Part of Orders of the Day — Dog Racecourse Betting (Temporary Provisions) Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 21 March 1947.
Mr James Ede
, South Shields
12:00,
21 March 1947
I am sorry that I cannot accept this Amendment. As I explained to the House on the Second Reading, in the original draft of the Bill I had inserted "two o'clock," mainly for the reasons which have just been put forward by my hon. Friend the Member for West Salford (Mr. Royle). I endeavoured to meet the wishes of greyhound racing proprietors, because they had been generous to me in meeting the suggestions I made to them, but if I were to go back to 12 o'clock I should not merely be incurring the difficulties mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for West Salford, but it might also mean that people working the half-day on Saturday would be tempted to stay away altogether, or leave at 11 or 11.30 in the morning in order to be at the dog track at noon. For those reasons, I hope that the Committee will support me in my decision.
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