Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7656, 5 June 1886, Page 4

If the information which Lord Rosebery is reported to have communicated to Mr. Berry, the Victorian Agent-General, relative to the New Hebrides question be correct, it ought to go a long way towards solving the difficulties with which that question has been surrounded. In his capacity of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs that nobleman is represented in the cable messages of this morning as having said that the trench Government have absolutely declined to cede the Island of Rapa in exchange for the New Hebrides. As the value of this island for a naval depot was alleged a3 a strong reason why the obtaining of it should be a leading part of the inducement to England's assenting to the annexation of the new Hebrides by France, and formed an important factor in all the negotiations, it may be expected that, now France has refused to part with it, all further parleying on the matter will be at an end. And so most decidedly it should be. Nothing is now more clear than that from the outset of these negotiations France has been going on the principle of taking all and giving nothing. For her promise to abolish the transportation of criminals to her Pacific possessions, to grant equal trading facilities to Britain and the colonies, and guarantee protection to the Protestant missionaries in these New Hebrides Islands, amounted really to nothing, as it would have been observed only so long as it suited her own convenience. Rapa was in fact the only substantial part of the proposed arrangement, and now that this has vanished,nothing remains. Still, though the matter thus may be regarded as settled, it by no means follows that those interested in preserving these islands from falliag into the hands of an adverse Power should relax their efforts in this cause. Rather, in fact, is it a reason why these efforts should be redoubled. For it may bo reckoned as certain that, irritated at the failure of the negotiations, France will not hesitate to take possession of the New Hebrides, if opportunity should favour her so doing. Care must therefore be taken that, at all events, the old arrangement about their neutrality should be strictly adhered to ; and not only so, but that an understanding be arrived at, as between these colonies and the Imperial Government, that measures bo at once taken, not only for preventing the deportation of criminals, but also for the effective protection of all colonial interests in the Pacific, no matter at what cost or risk.