DIPLOMACY 127 



Foreign Office was quite ready to co-operate in applying 

 some remedy to this crying injustice, rapidly becoming 

 a scandal. They only wanted a mandate and, fortu- 

 nately, they got one. The Congress of Chambers of 

 Commerce of the Empire met in London in 1900. The 

 London Chamber, with some difficulty, had been induced 

 to take up the sugar question and Sir Nevile Lubbock, 

 Chairman of the West India Committee, was entrusted 

 by the London Chamber with the duty of moving a 

 resolution at the Congress, to the effect that it was time 

 for an International Conference for the abolition of these 

 artificial stimulants to production and exportation, and 

 that our Government should indicate their determination 

 to take steps, either by means of a countervailing duty 

 or by prohibition, to put a stop to them. Sir Nevile 

 Lubbock made a most convincing speech, and was so 

 well backed up, not only by Sir Thomas Sutherland and 

 by the President, Lord Avebury, but also by many 

 distinguished Colonial delegates, that the resolution 

 was carried by a large majority. 



This was exactly what the Government wanted. 

 Immediate steps were taken to call a fresh Conference, 

 which eventually met in Brussels in the winter of 1901. 

 This Conference was a big affair and the foreign delegates 

 knew that the British Government for the first time 

 meant business. It required a very large table to accom- 

 modate delegates representing Belgium, Austria, Hun- 

 gary, Germany, France, Spain, Great Britain, Italy, 

 Holland, Roumania and Sweden. 



This Conference had to deal not only with those 

 abuses which were rampant in 1898 but also with a new 

 method of carrying out, on a still larger scale, the 

 process of exterminating all unaided competitors. The 

 manufacturers in Germany and Austria had taken a 

 leaf out of the Russian book and developed a new way 



