HC Deb 01 May 1900 vol 82 c421
MR. MACLEAN (Cardiff)

I bog to ask the Secretary of State for India whether the imports of cane sugar from the British of Mauritius, which the Countervailing Duties Act passed last year was specially framed to protect, fell off in 1899–1900, while those from the foreign states of China and Java rose considerably; whether the cultivation of sugar; in India has been stimulated by the Act; and what is the object of maintaining an Act which yields so little revenue.

* THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord G. HAMILTON, Middlesex, Ealing)

For the eleven months ending February the imports of Mauritius sugar into India were below those of the preceding year, but above those of the year 1898. The importation from China and Java into India in the aggregate for the same periods showed a considerable increase over both preceding years. I am unable to say what the acreage of sugar cultivation for 1899 in India was, as the drought has greatly disturbed the normal conditions of agriculture. The object of the Act was to establish equality of conditions between the Indian cultivator of sugar and the bounty-fed foreign importer, so far as competition ill India was concerned. This has been secured, and I have no intention of reverting to the old and inequitable state of things.