§ Mr. Morganasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what steps he proposes to take to ensure that there shall be a global increase in. the British-Colonial sugar quota under the international agreement, in view of the fact that failure to ensure an increase will result in Jamaica having to reduce her crops for 1938–39 and her plantings for 1939–40, with a consequent reduction of some £100,000 a year in wages to the Jamaican sugar industry?
Mr. M. MacDonaldThe basic quota for the British Colonial Empire is fixed at 965,254 metric tons under the International Sugar Agreement, and can only be increased in any quota year if the consumption requirements of the United Kingdom and the Empire as a whole in that year are in excess of the requirements for the year ended the 31st August, 1937. I have no means of ensuring that this condition will be fulfilled in the coming quota year.