§ 64. Mr. Mathersasked the Home Secretary whether he has considered the effectiveness of the State Management Scheme 721 in assisting to prevent drunkenness in the Carlisle and Gretna districts which caused the scheme to be established in 1916; and whether he will consider extending the scheme to meet similar conditions now?
§ Mr. H. MorrisonI agree with my hon. Friend that in the conditions which obtained in certain areas during the last war the scheme of State management was one of the most important and effective measures adopted to check the widespread evils caused by excessive drinking. Conditions to-day are very different from those which obtained in 1916, but I fully recognise the importance to the war effort of checking any tendency to excessive drinking, and the position up and down the country is being closely watched.