cesser de faire partie de l'Union sucrière internationale, à dater du 1er septembre, 1913.

J'ai l'honneur, M. le chargé d'affaires, de vous donner acte de cette dénonciation.

Conformément au désir du Gouvernement britannique, le Gouvernement belge a eu soin d'en informer les autres Etats de l'Union sucrière.

Agréez, &c.

DAVIGNON.

Sir Edward Grey to the British Delegate on the International Sugar

SIR,

Commission.

Foreign Office, December 6, 1912. I HAVE to inform you that you have been appointed British Delegate at the meeting of the International Sugar Commission which is to be held in Brussels on the 9th proximo. The opportunity should be taken to announce in general terms to the Commission at this meeting the intentions of His Majesty's Government in regard to sugar legislation, which have already been brought to the notice of the contracting States through the Belgian Government; and it should be explained that His Majesty's Government have come to the conclusion that after the 1st September next they can no longer require, as at present, that all sugar refining in this country must be conducted in bond. You should at the same time make it clear that such refiners as may desire to do so will still be permitted to continue to work under the present system; that certificates for exports of sugar to the contracting States, under the authority of His Majesty's Customs and Excise, will only be furnished in respect of sugar refined at such factories; and that at such factories the supervision of the officers of His Majesty's Customs and Excise will be maintained in all its present rigour.

In these circumstances you should invite the Commission to assent to the maintenance after the 1st September next, so far as those factories are concerned, of the present conditions governing the issue of certificates, which have already been approved by the Commission as sufficiently guaranteeing that the sugar in respect of which the certificates are issued does not contain bounty-fed sugar. At the same time you might inform the Commission that His Majesty's Government are prepared to give an assurance that these conditions will not be modified or departed from without due notice.

The wording of the present certificate presupposes that Great Britain is a party to the Sugar Convention, and after the withdrawal of this country therefrom some modification in the wording of the certificate will no doubt be necessary. You should therefore endeavour to arrange as far as possible with

the Commission the wording which should be adopted for the certificates after the 1st September next.

I am, &c.

E. GREY.

The British Delegate on the International Sugar Commission to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received December 18.)

SIR,

December 16, 1912.

I HAVE the honour to report that on the 9th December I attended the meeting of the International Sugar Commission. The meeting was held primarily to consider any questions that might be raised relating to the renewal of the Sugar Convention, and, in accordance with my instructions, I took the opportunity to announce to the Commission in general terms the intention of His Majesty's Government in regard to sugar legislation, which had already been brought to the notice of the contracting States through the Belgian Government, and to explain the arrangements which it was proposed to adopt after the 1st September, 1913, for the issue of certificates of origin in respect of refined sugar exported to the contracting States. I did this by means of the following declaration:—

"Les honorables membres de la Commission n'ignorent pas la décision que le Gouvernement de Sa Majesté britannique s'est vu dans la nécessité de prendre, à son grand regret, au sujet de la dénonciation de la Convention internationale des Sucres; en effet, mon Gouvernement n'a pas manqué d'adresser, par la voie diplomatique, une communication motivée aux autres États contractants, pour annoncer son retrait de l'Union à partir du 1er septembre, 1913.

"Dans cette communication, mon Gouvernement a eu soin de préciser le régime qu'il entend suivre après le 1er septembre, 1913, et il me charge maintenant de profiter de cette occasionla première qui s'est présentée jusqu'à présent pour porter formellement à la connaissance de mes honorables collègues son intention de ne pas s'écarter du principe fondamental de la Convention, en accordant soit des primes à l'exportation des sucres, soit une préférence aux sucres coloniaux, soit encore en frappant d'un droit différent le sucre de betterave et le sucre de canne. Le Gouvernement de Sa Majesté britannique ne s'écartera en aucune manière du régime ci-dessus indiqué sans en donner un avis préalable aux États de l'Union sucrière.

"Je dois en même temps annoncer à la Commission que mon Gouvernement ne pourrait, après le 1er septembre, 1913, maintenir le caractère obligatoire du raffinage en entrepôt; toutefois, pour ce qui est des raffineries qui notifieront leur intention de continuer volontairement leurs opérations de raffinage sous le régime actuel, la surveillance des employés du Fisc sera maintenue dans toute sa rigueur, et les certificats d'origine portant la garantie des autorités douanières ne seront accordés, bien entendu, qu'aux raflineurs qui restent sous le régime actuel. Si

la Commission désire que cette intention soit plus nettement précisée dans la formule même des certificats d'origine dont on se servira à partir du 1er septembre prochain, je ne manquerai pas d'examiner avec soin toute proposition tendant à modifier le texte du certificat que mes collègues voudront bien me soumettre. Du reste, étant donné que, dans la formule actuelle, la GrandeBretagne est présumée être une des parties contractantes de la Convention des Sucres, une modification sur ce point paraîtrait en tout cas s'imposer.

"En ce qui concerne les conditions dans lesquelles les certificats seront délivrés aux raffineurs après le 1er septembre, je me permets d'attirer l'attention de la Commission sur le système actuellement en vigueur, et de lui donner l'assurance formelle que les conditions approuvées par la Commission dans sa soixantequatorzième séance ne seront modifiées en quoi que ce soit sans avis préalable aux États de l'Union. Ces conditions ayant reçu l'approbation de la Commission doivent être considérées comme fournissant une garantie suffisante qu'aucun sucre primé ne pourra jouir des avantages de la Convention. En tout cas, il parait désirable de régler les questions que je viens de soulever avant que mon Gouvernement n'ait cessé d'avoir un représentant à la Commission."

