NEW HEBRIDES

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIV, Issue XLIV, 1 April 1924, Page 7

NEW HEBRIDES

FAILURE, OF THE CONDOMINIUM

F — . . BY CABLE—PitESis ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT ' Received April 1,. 10.55 a.itt- - - MELBOURNE, April' 1. A deputation from the. Foreign Mis- ; sions Committee of the Presbyterian ; Church waited on ,Mr Bruce regarding j the necessity for a change in the ad- ; ministration of the >,ew Hebrides. The | speakers condemned tne way m which j native labour- was allegedly exploited j under the . condominium, and said that j after a careful examination of the c'on- ! uitions said to be existing in the New i Hebrides they had found that the posi-

tion of women on the French plantations was becoming intolerable. They were illegally recruited and illegally kept beyond their time, and were used to decoy men to recruit and were married or divorced at the will of the planters or given over to an open -afe of "shame. Apparently the deliberate policy of the French in the New Hebrides was the extinction of the natives^ with a view to substituting foreign "indentured labour from French possessions. It was contended that the condominium had failed to maintain law and order in the group, t^> protect the natives from oppression, or to settle a single land dispute. This was due to the fact that the French had failed to carry out their part" of ihe joint convention, and it was*contended that if the rapid accmisition of the whole group by the French was not wanted to be accomplished, the condominium must .be terminated immediately. The deputation suggested the establishment of sole British control, or, failing this, the partitioning of the group in order that at least half of the New Hebrides would be under British control. Mr Bruce, replying, said tha,fc the matter had been considered at the Imperial Conference, but as negotiations were proceeding with France for a change in^he administration of the islands it was impossible for him at tlie present time to" make a definite statement on the position.