The passing of the Betting Act and Lotteries Act brings to an end a long controversy. Broadly the me sure takes the middle course between oppressive restriction and. restained licence, Opportunity has been taken to remove inconsistencies. in the law of the land regarding gambling generally. The now situa tion created Ly the growth of certain Jottery organizations outelde Great Britain and by the development of greyhound racing was in part respon sible for the Royal Commission which reported last year. In considering the measure which will reach the statute book on receiving the Royal Assent, it may be opportune to recall the strength of the Commission from whose labours the measure directly springs. The personnel was designedly chosen to give a representative weight of opinion. The Commission was presided over by. Sir Sidney Rowlatt, an experienced Judge of the High Court, Among his colleagues were Sir Stanley Jackson, the former Governor of Bengal and a famous cricketer, Mr. C.-T. Cramp, a prominent trade unionist, Mr. W. L. Hichens, ex-civil servant and railway director, Sir James. Leishman, Chairman of. the Scottish Board of Health, Mr.. Alexander Maitland, a leading' Scottish Barrister, Sir David Owen, General Manager to the Port of London Authority, Mr. Arthur Shaw "a member of" the Trade Union Council and General Secretary of the National Union of Textile Workers, Sir Sydney Skinner, the Chairman of John Barker and Ca. Two ladies were also included: Mary Lady Emmett, a Justice of the Peace for London, and Mrs. J. a Stocks, the wife of a former captain of the Oxford hockey eleven and Professor of Philosophy at Man~ chester University. This Ust shows that the Commission was eminently sound in its composition. Tt was free of extremists on both sides. Tis conclusions obviously carried great the "Increased' faelilties afforded. for organized gambling, and by publicity Inthe Press.
Sir Josiah Stamp told the Commis. Sion that from an economic point view the population spends too much upon betting. There are of course comfortable views which, white rightly Jealous state interference with the liberty of the subject, deprecate undue in. sistence on the evils here cited. Yet it Is dimMcult to resist the conclusions Teached by a body of men women who carried out a most haustive Inquiry and heard evidence from all conditions of men including the representatives of most of the sporting and gambling organtzstions,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.