§ MR. LAWRENCE (Liverpool, Abercromby)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he has any further information to give the House as to the results which have accrued from the operation of the countervailing duties imposed in India in March, 1899, on imports on bounty-fed sugar; and whether he has any statistics showing increase in cultivation or refining of sugar.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONThe countervailing duties have been so lately introduced, and recent seasons have been so abnormal, that it is impossible to give any trustworthy account of the effect of this measure upon sugar production in India, So far there has been no increase in cultivation or in the refining of sugar in India.