§ Sir J. NORTON-GRIFFITHSasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, having regard to the recent demands for the removal of the Entertainments Duty, the special grievances of the smaller and most numerous football and other sporting clubs have been brought to his notice; whether it has been represented to him that the financial existence of the majority of such clubs is imperilled by the continued imposition of the duty, and that large numbers of them have suffered by reason of diminished support owing to the duty rendering their gate prices either prohibitive to their supporters or uneconomic to the clubs themselves; and whether, in view of the great value of these clubs to the life and health of the State, he can consider the desirability of seeking a means of distinguishing, for the purposes of taxation, between such sporting and other athletic clubs and forms of entertainment the taxation of which will not produce such a potentially serious effect upon the health of the State?
§ Sir R. HORNEI cannot trace that I have received representations of the nature referred to. As regards the last part of the question, I am not clear what practical test of exemption my hon. and gallant Friend has in mind, but in this connection I would refer him to my reply of the 23rd instant to the hon. and gallant Member for Basingstoke (Sir A. Holbrook).