At the same time I submitted for consideration a draft of a certificate for use after the 1st September next, in which it was provided that the Collector of Customs issuing the certificate should certify that the sugar "is the product of a refinery at which the operations are carried out under the Customs authorities of the United Kingdom, and that the raw sugar employed in its manufacture originates exclusively in contracting States, or in countries which have not been declared by the Permanent Commission established by the International Sugar Convention to give bounties on the production or exportation of sugar."

The Commission, the members of which had not for the most part been aware that the question would be raised at this meeting, were not prepared to come to any formal decision as to the future acceptance of British certificates for exported sugar issued under the conditions at present in force, or as to the exact wording of the certificate which should be adopted. It was therefore arranged that the subject should be placed on the agenda for the next meeting of the Commission. A more or less informal discussion, however, took place with a view to seeing what difficulties, if any, stood in the way of the acceptance of the British proposal.

It is to be remembered that the conditions governing the issue of certificates in this country are somewhat more favourable than those extended to non-contracting States in general. The latter are governed by the regulations approved by the Commission on the 20th June, 1903, Article 6 of which is as follows:

"Pour les sucres préparés dans les États non contractants le certificat devra énoncer, en outre, qu'ils proviennent d'une

usine ne travaillant pas de sucres originaires d'un État auquel s'applique le droit spécial ou la prohibition."

The phrase sucres préparés" was used so as to enable certificates to be required, should it appear advisable, not only for refined sugar, but for sugared products containing a high proportion of sugar. Certificates for sugared products are not at present required from this or any other country; but it was made evident in the course of the recent discussion that, in the event of Great Britain departing to any marked extent from the fundamental principles of the Convention, some steps in this direction would almost certainly have to be considered. Further, whilst in the case of non-contracting States in general no refinery which habitually works bounty-fed sugar is entitled to a certificate, refineries in the United Kingdom are so entitled, provided that no bounty-fed sugar has been used in the refinery during a certain (comparatively short) period of time prior to the issue of the certificate. The continuance, therefore, of the existing conditions as regards this country would place it in some respects in a more favourable position than other noncontracting States.

At the recent meeting no objection was raised in principle to the continued accord to this country, after leaving the Convention, of the advantages of this position, on the ground of the determination of His Majesty's Government not to depart from the fundamental principles of the Convention, and of their assurance that due notice would be given before any change of policy is made in this respect. A general opinion appeared, however, to prevail that a decision of this character could only be arrived at if the assurance in question could be made more definite in regard to the length of notice which should be given, and I was pressed to state the meaning to be attached to this assurance, and, in particular, to name a definite period which should elapse between the giving of the notice and the change of practice.

As I had no instructions on this point I was of course unable to do so; and I felt it my duty to express the difficulty that might be entertained by His Majesty's Government in entering into a precise agreement on the subject in view of the fact that in withdrawing from the Convention they had definitely indicated their unwillingness to bind themselves in respect of their sugar policy for any prolonged period of time. The further discussion which took place showed, however, that considerable importance was attached by several delegations to this question. It was argued that without some definite understanding on the point it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the Convention States to reconcile their favourable treatment of our sugar in respect of certificates with the most-favoured-nation clauses of their existing Treaties, and that an adequate and definite period of notice was necessary in order to enable other countries to safeguard their interests in the event of a change in our policy being inaugurated and to give security to sugar traders. An assurance

of this nature was, it was pointed out, a small price to pay for the continuation of the present favourable régime.

Failing some action in this direction I fear that it will be impossible to induce the Commission to agree to the continued acceptance of our certificates, and that there may even be a possibility of the question of our sugared products (in respect of which it is quite impossible to furnish certificates) being again considered by the Commission and decided in an unfavourable

sense.

The remaining business of the Commission was for the most part of a formal character, the annual accounts of the permanent bureau being presented and approved, and Baron Capelle, the chief Belgian Delegate, being again appointed President of the Commission.

The Commission had before it a printed document prepared by the Russian Delegation, from which it appeared that, owing to certain abuses, the quantity of sugar which Russia was permitted to export westwards during the season 1911-12 (viz., 350,000 tons) had in fact been exceeded by 32,362 tons. Of this excess, over 26,500 tons represented the difference between the exports declared for Manchuria (to which exports are unlimited) and the quantity which actually reached that destination. quantity of sugar to be exported westwards during the season 1912-13 will have to be reduced by the amount of the excess in the recent season, and will therefore be limited to 217,638 tons, instead of 250,000 tons, the quantity originally fixed by the Protocol of the 17th March, 1912, by virtue of which the Sugar Convention was renewed.

The

I desire to express my grateful appreciation of the services rendered by Mr. Craigie, of the Foreign Office, who accompanied me to Brussels in the capacity of secretary.

SIR,

I have, &c.

H. FOUNTAIN.

Sir Edward Grey to Sir F. Villiers.

Foreign Office, December 31, 1912. Ar the recent meeting of the Permanent Sugar Commission at Brussels it appeared that considerable importance was attached by the Commission to a more definite indication being afforded to the contracting States as to the length of notice which will be given by His Majesty's Government in the event of any change being inaugurated in respect of their sugar policy as outlined in the note addressed to the Belgian Government on the 5th August last by Mr. Macleay, a copy of which was inclosed in his despatch of the same date.*

I request, therefore, that you will now address a further note to the Belgian Government on the subject, informing them that, having regard to a desire which had been expressed at the