NEW HEBRIDES PROBLEM.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 14 November 1924, Page 5

NEW HEBRIDES PROBLEM.

CONDOMINIUM A FAILURE. (by TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION. PALMERSTON N., Nov. 13. Among the recommendations adopted by the Presbyterian General Assembly m discussing the foreign missions report this evening were, the following : To endorse the resolution of the committee with regard to the political control of the New Hebrides and to urge upon the\ Government 5 the necessity for impressing upon the Imperial authorities that the only adequate solution of a very difficult problem was British control, either direct or under the League of Nations mandate; r.lso to approve of the principle for the transfer of chapel property to the trustees of the Chinese Church whenever the local congregation is strong enough to carry the financial burden.

The report was spoken to by the Rev. H. Jupp, convenor of the committee, who spoke of the Chinese efforts. Mrs. Hewitson (president of the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union) also spoke, while the Rev. H. H. Barton (secretary of the committee) dealt with the mission field in the New Hebrides. The last-named dealt lengthily with the condominium and the unsatisfactory French control. To hand over any land,s to the French in an equal division of control, he said, would be to accentuate the deplorable conditions prevailing. There was only one solution—British control, which was a matter for negotiation. The Presbyterian Church was going to see that the moral and physical development of the people would be pursued. In India, said the speaker, the line was thinly held, and the church today was there face to face with an era comparable to the Renaissance period in Europe. Jf the church was going to retrench it was going to fail in face of a great opportunity.