§ SIR HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield Central)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, (1) if he is a ware that the Federal Council of the German Empire determined on the 13th May last to allow a drawback on all cocoa butter manufactured in Germany and exported to England of 37.50 marks for 100 kilos, that is about equivalent to 2d. per English pound; and (2) whether Her Majesty's Government will take any steps to remedy the 54 grievance of the manufacturers of the commodity in question in Great Britain, who have to pay the Customs Duty now levied at English ports for their raw material, while the same article manufactured by Germans and Dutch comes in to compete with them in English markets absolutely duty free?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. R. W. HANBURY,) PrestonThe Customs inform me that the facts stated in the first paragraph are correct. In accordance with the promise I recently gave my hon. and gallant Friend, the Treasury have inquired into the legal point connected with the second paragraph, and it seems that cocoa butter is apparently not liable to taxation under the existing law. The matter is only a small one, but an opportunity will be taken, should any present itself, to amend the law on it.