NEW CALEDONIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 September 1940, Page 5

NEW CALEDONIA

SUPPORT FOR DE GAULLE. [per press association.] AUCKLAND, September 17. “I am convinced that there will be trouble and revolution in New Caledonia if the present situation persists,” was a statement made by one of the passengers who arrived at Auckland on Monday, by the American Clipper. “De Gaulle committees continue to work actively for unity with Great Britain, and for. trade with New Zealand and Australia, in which they consider their salvation lies.” Of the white population of 15,000 he said, 90 -per cent, supported General de Gaulle. The remaining 10 per cent., consisting of 20 members of the Conseil-General, which governed the island, and of public officials known as functionnaires, who were* sent out from France, adhered to the Petain Government. The former resented the Administration obeying orders from Vichy, which 90 percent. regarded as dictated by Germany. One of these orders had been that all nickel production and other merchandise should be sold to Japan, and 4his, of all the orders received, had most inflamed the people. As a result of their actions, one of which was a direct refusal to obey the order, the Acting-Governor, Colonel Denis, had warned the de Gaulle committees about their behaviour. The visitor mentioned the rumoured insubordination in the French sloop Dumont d’Urville, which Colonel Denis was reported to have denied. . The denial was published in the newspaper “La France Australe” last Saturday. It was no use, he said, making such a denial. There had been insubordination by a large number of’rating!,’ sympathetic to the de Gaulle committees. They had in- > terfered with the sloop’s engines. NATIVES KILLED. Some of the natives had already been involved in the struggle between the rival factions. A very small religious group had clashed with representatives of the chief religion on the island, and seven natives were known to have been killed. The object of the de Gaulle committees, he continued, was to support the Allies with manpower, or any other means, to secure the island from foreign dictation or interference, and to trade with Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. The blockade by the British Navy of the French coast had completely disrupted the country’s important nickel industry, and because neither New Zealand nor Australia had shipping services to the island, there was nowno effective resistance to the very real interest and competition of Japan. To achieve this, the committees were fighting for the election of their own parliament, to appoint their own governor, to sever all ties with the Petain regime, and to create closer relationships with New Zealand and Australia, who should be vitally interested in the welfare of the island, because of its obvious strategic importance, never made clearer than by the use of .Noumea by Pan American Airways on their south Pacific route;