§ SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can now explain the conditions under which the Russian Government is prepared to adhere to the Brussels Sugar Convention; and whether His Majesty's 366 Government have assented to any stipulations intended to restrict the importation of sugar into the United Kingdom.
(Answered by Sir Edward Grey.) Russia is to be permitted to maintain her present fiscal and customs legislation on the subject of sugar, and is not to increase the advantages which producers might derive from the maximum sale price fixed for the home market. She also undertakes not to authorise the exportation, with the exemption from or remission of excise, of sugar exceeding a total of 1,000,000 tons in the period of six years from the 1st September last; but this engagement does not apply to exports to Finland, to Persia by land or by the Caspian Sea, and to Russia's other neighbours in Asia by land, with the exception of Turkey in Asia. The assent of His Majesty's Government has only been given to the provisions of the Protocol allowing Russia to adhere to the Convention, and does not imply assent to any of the stipulations tending to restrict the exportation of Russian sugar. Papers on the subject will be presented to-morrow. His Majesty's Government are freed from any obligation to prohibit, or restrict, or penalise in any way the importation of sugar into the United Kingdom from whatever source it may be derived.