§ MR. LONSDALE (Armagh, Mid)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether His Majesty's Government has received from the Russian Government a communication intimating that the imposition by Great Britain of countervailing duties on Russian sugar would be regarded as an infringement of the commercial treaty between the two Powers, and suggesting that the question should be referred to the Permanent Arbitration Court at the Hague; and, if so, will he say what reply has been made by His Majesty's Government to the Russian Government.
§ *LORD CRANBORNEThe answer to the first Question is in the affirmative. With regard to arbitration, the Russian Government have stated that, if His Majesty's Government expressed the wish to submit the question of the bearing of countervailing duties on sugar upon the treaty to international arbitration, they themselves would find no difficulty in falling in with this desire, and would 1324 consider that the question should be discussed not only with regard to sugar, but generally with regard to all other descriptions of goods. The Russian Government have been informed that His Majesty's Government cannot agree that the case, even if restricted to the matter immediately at issue, is one proper to be submitted to an arbitral tribunal, but that they are willing to renew the offer made in 1899 to denounce the Treaty of Commerce of 1859.