§ Captain BURGOYNEasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, at the request of the Royal Commission on the 1146W Sugar Supply, a well-known firm in the City of London recently made them a firm offer of 10,000 tons of best quality Dutch beetroot sugar; whether he is aware that the firm in question had previously asked for a licence to import this quantity of sugar on behalf of Messrs. Cadbury, Limited, and that the price at which they quoted the sugar was in the case of their offer to the Royal Commission on the Sugar Supply and to Messrs. Cadbury exactly the same; and, if so, whether he will state why the offer was declined and a large amount of a very necessary commodity up to the present excluded from the United Kingdom?
§ Mr. McKENNAMy right hon. Friend has asked me to answer this question. The only offer of the kind indicated in the question which I have been able to trace was an offer of 10,000 tons of Dutch sugar made to the War Trade Department in September last by a gentleman unknown to the Sugar Commission, and writing from a private address in South-East London. The offer was not made at the Commission's request and was declined, because, amongst other reasons, the price asked was considerably in excess of that at which the Commission could have made purchases in other quarters had it considered it advisable to do so.