Protection for Sugar

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21449, 15 April 1935, Page 10

Protection for Sugar

A few months ago the British Government set up a committee of three to report upon the cost of protecting the British beet sugar industry and the advisability of continuing ihis protection. The majority report of the committee, summarised in the cable news, asserts that the value of the industry is not sufficient to justify the cost of maintaining it and that there is no prospect that the industry will ever become selfsupporting. Neither of these propositions will have any novelty for the British public. The cost of raw cane sugar at British ports is about 4s 6'd per cwt, and the British producers of beet sugar receive a total assistance, through the tariff and the subsidy scheme of about 12s per cwt. This means that the cost of growing sugar in Britain is about three times the world market price of sugar. Needless to say, Great Britain is not the, only country guilty of this expensive economic I'oll.y The United States, several of the British Dominions, and practically all European countries maintain sugar industries at enormous cost to taxpayers and consumers. In Australia, for instance, the protection of the Queensland industry means that the domestic price of sugar is about three times the world price. South Africa exports 40 per cent, of its total production at a price of about 8s per cwt, and charges the domestic consumer 30s per cwt for the remainder in order to make up the cost. The curious situation thus arises that Cuba and Java, the two countries which can produce the best and the cheapest sugar in the world, are facing ruin. In Cuba, indeed, the collapse of an industry which supports practically the whole population has brought social unrest and revolution. In America there are some signs of a more reasonable attitude towards the sugar problem and the Roosevelt administration has reduced the protection on home grown sugar from its previous exorbitant figure to a 50 per cent. duty. Whether the British Government will follow suit is, even in the face of the Sugar Committee's report, doubtful. Memories of the sugar shortage in the last war are still vivid; and it may be considered that the maintenance of the British beet sugar industry is necessary in the interests of national defence.

Nationality of Married Women It is interesting to know that New Zealand leads the Empire in the matter of the nationality of married women; and that there is a demand in England for " legislation going at " least as far as New Zealand's." Although Mr Mac Donald's reply to this, which was reported in "The •'Press" last Thursday, was not encouraging, it is unlikely that British women will take it as the last word. For some time past women's organisations in England have been working to improve the position of English women who marry aliens; and they ha\e made their influence felt both at the Home Office and at Geneva. The chief obstacle to reform is the fact that, although nationality is a subject of municipal law, it is clearly of international concern. Legislation on the part of any one country affects certain people in others and may even bring about the undesirable conditions of statelessness or doublenationality. It is probably for this reason that the British Government advised the modification of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens (in New Zealand) Act, and opposes its extension to Great Britain. The Hague Convention, the work of a League of Nations committee on the nationality of married women, was, however, recently ratified by Great Britain and made a part of English municipal law. This law now provides, in accordance with the convention, that when a husband changes his nationality the wife does not do so unless she takes the necessary measures herself; and that a woman does not adopt her husband's nationality on marriage unless she loses her own. Thus, although a British woman cannot keep her nationality on marriage to an alien, the law makes provision for the women of other countries, such as the United States, who may do so. The American law gives to women the same rights regarding nationality as to men; that is, they do not change their nationality on marriage unless they wish to, and have fulfilled the necessary conditions. After the adoption of a convention on these lines by a number of the American states in 1934, it became the aim of the British • women's organisations to have this system sponsored by the League and to secure its universal acceptance. Very similar, in its object, to the American policy was the bill introduced into the New Zealand Parliament last session. Great Britain, however, has asked her to keep in step with the rest of the Empire. Yet eventually they must all march in this direction; and it can be hoped that New Zealand's action will speed their progress.