (Viscount Wolmer)It is not practicable to obtain a reliable estimate of the revenue derived from betting transactions in telegrams without an expensive analysis of all telegrams sent, and it would be impossible to do so as regards those made by means of telephone calls.
§ Mr. THURTLEHas the noble Lord received any protest from churches against the receipt of revenue of this character?
§ Viscount WOLMERNo, Sir, I have not, personally.
§ Mr. BUCHANANWill the noble Lord state whether it is not a fact that a considerable proportion of the revenue received by the Post Office is from betting telegrams and has he ever tried to arrive at a rough estimate of the revenue from that source?
§ Viscount WOLMERNo, Sir, that is not correct. The amount of revenue received by the Post Office from betting telegrams is comparatively very small compared with our general receipts, and I would remind the hon. Member that the telegraph service as a whole is run at a loss.
§ Mr. BUCHANANIf it were not for the income received from betting telegrams, would there not have to be an increase in the charge for other classes of telegrams?
§ Viscount WOLMERNo, Sir.