120 SUGAR 



home consumption would pay the full duty on leaving 

 the refinery. The cure was absolute and easy. A 

 system which worked without difficulty in hundreds of 

 beetroot factories could be very easily worked in three 

 or four refineries. The arguments were put before the 

 National Assembly with great ability and a law was 

 actually voted for putting the refineries under excise 

 supervision and thus getting the full duty on the 

 sugar actually produced and paying no drawback on 

 exportation. 



This was a great triumph, and success appeared 

 to be more than probable. Our Government urged 

 the matter very steadily, an International Conference 

 was held in Brussels in 1875, followed by two 

 more in Paris in 1876 and 1877. But the foreign 

 delegates stubbornly resisted. They proposed a com- 

 promise. " Saccharimetry," they said, would be a 

 sufficient remedy. All sugar entering the refinery 

 should be analysed and the duty levied accordingly. 

 The British delegates, very properly, had no faith in 

 this proposal as a sufficient security against clever 

 manipulations, and held their ground firmly. The 

 French Government shelved the Bill voted by the 

 National Assembly for " refining in bond," and showed 

 no great desire to protect their revenue. The Paris 

 refiners were too strong and won the battle. There was 

 only one British loaf sugar refiner left. 



During this initial phase of the coming struggle the 

 British Refiners' Committee induced the West India 

 Committee to join hands with them. The West Indians 

 saw that every ton of foreign refined sugar imported 

 displaced an equivalent quantity of their raw sugar. 

 It was also pointed out that new abuses, as described 

 in the last chapter, were making their appearance in 

 Germany and Austria, and that very soon raw beetroot 



