§ MR. LOUGHI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that immediately before or just after the Brussels Sugar Convention came into operation the rates of freight on German State railways were materially reduced, in order to partially make up to the German sugar producers for the removal of the sugar bounties; does such reduction amount to an indirect export bounty; and, if so, whether, under such circumstances, he proposes to exclude German sugar from this country.
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURIn the spring of 1904 the question of proposed reductions of sugar freights was considered by the Permanent Tariff Commission of the Prussian Railways, which reported against the proposal. Since then no change has been made.