SUGAR CRISIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 33, 8 February 1930, Page 9

SUGAR CRISIS.

OVER PRODUCTION. Serious State of Industry in British West Indies. COMPLEX PROBLEM. I (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 7. In the House of Lords Viscount i Elibank (Con.) called attention to ' the serious state of the British West - Indian sugar industry, and pressed for the early publication of the ■ report of the West Indian Sugar 1 which recently returned 1 from the West Indies. Lord Elibank said it was perfectly clear that sugar was not' being sold : to-day under free trade conditions. The over-production of sugar which existed to-day, and which was being loaded upon the markets of the world, was very ■ largely due to high protective tariffs and 1 subsidies. 'He suggested that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Snowden, should not remove or reduce the duties this year, and should continue the existing preferential duties. Lord Olivier (Lab.), who was chairman of the West Indian Sugar Con.mission, supported Lord Elibank's appeal. Ho believed that when Mr. Snowden in July last expressed his intention of sweeping away all duties on foodstuffs he was not fully acquainted with the situation. , The commission had come to the conclusion that under present circumstances, even with preference, the West Indian sugar industry could not continue to bo carried on, because of the collapse of credit, and because the statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer had knocked the bottom out of the market. End of the Industry. "If and when preference is withdrawn without compensation," said Lord Olivier, "the whole of the West Indian sugar industry, except so far as it produces for home consumption, will be put into the process of winding up, and at I the end of eighteen months it will come to an end." He suggested that the report of the commission should be submitted to the Economic Committee which the Government had lately set up. At present West Indian sugar growers were producing at a loss of £1 to 25/ a ton. If preference were withdrawn, they would produce at a loss of £5 a ton. Lord Passfield, Secretary for the Dominions, in replying for the Government, said the fundamental cause of the present situation was that production had outrun consumption. The difficulties of remedying the situation were almost insuperable. When the Chancellor of the Exchequer stated his desire, or intention, to sweep away the duties on imported foodstuffs, he was expressing the feelings of all three parties. The Liberal and Conservative parties, equally with the Labour party, were strongly against putting duties on foodstuffs. If relief were to be given to the sugar planters, he suggested that a charge could be better borne by those of tho public who were able to pay, than by tho poorer section of the community. He hoped that in the international field something could be done to deal with over-production. The Minister said ho regretted he had no policy to announce, but the Government would not be slow to consider this matter, the gravity of which it fully understood.