State Hotels

Sir,

I think you were partially misittlormed about the ownership of the County and Station Hotel, Carlisle (V-E-V Miscellany, May). Neither that hotel nor the adjacent County Write store nor the Crown and Mitre hotels were ever owned by the Carlisle and District State Management scheme. The classes who used them were considered to be better behaved and not in need of supervision by the State when they imbibed!

Actually pubs and State managed hotels like the central hotel Carlisle and Crown hotel Wetheral were all well run and supervised; all being spotlessly clean.

The County and Station hotel has now been extensively modernised and is known as the Cumbrian Hotel.

Yost are no doubt aware that the State management scheme was brought, about under the terms of the Detence of the Realm Act in the Ftrst World War as a consequence of extensive inebriation in the Carlisle and Gretna areas at that tune. By standards of that time relatively high wages were paid to workers in the munitions factories. the goodies spent their money on pianos and the baddies on booze whisky was very cheap!

Macclesfield PHILIP RAMBANT

 P.S. The managers appointed to run the pubs had an obligation to refuse sales it they thought a client had had enough. They also received a commission on the sale of soft drinks!