The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1887.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 8062, 8 January 1887, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1887.

Another memorandum from Sir Graham Berry has been added to the fire which a certain section of Australian public opinion is bent upon keeping alive about the question of the New Hebrides. This time the Victorian Agent-General studiously turns his back upon these unfortunate islands. They are nothing to him; nothing to his Government; nothing to the people of Australia—simply because they are not in any way connected with the Eccidiviste question. Upon that question we must all concentrate our thoughts. The Cabinet of St James’ must do more. It must intervene. It must, in short, make the Cabinet of the Quai d’Orsay do something to prevent the continuance of this outpouring of human rubbish into the Pacific. Such, is Sir Graham oh the Eccidiviste ques-

tion. Now, this is very much the language which he has often used about the New Hebrides. According to the Agent-General for Victoria, then, our Foreign Minister must dictate to the French Eepublic on both questions. They are in no way connected, but we are to insist upon our wishes being respected in both. The French shall not set foot in the New Hebrides, and they shall not send any more recidivistes to their Pacific Colonies. If these Victorian sentiments are to prevail, the result will not bo difficult to predict. Either we shall be at war with France in a few months, or these two questions will become a chronic sore.

The French have a right to do as they please on the question of transportation. In the whole range of international law there is nothing to justify any kind of interference with the management of the Republic's internal affairs. Depots of convicts may be very unpleasant, and very objectionable, but, being on French soil, we have no more right to insist upon their abolition than we have to order the Republican Government to refrain from building the colossal tower for the Paris Exhibition of 1889. If the convicts escape, we can pass strict laws about them, but beyond that we are absolutely powerless. Some one has raised the question of expediency by asking what will be the result if in time of war these convicts are set adrift in a man-of-war with instructions never to return. But if that were the only danger it would be not a danger at all, but rather an advantage. To set convicts adrift even in men-of-war would be the very method of ensuring their destruction. Admiral Try on, or Admiral Fairfax, or any other sailor of the British breed would ask nothing better than to be allowed to settle this convict question by catching the men-of-war in which they might be sent out to carve for themselves a dubious fortune This, however, is not any more germane than the nuisance of the escapes. Neither the danger that convicts may escape, nor that in time of war they may be used as filibustered, paid off and done with, affects the right of the French authorities to do what they will with them within their own boundaries. To protest against the free exercise of a neighbour’s right is absurd. To do so passionately, in the face of repeated refusals, is ridiculous. If such protests are neither absurd nor ridiculous, they mean that we should go to war, failing compliance with our demand. How much easier and better is conciliation. We have a treaty with France by which both nations sre bound not to make certain annexations. Some question of projection to their interests having arisen, the French authorities came to the conclusion that they ought to annex the islands, or declare a Protectorate over them. In order to enable them to do so, they offered in return for our permission, to give up the practice of sending out convicts to the Pacific. If the Australian Jingoes had been discreet, the Eecidiviste question would now have been a thing of the past. But as they were foolish enough to protest, the negotiations came to nothing, and the recidivistes are pouring into New Caledonia by shiploads. As New Caledonia is already far too hot to hold them, we shall probably hear of them as sent to the New Hebrides, from which islands the French declare their intention of departing possibly after our troops leave Egypt, certainly not before, and probably not at all. The French have the key to this question in their hands. If no effort is made to get them to turn it the right way, they will turn it the wrong way. At present,- only those who persist in acting as if they wanted the key to he turned the wrong way, are ever heard from. It is time that the other side put in an appearance in the right quarter. The Victorian Agent-General’s communication ought to be counteracted by papers from those of the Agents-General who represent the sensible conclusion come to last year in Sydney and Welling-' ton. If this side remains silent, the noisy men will spoil everything.