§ Mr. FREDERICK WHYTEasked whether, under the new Russian proposals relating to the government of Finland, the control of the Finnish Customs will pass into the hands of the Russian Customs authorities; whether he can state the general ratio between the existing Finnish and Russian import duties; and whether he has received any protest from associations of British traders against the proposal to transfer the control of the Finnish fiscal system from the Finnish Diet to the Russian Duma?
Mr. BUXTONI have received no information as to any new Russian proposals with regard to Customs administration in Finland, nor have I received any representations from British traders on the subject. Under the Russo-German Supplementary Commercial Convention of 1904, Russia is required to give two years' notice of any decision to apply the Russian Customs tariff in Finland, and as far as I am aware no such notice has been given. The scale of duties imposed by the Finnish Customs tariff is in general on a lower level than that in force in Russia, but it is not possible to express the difference between the two tariffs in the form of a simple ratio.