§ MR. LOUGHI beg to ask the Secretary to the Board of Trade whether any, and if so, what, reduction has been made by the Austrian Government in its subsidised steamship lines on the freight upon sugar carried to India to recoup the Austrian sugar producers from a part of the losses entailed on them by the abolition of the sugar bounties; and whether such reduced freight amounts to an indirect Austrian export bounty upon sugar, such as would justify us from excluding Austrian sugar from entering the United Kingdom.
§ MR. BONAR LAWI understand that the Austrian Lloyd Steam Navigation Company have agreed to reduce the freight for sugar from Trieste and Fiume to Indian ports from 14s. to 10s. per ton from September 1st next, on condition that the sugar shall be carried exclusively by vessels of their line. The reduction is ascribed to the competition of Italian and other lines of steamers from Trieste and Fiume. Austria being a party to the Sugar Convention there could be no question of excluding Austrian sugar from the United Kingdom.