HC Deb 26 November 1902 vol 115 c495
MR. GUTHRIE () Tower Hamlets, Bow

To ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the treaty entered into between Great Britain and Sweden, signed at Upsala on the 11th Aprile (9th May) 1654, and renewed by Article II. of the Treaty of Orebro, 1812, wherein it is provided under Paragraph X. that British subjects shall, in matters of commerce, be placed in Sweden upon the same footing as Swedish subjects is still in force; and, if so, whether his attention has been called to the fact that a stamp duty is levied upon insurance policies of British insurance companies, while no stamp duty is payale by Swedish fire companies; and, if so, is he prepared to take steps to place the British offices operating in Sweden upon the same footing as their Swedish competitors.

(Answered by Lord Cranborne.) The treaty of Upsala is still in force, but to which stipulation my hon. friend refers I do not understand. Article X. of the Treaty contains no such provision as he quotes, nor is any such stipulation in any other Article of that Treaty. There must be, I think, some misapprehension.