PRIVATE.
Downing Street,
28th December, 1904.
My dear Nathan,
As we may not be able to answer your Despatch as to the Sugar Convention Ordinance at once, it may perhaps be a help to you if I tell you privately how matters stand. At the last Session of the Sugar Commission, certain countries were, as you now know, adjudicated upon and pronounced to be bounty-giving. Now our Government has taken the line that it is not enough, in the case of non-contracting States, to say that their surtax exceeds the Convention limits, but that it must be shown that a bounty has actually arisen or is likely to arise from such surtax. On these grounds the Government have appealed against all the recent decisions, except as regards Brazil, as we informed you in effect in our telegram. Such appeals ought properly to be heard and decided upon within a month, but the other Powers