MR. HERBERT (Buckinghamshire, Wycombe)To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Additional Act of 28th August, 1907, especially having regard to Article 3, operated as a notice terminating the existing Sugar Convention on 1st September, 1908, and as the making of a fresh and different Convention for five 1687 years from 1st September, 1908; and, seeing that the Sugar Convention Act, 1903, which authorised the making of Orders in Council and regulations under the original Convention, cannot give validity to regulations carrying out a fresh Convention upon different terms and for a period not contemplated by the Act of 1903, will he say whether it is proposed to introduce a Bill to give power to make Orders in Council and regulations which will be valid after 1st September, 1908.
(Answered by Secretary Sir Edward Grey.) In reply to the first part of the Question, I beg to refer the hon. Member to Paragraph 1 of Article 1 of the Additional Act, where it is stated that "the contracting States undertake to maintain the Convention of 5th March, 1902, in force for a fresh period of five years, commencing on 1st September, 1908." With regard to the necessity for further legislation suggested in the second part of the Question, I would refer the hon. Member to my reply to his Question on 27th May, and to the reply given in this House on 26th May to a Question put by the hon. Member for Brighton.