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(Confidential.)
16
No. 20.
FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received June 17, 1907.)
The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs presents his compliments to the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies and, by direction of the Secretary of State, transmits herewith copy of the under-mentioned paper.
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He would like to know whether he might say to his Government that if an agreement was come to, to let things go on as they were, leaving us free from the penal clause, and experience showed that the results were damaging to France, our Government would be ready to re-open the discussion in the course of the year.
I said I must consult my colleagues before saying anything quite so definite as that, and I promised to do so. But what I could say now was that we hoped the other Governments who were parties to the Sugar Convention would make a trial of the course which we suggested, and if experience showed that course to be unsatis- factory to them, it would, of course, be open to them to approach us, though I could not hold out hope that we should agree to anything which bound us to the penal clause.
Foreign Office,
June 15, 1907.
His Excellency
The Right Honourable
&c.,
Sir F. Bertie, G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O.,
&c.,
&c.
No. 21.
DESCRIPTION OF ENCLOSURE.
Name and Date.
Subject.
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I am, &c.,
E. GREY
To Sir F. Bertie (Paris), No. 90A Commercial, Sugar Convention.
June 8.
SIR,
Copy sent also to Treasury, Board of Trade, and India Office.
Enclosure in No. 20.
(No. 90A.
Commercial. Confidential.)
Foreign Office,
June 8, 1907. MONSIEUR CAMBON came to tell me to-day that Monsieur Pichon had been greatly surprised and embarrassed by our decision with regard to the Sugar Con- vention. He had hoped that, at any rate, there would be an opportunity for dis- cussion with the French Government before a final decision was come to. But, as a matter of fact, a communication of our decision from Brussels had been the first announcement to reach him. He viewed with great apprehension what the course of events might be. If England withdrew from the Convention, France, in order to protect her own sugar interests, might be thrown into an economic alliance with Germany, which was bound to have political consequences.
Monsieur Cambon very much regretted this difficulty, and was most anxious that we should not regard the matter as finally settled, and should in some way manage to leave the door open for discussion.
I explained to Monsieur Cambon that, in giving him the Memorandum on the decision of the Government, I had perhaps omitted to emphasise the point that it was a decision of the Cabinet, and that I had been unable to give him the Memo- randum sooner because it had been necessary for the Government to come to a decision before the meeting of the Sugar Commission on the 6th; in consequence of the pressure of business they had been able to come to a decision only at the last moment, and that was why the instructions to Brussels and the Memorandum to Monsieur Cambon had necessarily been drawn up at the same time.
I also explained to Monsieur Cambon that the Liberal Party had always been opposed to the continuation of the Convention. A large section of the Party desired the Convention to be denounced unconditionally. And it was greatly in deference to the feeling of the French Government that the Cabinet had decided not to' denounce the Convention unconditionally, but to remain parties to it if Great Britain was freed from the penal clause.
All I could suggest was that the other Powers should consent to this course and free us from the penal clause, in which case we should not denounce the Con- vention in September. A trial could then be made of the course which we had taken.
Monsieur Cambon said he assumed that we should continue to apply the penal clause until September, 1908, and that it would be only after that our ports would be open to sugar from countries which gave bounties.
-
HOUSE OF COMMONS.
June 17, 1907.
MR. MITCHELL-THOMSON (Lanarkshire, N.W.) asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether any representations had reached the Colonial Office from various chambers of commerce in the Colonies and India as to the import- ance of preventing the reimposition of sugar bounties and the formation of cartels; and, if so, from what Chambers of Commerce.
MR. CHURCHILL, in reply, said :- Representations on the subject of the Sugar Convention have been received from the following chambers of commerce and similar bodies in the Colonies as well as one from the Legislatures of Barbados and St. Kitts: Agricultural and Commercial Society, Antigua; Westmoreland Sugar Planters' Association, Jamaica; Northside Sugar Planters' Association, Jamaica; Montreal Board of Trade; British Guiana Planters' Association; Chamber of Commerce, Georgetown, British Guiana; Chamber of Commerce of the Orange River Colony; Chamber of Commerce of Pietermaritzburg; Barbados Committee of Commerce; Barbados Agricultural Society; Chamber of Commerce, Singapore; Vancouver Board of Trade; British Guiana Board of Agriculture; Sierra Leone Chamber of Commerce; Chamber of Commerce, Geelong, Victoria; Charters Towers Chamber of Commerce, Queensland; Canadian Manufacturers' Association, Toronto; Chamber of Agriculture, Mauritius; Chamber of Commerce and Agri- cultural Society, Trinidad. As regards India I must refer the hon. Member to the India Office.
MR. FLYNN (Cork, N.): Have not all these localities a direct pecuniary interest in keeping up the price of sugar?
MR. CHURCHILL: It is very likely.
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No. 22.
HOUSE OF COMMONS.
June 17, 1907.
MR. REMNANT (Finsbury, Holborn) asked the Prime Minister whether, in the event of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Brussels Convention, it was the intention of His Majesty's Government to take any steps, by the imposition of countervailing duties or otherwise, to check the unfair competition of bounty- fed sugar with sugar which had not received such bounties.
SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN, in reply, said:-
:-"The position of His Majesty's Government with respect to countervailing duties and other methods of restricting the sources from which we may draw our supplies of sugar was clearly explained in the statement made to the House on the 6th instant by my right hon. friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. To that statement I have nothing to add."
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