At the evening sitting in the Commons on Tuesday Mr.
A. H. Scott moved that it was expedient to withdraw from the Sugar Convention, on the ground of its disastrous effects on trade. He appealed to the Government to maintain in office the hostility to the Convention they had shown when in opposition. Mr. Idris, who seconded the Motion, asserted that in the last two years we had paid an extra ten millions for our sugar, of which not more than 2500,000 had gone to the West Indies. The Motion was opposed by Mr. Mitchell-Thomson, who, in an excellent maiden speech, defended the Convention as having broadened the area of production, refused to admit that the confectionery and jam industries had suffered, and gave plausible reasons for his belief that the West Indies had benefited by it. Sir John Dickson-Poynder, though agreeing with the Motion, moved an amendment declaring that it was inexpedient to announce any decision at this moment, on the ground that the Convention was binding on the contracting Powers for five years, and withdrawal was subject to a twelve months' notice to be given in September, 1907.
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