Foreign News: Liquor Testimony

Britain’s new Air Minister, Baron Amulree of Strathbraan, is also chairman of her Royal Commission on Licensing Laws (TIME, Aug. 4). Last week the Commission, now (like President Hoover’s Law Enforcement Commission—see p. 20) nearing the close of its extensive labors, examined two star witnesses: Sir Arthur Keysall Yapp, Deputy President of the British Y. M. C. A., declared that, “since the War the trend in drinking by British youth has been toward moderation . . . toward beer.” Sir Arthur Balfour* steel tycoon of Sheffield, England, testified: “I have visited the United States about 40 times. … I have made several recent visits of from two to three months each. … A visit to the United States today is almost a nuisance!

“… One can hardly appreciate the changes that have occurred. One of course expects to visit American business offices entirely for business, but it’s a common experience nowadays to do so for quite another purpose. Often you find on arrival stores of liquor present that you don’t want, but it is usually offered to you. “Washington, from being a very desirable place, has become a very undesirable place. … If you ask me if the liquor situation in America is improving or growing worse, I’d say, from my observations, worse — decidedly worse! It is really embarrassing to visit there today.” In advance of the Royal Commission’s report, rumors were current last week that Air Minister Baron Amulree and asso ciates will recommend that the British Government gradually take over the ownership of distilleries and apply the system of liquor control now being employed with reputed success in the Scotch city of Carlyle.

*Not to be confused with the late, great Lord Balfour (Arthur James Balfour. 1st Earl of Balfour), author of the “Balfour Declaration.”