§ 50. Mr. McGHEEasked the Chancellor of the Exchequor whether, having received deputations in past years from persons interested in profit from the sale of intoxicants, he will state why he persists in his refusal to hear representations from any of the national movements which have acquired special experience of the social wastage which attended his reduction of Beer Duty in 1933; and in what way he proposes to obtain recent evidence about the causal relationships between his last remission of taxation and the increase of drunkenness which followed it?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINIt is a practice of very long standing that the Chancellor of the Exchequer should receive deputations from trades which are directly affected by taxation, but that practice does not extend to bodies not so affected, and in view of the demands upon my time I am afraid that I cannot extend it; with regard to the second part of the question, it must not be supposed that I fail to pay due attention to all the effects of alterations in taxation, and I am Always prepared to receive written representations from any quarter.