§ Mr. HARRY LAWSONasked the Secretary of State for the, Home Department if he is aware that, in the boroughs of East and West Ham, where the borough boundaries run through the middle of Green Street, a precisely similar early closing Order is being differently administered, one borough exempting the sale by butchers of cooked meats after the closing hours named in the Order, and the other borough refusing such exemption; is he aware that, whilst the master butchers, both in East and West Ham, are most anxious to co-operate with the local authorities to secure earlier closing, they are now, owing to the unsatisfactory administration of the existing Order, moving to obtain a revocation of the same; and whether he proposes to lake any action in the matter?
§ Mr. McKENNAI am informed that the local authority in East Ham recently took proceedings under their Order against a tradesman in respect of the sale of cooked meats, but the magistrate dismissed the case on the ground that the sale did not come within the Order. If the decision is accepted by the local authority without carrying the question to a higher Court, the practice in the borough will become the same as in West Ham, where the similar Order is not applied to the sale of cooked meats.