(2) The Temperance (Scotland) Act of 1913 which fixed 0 A.M. as the opening hour for licensed premises throughout Scotland, strengthened the law respecting clubs supplying liquor and gave local option to Scottish local government electors to vote on three resolutions, "no licence," "limitation of licence by one-fourth" and "no change." The results of first elections (1920) gave 35 areas for limitation, 41 areas for prohibition, making 76 voting areas for either limitation or prohibition out of 1,215 vot ing areas, of which 308, all but two, being county areas, were al ready under prohibition before taking the poll, and over the whole area 38 per cent of the vote was for "no licence." Later polls (1923 and 1925) reduced the "no licence" and "limitation" areas by 5 and 2, but in 1929 there were only 29 areas "dry" by vote. (Catlin, op. cit. p. 181).
Emergency legislation in the opening days of the World War began with the Intoxicating Liquor (temporary restriction) Act (Aug. 1914) applicable to civil life and supplementing restrictive orders of naval and military authorities applicable to naval and military areas. This Act gave extended powers to licensing jus tices but still wider powers of restriction and control were sub sequently (1915-21) exercised by the Liquor Control Board created in June 1915, as the authority empowered under the De fence of the Realm Act (No. 3, 1915) to issue regulations under the 1914 act to control and regulate trade in any district to which such control should be applied by Order in Council. The control by the board was first applied to the Lowlands of Scotland and important ship-building and industrial centres of England, and by the end of the war to 29 areas covering three-fourths of Eng land, Scotland and Wales.
In 1916 the Liquor Control Board tried the experiment of State purchase and State supply of intoxicating liquor in certain areas, notably in the Carlisle area where this system has remained as a permanent institution. The system purchased all breweries and licensed premises in the selected areas or districts, closed down some breweries and cut down the number of licences by nearly one-half. Grocers' licences were suppressed and facilities for "off" sales reduced by about 80%.
The Licensing Act of 1921 abolished the Liquor Control Board, and made permanent some of the regulations which the board had instituted. It fixed the permitted hours of sale at nine in London and eight elsewhere, the business hours to be selected between 9 A.M. and i i P.M. in London or io P.M. elsewhere and made them applicable not only to licensed premises but also to regis tered clubs which before the war had been free from such restric tions. In 1923 Lady Astor's proposal became law and prohibited the sale of intoxicating liquor to young persons under 18 for con sumption on licensed premises but allowed non-spirituous al coholic drinks to be served with meals to young persons over 16.
A Royal Commission on Licensing appointed in 1929 reported (1932, Parl. papers, Cmd. 3988) in favour of retention of hours restrictions of wartime regulations, a recommendation which be came law by Licensing (Permitted Hours) Act, 1934, and Licens ing (Scotland) Order, Mar. 10, 1933; reduction in number of licences, and extension of public ownership as in the Carlisle ex periment, under National Licensing Commission.
With the exception of Sweden, Norway and Russia, continental European countries before the war gave little legislative atten tion to the liquor traffic, which was generally recognized by law but permitted with a minimum of interference, largely left to the discretion of local authorities.
Belgium._Following the severe war-time restrictions, a de cree-law of November 15, 1918, prohibited the manufacture and sale or keeping for sale of distilled alcohol (spirits), wines with more than 15% alcoholic content and beers or beverages with more than 8%, excepting necessary alcohol for medicinal, scien tific and industrial uses. In 1919 two bills were submitted to Parliament by the Belgian Government and enacted with slight modification. The law of August 29, 1919, followed by ministerial decree of September io, 1919, had the definite purpose of increas ing the tax on alcoholic beverages to secure increased revenues and, secondly, to combat alcoholism by prohibiting absolutely the consumption of spirits in all places accessible to the public and authorizing only the legal sale of alcoholic beverages in the mini mum quantity of two litres to be consumed off the premises. The other measure was a tax law for licensed premises dispensing fermented beverages, quadrupling the tax upon alcohol, providing for energetic repression of illicit distillation, but leaving the trade in fermented liquors of small alcoholic content free.