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Enclosure in No. 15.
MEMORANDUM.
The British Government are not asking to make any change with regard to the Sugar Convention before September, 1908.
What they do desire is that the Powers who are parties to the Convention should agree upon a Protocol which will free the British Government from the obligations of the penal clause after September, 1908.
If such a Protocol is agreed to before September, 1907, the British Government will not take any step to denounce the Convention at the present time.
But if no such Protocol can be agreed to, the Government will feel bound to give, in September, 1907, the notice necessary to enable them to leave the Convention in September, 1908.
Should, however, this Protocol be agreed to, and should it be found after September, 1908, that the freedom which Great Britain had obtained from the penal clause was damaging the interests of the other Powers who were parties to the Convention, the British Government would be willing to discuss the question with them, though it must be understood that, in their opinion, the present British Parlia- ment would not consent to measures of prohibition or countervailing duties.
If, in the interval which must now clapse before any change takes place in September, 1908, the Russian Government could be induced to become a party to the Convention, it is clear that the risk of the situation being disturbed by the dis- continuance of prohibition against any sugar on the part of Great Britain would be diminished.
Foreign Office,
20755
June 12, 1907.
No. 16.
HOUSE OF COMMONS.
June 13, 1907.
MR. HAROLD COX (Preston) asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, if this country, while declining to enforce a penal clause against bounty- fed sugar, still adhered to the Brussels Convention, it would still be necessary for all sugar imported into this country to be accompanied by a certificate of origin; and whether it was proposed to ask this House to continue to provide part of the expenses of the Permanent Commission sitting in Brussels.
SIR E. GREY, in reply, said:-"In the event of the other contracting States agreeing to exempt this country by supplementary protocol from the obligation to enforce the penal clause of the Sugar Convention, the question how far it would still be necessary or expedient to require imported sugar to be accompanied by a certi- ficate of origin would receive careful consideration. So long as this country con- tinued to take part in the modified Convention, it would naturally contribute its share of the expenses of the Permanent Commission, which are not considerable."
MR. HAROLD COX asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether His Majesty's Government proposed to ask Parliament to repeal the Sugar Conven- tion Act, 1903, and, failing such repeal, whether it would not be competent for His Majesty's present or future advisers at any time during the continuance of the Brussels Convention to prohibit by Order in Council the importation into this country of sugar which the Permanent Commission sitting in Brussels declared to be bounty fed.
SIR E. GREY, in reply, said:-"It is premature at present to consider the question of amending or repealing the Sugar Convention Act, and I therefore cannot deal with the legal point raised in the last part of the question, which depends upon it."
20756
No. 17.
HOUSE OF COMMONS.
June 13, 1907.
SIR E. SASSOON asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he was aware that the production of cane sugar in the West Indies and other parts of
15
the world is appreciably increasing, and that our exports of confectionery in 1906 were approximately 25 per cent. higher than those of 1904 and 1905; and whether, under these circumstances, His Majesty's Government proposed to risk the break-up of the Sugar Convention, and a reversal to the system of bounties and cartels.
SIR E. GREY, in reply, said: "I am aware that the total production of cane sugar has considerably increased in recent years (although this can scarcely be said of the production of the British West Indies taken as a whole), and that our exports of confectionery have also increased approximately as stated. As regards
the last part of the question, I have nothing to add to the statement I made to the House on the 6th instant. The risk involved in the course taken by His Majesty's Government is a matter of opinion."
MR. R. DUNCAN (Lanarkshire, Govan): Is the right hon. gentleman also aware that the manufacture of sugar in our own Colonies leads to a large demand for the manufacture of machinery in this country for the industry in beet- producing countries?
The DEPUTY-SPEAKER: The hon. member must give notice of the question.
20870
No. 18.
HOUSE OF COMMONS.
June 13, 1907. MR. MITCHELL-THOMSON asked the President of the Board of Trade whether any representations had been received by His Majesty's Government in favour of the continuance of the Sugar Convention from chambers of commerce in different parts of the Empire; and, if so, from what chambers of commerce.
MR. KEARLEY, in reply, said: "No representations in favour of the continu- ance of the Sugar Convention have been received by the Board of Trade from any chamber of commerce in the United Kingdom; but I am informed by the Colonial Office that such representations have reached them from various chambers of commerce in the Colonies, a list of which they can give if desired."
MR. STEWART (Greenock) asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he had information of any change of attitude to the Brussels Convention on the part of those foreign States who were favourable to it as it now stood conse- quent upon the modifications of the terms of the British adherence thereto; and whether, in the interests of the sugar refining industry and its allied and dependent trades, which were adversely affected by the foreign bounty system, and which were suffering by the prevailing uncertainty whether there would be a return to it, he would give the House, at the earliest moment, any information of which he was, or might become, possessed of any impending change of position on the part of any of the signatory Powers.
SIR E. GREY, in reply, said:-"The answer to the first part of the question is in the negative. I will bear in mind the hon. member's suggestion, and shall be glad to give definite information when there is any; but I would remind him that no change will in any case take place before September, 1908."
21155
No. 19.
TRINIDAD.
THE ACTING GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 12.18 a.m., June 14, 1907.)
TELEGRAM.
[Printed as No. 22 in [Cd. 3565], July, 1907.]
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