§ MR. LAWRENCE (Liverpool, Abercromby)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies, with reference to the surtax on rum, if he will explain why the Reports issued in response to his invitation to the representative bodies of the Royal Agricultural Society and the Sugar Planters' Association of Jamaica, which set out the local excise restrictions and their effect on the cost of production of rum, were not included in the Return recently published; whether further official correspondence has been received from Trinidad, and whether, under the circumstances, he will allow an additional Paper embodying these omitted Reports and further correspondence to be laid upon the Table of the House.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINThe Reports referred to were not included in the Return, as they did not come within the scope of the Order of the House of Commons of the 13th of February, but were furnished for the information of Her Majesty's Government in response to a separate despatch addressed only to certain West Indian colonies. There is no objection to laying further correspondence before the House as asked by the hon. Member.