§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies what is the estimated annual cost to the British taxpayer involved in giving effect to the recommendation in paragraph 50 of Lord Olivier's Report on the West Indian sugar industry for purchase of the British West Indian sugar imported into this country at a guaranteed price of £15 per ton c.i.f.?
§ Dr. SHIELSThe Report of the West Indies Sugar Commission contemplated that the cost of this recommendation would fall on the British consumer and not on the taxpayer. The cost would vary with the current price of sugar and the quantity of sugar which the guaranteed price attracted. At present prices and for the whole crop of the West Indies and British Guiana alone the cost would be about £1,250,000. But the scheme obviously could not be confined to sugar from those territories alone to the exclusion of home-grown sugar and sugar from other parts of the Empire and the ultimate cost might well reach £5,000,000 or £6,000,000 a year.
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies what is the estimated annual cost to the British taxpayer involved in giving effect at the present time to the recommendations of Sir Francis Watts For maintaining the sugar industry in Mauritius?
§ Dr. SHIELSI have no reason to question the estimate given by Sir Francis Watts in paragraph 9 of his Report of 641W the immediate cost of his recommendation, viz., about £235,000 for the present year. His recommendation included, however, a continuance of the payment for five years, and it is difficult to forecast either the amount of the production in the subsequent years, or the market price. Moreover, of course the subsidy could not be confined to the product of Mauritius to the exclusion of other Empire sugar.