§ MR. HAROLD COX (Preston)I bog to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, if this country, while declining to enforce a penal clause against bounty-fed sugar, still adheres to the Brussels Convention, it will still be necessary for all sugar imported into this country to be accompanied by a certificate of origin; and whether it is proposed to ask this House to continue to provide part of the expenses of the Permanent Commission sitting in Brussels.
§ SIR EDWARD GREYIn the event of the other contracting States agreeing to exempt this country by supplementary protocol from the obligation to enforce the penal clause of the Sugar Convention, the question how far it would still be necessary or expedient to require imported sugar to be accompanied by a certificate of origin would receive careful consideration. So long as this country continued to take part in the modified Convention, it would naturally contribute its share of the expenses of the Permanent Commission, which are not considerable.
§ MR. HAROLD COXI bog to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether His Majesty's Government proposes to ask Parliament to 1591 repeal the Sugar Convention Act, 1903, and, failing such repeal, whether it will not be competent for His Majesty's present or future advisers at any time during the continuance of the Brussels Convention to prohibit by Order in Council the importation into this country of sugar which the Permanent Commission sitting in Brussels declares to be bounty-fed.
§ SIR EDWARD GREYIt is premature at present to consider the question of amending or repealing the Sugar Convention Act, and I therefore cannot deal with the legal point raised in the last part of the Question, which depends upon it.
§ SIR EDWARD SASSOONI beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that the production of cane sugar in the West Indies and other parts of the world is appreciably increasing, and that our exports of confectionery in 1906 wore approximately 25 percent. higher than those of 1904 and 1905; and whether, under these circumstances, His Majesty's Government propose to risk the break up of the Sugar Convention and a reversal to the system of bounties and cartels.
§ SIR EDWARD GREYI am aware that the total production of cane sugar has considerably increased in recent years (although this can scarcely be said of the production of the British West Indies taken as a whole) and that our exports of confectionery have also increased approximately as stated. As regards the last part of the Question, I have nothing to add to the statement I made to the House on the 6th instant† The risk involved in the course taken by His Majesty's Government is a matter of opinion.
§ MR. R. DUNCAN (Lanarkshire, Govan)Is the right hon. Gentleman also aware that the manufacture of sugar in our Colonies leads to a large demand for the manufacture of machinery in this country for the industry in beet producing countries?
† See (4) Debates, clxxv., 838.
§ MR. STEWART (Greenock)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has information of any change of attitude to the Brussels Convention on the part of those foreign States who are favourable to it as it now stands consequent upon the modifications of the terms of the British adherence thereto; and whether in the interests of the sugar-refining industry and its allied and dependent trades, which wore adversely affected by the foreign bounty system and which are suffering by the prevailing uncertainty whether there will be a return to it, he will give the House, at the earliest moment, any information of which ho is or may become possessed of any impending change of position on the part of any of the signatory Powers.
§ SIR EDWARD GREYThe Answer to the first part of the Question is in the negative. I will boar in mind the hon. Member's suggestion, and shall be glad to give definite information when there is any, but I would remind him that no change will in any case take place before September, 1908."