HC Deb 13 February 1922 vol 150 c634W
Sir C. HIGHAM

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has been called to the action brought in the King's Bench Division of the High Court by the Customs authorities against the Essex County Cricket Club in which Mr. Justice Roche last week gave judgment, the effect of which was to make members' annual subscriptions liable to entertainment duty; whether the effect of such judgment is to tax a member for viewing a cricket match on the ground of which he is part owner; whether he is aware that a large percentage of the members whose subscriptions will he taxed join the club not for personal entertainment (as only about 25 per cent. ever enter the ground) but to encourage and foster cricket in their particular district; and whether, considering what this country owes to sport and that the taxing of members' subscriptions which are primarily collected for the maintenance and upkeep of the athletic grounds will materially increase the present difficulty of these clubs, he will consider an early amendment of the law?

Mr. YOUNG

I would refer my hon. Friend to the answer which my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer gave on the 9th instant in reply to the hon. and gallant Member for East Lewisham (Lieut.-Colonel Pownall).