CO129-404 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1913 [10-12] — Page 44

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COPY.

Enclosure 3.

Memorandum.

The upshot of the correspondence respecting the withdrawal of His Majesty's Government from the Brussels Sugar Convention (Commercial No. 3 of 1913) covered by the S. of S.'s Circular of the 16th. August,

1913, would seem to be that as the result of the withdrawal of His Majesty's Government from the Brussels Sugar Convention and as a further result of the policy of His Majesty's Government to continue, notwith- -standing its withdrawal, to issue certificates of origin of Suar exported to the States still remaining within the Convention, the form of the certificate has had to be materially altered. The form which is now to be adopted and which has apparently been accepted by the States which reus in under the Convention is given on page 8 of the corres- -pondence referred to above. From the certificate and from the cor- -respondence which led up to it, it will be seen that it contains two

points.

(a). that the sugar covered by the certificate is the product of

a refinery at which the operations are carried out under the rigorous control of the Customs authorities. I take it that the "control" means such supervision as to make it certain that the Raw sugar employed at such refinery originates exclusively in States of the Sugar Union or countries not giving bounties on the production or exportation of sugar. (b). that the Raw sugar employed in the manufacture of the refined

sugar destined for exportation and covered by a certificate originates exclusively in States of the Sugar Union or countries which have not been declared by the permanent commission established by the International Sugar Convention to give bounties on the production or exportation of sugar. Now this certificate apparently differs from the old certifi- -cate which was used in Great Britain. Our longkong certifi- -cate which we issue is not based upon any local Customs examination or supervision which would per se enable us to declare positively the origin of the Raw sugar used in the

preparation