NEW HEBRIDES.

Grey River Argus, 19 May 1922, Page 6

NEW HEBRIDES.

PRESBYTERIAN VIEWS. WANT FRLXCH CONTROL OUSTED (Received A'av IS, 7.25 p.m.) SYDNEY, May 18. Justice Devers, the recently-appoint-ed British .Judge for the New Hebrides Condominium was welcomed bv’ !>.<• Presbyterian Assembly. lie said he recognised the difiiculties of flu* position under the Condominium Government. It rested with him and the Preneh officials to make things work smoothly ami satisfactorily, :nd he trusted he would lie aide to do so. The assembly dealt with its foreign missions report, ami discussed the New Hebrides position. The report staled the outlook politically was gloomy. The condom inieum was to lie continued with grave injustices and irregularities. Cases of illegal recruiting had occurred, and drink was freely supplied to the natives, while gambling was becoming more prevalent. There was little or no cause of complaint against the British settlers, ami the eases against them W"i’e dealt with, but similar cases against French citizens or those under I’reiich rule, were condoned, ami even shielded. The report approved the ef forts of the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Z>*aland to secure complete Biitish control of the Xew Hebirdes. It urged them, while paying due regard lo I’rencli claims and suscepti bilities, to continue their efforts to that The Rev. Mr AlcGowan said one missionary reported that at a heathen dance 50 buttles of grog were consumed, ami thi'ir mission schools were being wrecked by the sale of grog. The Rev. Mr McGowan warmly denied the statements made by tin 1 Drench paper that the Presbyterians in the Xew Hebrides have there instituted a system of veritable serfdom to cultivate j their own estates, and that the three Southern islands have become a depen-(b-n-cy of the British clergy. He regretted having made certain statements, but declared the French themselves had s: id that if they got the group, the j Protestant missionaries there' would be I expelled. He also drew attention tn I the growth of the Japanese in the isI lands. '1 hey now outnumbered all j Europeans in Xew Gnledonia and the | New Hebrides, and mon* were coming. ' 'i'he French had at lirst welcomed th.-in, I but now would be glad to gel r.d of them, lie asked would Australia wake