§ MR. HAROLD COX (Preston)I beg to ask the Prime Minister whether the statement in the despatch to His Majesty's Minister at Brussels respecting the International Sugar Convention, to the effect that His Majesty's Government-have no desire that there should be a revival of sugar bounties, was intended 1177 as a general declaration of policy with regard to bounties; and whether the objection here expressed to sugar bounties given by foreign countries is to be accepted as also applying to shipping bounties provided at the expense of this country.
§ SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANMy hon. friend will see, if he turns to the despatch, that the declaration in question was concerned with sugar bounties alone. The attitude of His Majesty's Government towards bounties in general is, I think, very well known to my hon. friend, and there is no reason, so far as I am aware, why I should enter into the question now.