SUGAR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 24, 27 July 1907, Page 5

SUGAR.

THE BRUSSELS CONVENTION. By Telegraph. — P.oss Assorintian.— Copyrigat. (Received July 27, B.^o a.m.) Lu..-»oN, '26th July. At a meeting of tho Permanent International Sugar Committee thero were in. dications that tho signatory Governments aro desirous of finding a solution which will allow Britain to lcmain a party to \tho Brussels Convention. There are few moasur& i ; affecting the trad*' relations of Gro-.xt Britain with the rest of the world '-which have been more keenly debated on tho political platform than tho Brussels Sugar Convention. This five years' agreement was entered into by ten States — Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria and Hungary, Italy. Holland, Luxembourg, Sweden, and Peru. It was signed on sth March, 1902, passed by Parliament on 6th August of tho following year, and came into force on Ist September, 1903. It was an anti-bounty agreement,' by which an the signatory Governments wero to do away with direct and indirect bounties, previously granted for the fostering of tlreir sugar-exporting industry, and Great Britain was to give no preference to colonial sugar as against -that from convention countries. Great Britain must prohibit the landing on her shores of any hounty-fed sugar, and the other contracting States wo aid impose countervailing duties. "Sammcd up in two words" (lecently r.amwl;ed, a, London, journal), "the lesult of the signing of the Brussels Sugar Convention by Great Bri. tain has been — dearer sugar. The thriving confectionery trades of the cotmtrv employing inoro than. 100,000 workers, as compared with 3000 odd' in tho 6ugnr-refining industry, have been handicapped and iiavo discharged large numbers of hsnd.v, whilo the great mass of the working classes, who have depended upon sugur as a cheap and valuable food, have been hard hit, and have paid more for smaller qu tntitios of this article of diet. In tho sugar year (AugustSeptember) of 1901-1902, 1,701,997 tons •of 'sugar, value £16,715,871, arrived in tho United Kingdom, whilo in the year 1904-1905, 1,375,001 tit-., valued at tho muca greater &ura of £20,363,510, weie imported."