MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade have the Brussels Permanent Sugar Commission determined that sugar bounties are given by the following twelve countries, viz.: the Australian Commonwealth, Canada, South Africa, Spain, Roumania, Japan, Chili, Costa Rica, Russia, Argentine Republic, Denmark, and the Dominican Republic; is he aware that, in 1903, no sugar was imported into the United Kingdom from the Dominican Republic; and can he explain the grounds on which His Majesty's Government, while prohibiting, in accordance with the mandate of the Brussels Permanent Sugar Commission, all importation of sugar from Russia, the Argentine Republic, Denmark, and the Dominican Republic, has not prohibited it from Spain, Roumania, Japan, Chili, or Costa Rica?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe Permanent Commission has fixed rates of countervailing duty in respect of sugar imported from the countries 312 mentioned in the Question. A certain amount of Dominican sugar was imported into the United Kingdom by way of the United States ports before the issue of the prohibition order. The countries named to which prohibition orders have not been applied do not export sugar of their own production to the United Kingdom.
§ MR. LOUGHIs not sugar sent from Denmark here, although that country is prohibited? Is not that a reversal of policy?
§ MR. SPEAKEROrder, order!