CO129-326 - Foreign Office - 1904 — Page 210

out that Articles V. and VIII of the Convention of

March, 1902 apply to the Crown Colonies of the Brit-

ish Empire, even though such Colonies have not ad-

hered to the Convention. The Consul has communicat-

ed with the Government of Indo-China but no reply

has yet been received.

Under Article V the contracting parties engage

to admit at the lowest rates of their tariffs of im-

port duties sugar produced by the contracting states

or by those of their colonies or possessions which

do not grant bounties and to which the obligations

of

Article VIII respecting the transit of bounty

fed sugar, are applicable.

I request Your Excellency to draw the attention

of the French Government to the matter, referring

to the proceedings at the twenty fifth sitting of

the Permanent Commission at Brussels on the 12th of

March last. On that occasion Monsieur Delatour,

the French Delegate, made certain enquiries as to

the position of the British Crown Colonies with regard

to the Convention, and as to the terms on which

203

sugar exported from them should be admitted by the

French Colonies. At the following sitting, on the

14th of March, Sir Henry Bergne replied that the

British Colonies had not fully adhered to the Convention

but that in view of the provisions of Article

V. the French Colonies were bound to admit sugar from

the British Crown Colonies at the lowest rate. He

added that instructions had been given to the Gover-

nors of Crown Colonies that all sugar exported to one

of the contracting states must be provided with a

certificate of origin in accordance with rules adopt-

ed by the Commission. There was therefore no rea-

son whatever to suppose that raw sugar which had re-

ceived a bounty elsewhere would be refined in Hong

Kong and reexported thence to Indo-China.

Your Excellency should accordingly ask the

French Government that telegraphic instructions may

be sent to the authorities in Indo-China in order

that sugar exported from Hong Kong may be admitted at

the rate established by decree of 21st August 1903

for sugar which has fulfilled the conditions pre-

scribed

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