NEW HEBRIDES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 17 June 1924, Page 5

NEW HEBRIDES

CONDITIONS UNDER CONDOMINIUM FURTHER SEVERE CRITICISM (By Electrio Telegraph.— Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) SYDNEY, This Day. Speaking of the effects of the Condominium in New Hebrides and referring to the joint court established under the Convention, the Rev. E. Raff, who recently returned from Vila, said the composition of tile court was of a fantastic nature. Resides French and British judges there was a. president appointed by the King of Spain, who also appoints the public prosecutor. Neither of these could be a British or French subject. When Mr Raff went to the Islands in 1917 the president, a Spaniard, was on leave in Spain and he was still there. He had not visited the islands for more than seven years, so the presidency was being carried on by the public prosecutor, a Dutchman, whose duties in turn are performed by the Registrar, a Belgian. One of the principal duties entrusted to the court is the settlement of laud claims, which the court was preparing to hear at the outbreak of the war ; but the business had been suspended owing to tho absence on active service of many of tho claimants and witnesses. Although the war had endod in 1918 no claims had so far been heard. It was common report- that the French Government had forbidden the court to do so. Mr Raff also charged the French administration with failure to collect fines imposed on French subjects for breaches of the recruitment and grog laws. He says the court has no power to fit * 'ii.on hi purely halite alfatrs unless the natives ask for arbitration, ar.d the cumbrous mode of operation and epposilion to the French »3overncnent make all attempts to administer law and justice aboitive-