§ Mr. J. Hudsonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many clubs have applied for registration since Defence Order 55c came into force; how many such applications have been objected to by the police and declined by the justices; and what police or other reports he has received as to the cause of the diminution in the applications made.
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§ Mr. EdeThe number of applications was 697 in 1942, 649 in 1943 and 494 in 1944, and it is estimated that the total number of applications made between the 6th August, 1942, when the regulation came into force, and the end of 1944, was about 1,400. The police objected in 183 cases and there were 35 appeals of which the Justices rejected 29. The decrease in the number of applications was no doubt due partly to the deterrent effect of the regulation on persons who might otherwise have applied for the registration of undesirable clubs, and partly to general war-time conditions, such as shortage of premises and supplies, and the fact that persons who might have formed a club in normal times were fully occupied with war-time duties.