PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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Should these Governments come to the conclusion that the wishes and intentions of His Majesty's Government, as indicated above, can only be realised by the com- plete withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Convention, His Majesty's Government will be prepared to give the necessary notice on the first possible date.
It is, however, possible that in the special circumstances of the case the other contracting States might judge it to be preferable to accord to the United Kingdom, by a supplementary protocol, a special exemption from the obligation to enforce the penal clause contained in Article IV of the Convention. They might be more disposed to take this course, inasmuch as such an exemption would be unlikely, at all events for a considerable period, to have any material effect of a prejudicial character upon the export trade in sugar from any of the contracting States. I should point out that it has already been found that the special circumstances of a particular contracting State make it desirable that it should be exempted from certain stipulations of the Convention. Thus, to Italy, Sweden and Switzerland there have been accorded special exemptions from the stipulations of the Convention that were not appropriate to the conditions of the trade of those countries.
In the event of the contracting States agreeing to exempt the United Kingdom from the obligations of Article 4, His Majesty's Government would be prepared to abstain for the present from giving the notice of withdrawal which they would otherwise feel it their duty to give on September 1st next.
Should the Belgian Government be willing to exert their good offices in this behalf, I have to point out that, in view of the meeting of the Commission to take place on the 6th of June next, it would be desirable that communications should be addressed to the contracting States as soon as possible.
His Excellency
Ministre des Affaires Etrangères.
20238
20107
Monsieur Davignon,
avail, &c.,
(For Sir ARTHur Hardinge),
No. 12. MAURITIUS.
PERCY C. WYNDHAM.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 11.13 a.m., June 7, 1907.)
TELEGRAM.
[Acknowledged June 12, 1907, miscellaneous.]
[Printed as No. 21 in [('d. 3565], July, 1907.]
No. 13.
CANADA.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL. (Miscellaneous.)
MY LORD,
Downing Street, June 7, 1907.
I HAVE the honour to request that Your Lordship will be good enough to cause the Secretary of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association, Toronto, to be informed that I have duly received his letter of the 28th ultimo,* urging, on behalf of the Association, that His Majesty's Government should not withdraw from the Brussels Sugar Convention.
I have, &c.,
ELGIN.
19838
13
No. 14.
HOUSE OF COMMONS.
June 11, 1907.
MR. B. S. STRAUS asked the Prime Minister, whether, as the next meeting of the Sugar Convention gives an opportunity to the Government of giving notice of the withdrawal of Great Britain from the Sugar Convention, he would take the opportunity of giving notice of Great Britain's withdrawal.
SIR E. GREY, in reply, said: "The Permanent Commission under the Sugar Convention will meet to-day. His Majesty's Government have intimated to the contracting States, through the Belgian Government, that they consider that the limitation of the sources from which sugar may enter the United Kingdom, whether by prohibition or by the imposition of countervailing duties, is inconsistent with their declared policy and incompatible with the interests of British consumers and sugar using manufacturers, and that consequently it will be impossible for them to continue to give effect to the provisions of the Convention requiring them to penalize sugars declared by the Permanent Commission to be bounty-fed. At the same time we have pointed out that we have no desire to give sugar bounties or to see, a revival of such bounties, or to differentiate against beet or foreign sugars. Should the Governments of the contracting States consider that our views can only be met by the complete withdrawal of this country from the Convention, we would be prepared to give the necessary notice on the first possible date. We have, however, intimated that if the other contracting States prefer to exempt the United Kingdom by supplementary protocol from the obliga- tion to enforce the penal provisions of the Convention, this would render it un- necessary for us to give notice of withdrawal."
MR. R. DUNCAN (Lanark, Govan) asked whether they were right in under- standing that the view of the Government was they disapproved of bounties, but would do nothing whatever to get rid of them.
SIR E. GREY: If the honourable member will study the answer I have just given, I must leave him to draw his own inference.
LORD BALCARRES (Lancashire, N., Chorley) asked when the despatch would be laid on the table of the House?
SIR E. GREY said that he could not say when the despatch would be laid on the table. The future action of the Government would depend on the view taken by other States of the despatch; but it would be convenient that the despatch should be laid on the table after some conclusion was arrived at.
LORD BALCARRES asked whether it was not probable that no decision could be arrived at before the end of next year, and whether, in view of the uncertainty created by the right honourable gentleman's answer, it was not desirable that the views of the Government should be made public promptly?
SIR E. GREY said that the whole gist of the despatch was contained in the answer he had given to the question. If honourable members wished to receive fuller information after studying the answer additional questions might be asked.
Attached to 26035
(Private.)
No. 15.
SIR EDWARD GREY to M. CAMBON.
MY DEAR AMBASSADOR,
Foreign Office, June 12, 1907. I SEND you, unofficially, for convenience of reference, a Memorandum which I have drawn up since our conversation. I am not at present making any communi- cation to other Powers, and am, therefore, sending this to you only. In consequence of the interest which your Government has expressed in the question, it may be convenient to you to have this explanation of our attitude to the Sugar Convention, and of what was intended by the communication made at Brussels the other day.
Yours, &c.,
E. GREY.
• No. 10.