MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)To ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, having regard to the stipulation in the Sugar Convention that it shall be ratified on the 1st February, 1903, he proposes, during the present session, to ask the sanction of Parliament to that Convention.
(Answered by Mr. A. J. Balfour.) Effect cannot be given to the provisions of the Sugar Convention without an Act of Parliament. The Convention, however, does not come into force until 1st September, 1903, although it has to be ratified by the 1st February next. The Government propose to ask for the sanction of Parliament by way of Resolution, which will enable them to ratify it before the latter date, 1st February.