The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-19
The Movement to Abolish Sugar
Bounties in Europe.

According to a recent telegram, the Bel
GUM Government intends forthwith to
invite the European exporters Of beet sugar
to meet in conference, with a view to abol-
ishing the export bounties. This is a mat
ter in which the consumer of beet sugar
all over the world are interested and In
which the producers Of cane sugar, espe-
cially the West India Islands, are vitality
concerned.
At present the Government bounties
granted by Germany, Austria, France,
Belgium, and the Netherlands enable the
growers of beet-root sugar in those coun-
tries to sell the surplus Of their crops avail
able for export at less than the cost Of pro-
duction. The practical result is that, in
England, the surplus beet-root sugar Of
the Continent can be purchased for less
than the price which 1t commands in the
countries where 1t is produced. To Eng
lands sugar consumers this is, manifestly,
an advantage, and yet there is reason to
believe thai 1t is at England's instigation
that the Brussels Government has under
taken to abolish the bounty system. It is
easy enough to see how a certain amount
of pressure could be exerted on Belgium by
the British Foreign Office. The ommer-
cial treaties between England on the one
hand and Germany and Belgium on the
other were recently denounced, and, al
though England will not again allow tho
products of those countries to enter her
colonies on equal terms with similar Brit
ish commodities, any concession short of
that will be forthcoming for a quid pro quo.
But why, 1t may be asked, should Eng
land desire the extinction of the CONT
mental bounty system. when the outcome
Of such a move would be to increase the
price paid for sugar by her consumers. The
answer is that only in this way car Eng.
land save her West India islands from ruin.
The alternative of imposing on sugars i'm.
ported into Great Britain countervailing
duties equivalent to the Continental boun-
ties is one that would not be tolerated by
the mass of the British Industrial popula.
no tax must be levied on food products in
the British islands.
At the same time British statesmen con.
slider 1t of the utmost moment. even from
an imperial standpoint, to restore a meas.
ure of their former prosperity to the West
India Islands, in view of the certainty that
II opening OF an interoceanic waterway at
Nicaragua or at Panama will give back to
the naval stations in the Caribbean Sea the
vast strategic Importance which they pos.
aessed In the eighteenth century. The
present deplorable condition of those isl
and Is attributed by the Royal Commits,
sion. which recently examined the matter,
to the collapse of their mi sugar indus
try, and this, in turn, is ascribed to the
imposslbility of competing with the beet
sugar of Continental Europe, produced un
der the bounty system.
That the conference proposed by Belgium
will be successful is scarcely probable,
There Is, indeed, some ground for thinking
that Germany, where the consumer oil
sugar regard the bounty paid to the pro
dueers as a grlevouS burden, may, notwith,
standing the resistance OF the AgrariAu
HATtN support Belgium's proposal. It d