THE NEW Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 1836.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7658, 8 June 1886, Page 4

THE NEW Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 1836.

o Startling intelligence is conveyed in this morning's cables of French agression in the Pacific. Considerable excitement has been caused in this colony, as also in the Australian colonies, by the report from Noumea, published in yesterday's issue, that two French men-of-war had left that port with instructions to annex the New Hebrides. This report, as will be seen from the telegrams, has been discredited both at Melbourne and at Wellington; but the doubt entertained as to the truth of the. rumour was at both places based on the fact that neither by the Victorian nor the New Zealand Government had any official communication on the subject been received. This doubt, however, may be regarded as now set at rest by later telegrams which reach us from Sydney. One of these is to the effect that the French war steamer Dives, which recently left for the New Hebrides, and which apparently must be one of the two vessels previously referred to, took with her a number of troops and a quantity of building material. The other, which is the latest on the subject, and is more specific, states that a despatch has been received from the British Consul at Noumea by the Governor of New South Wales, in which his Excellency is informed that the French man-of-war Dives, left Noumea in fighting trim, with three months provisions, bound for the New Hebrides, and for the purpose of hoisting the French flag on these islands. The significance of this despatch is intensified by the additional information that " no vessel was allowed to leave Noumea within fortyeight hours of the time of the departure of the warship." These statements are sufficiently circumstantial to show that the excitement reported yesterday as prevailing among the British residents in New Caledonia, was not without cause, and to convince those who were disposed to think that the French would act an honourable part while the negotiations wer» proceeding, that their faith was somewhat misplaced and unwarranted. The only legitimate inference to be drawn from these telegrams is that by this time the French flag has been hoisted on the New Hebrides, and that, while pusillanimity has been the order of the day in the Colonial Office at London, while the merchants of

Sydney were dreaming of the commercial profits they might derive from additional penal settlements in the Pacific, and while feeble philosophy was being talked of by the authorities at Wellington, the astute rulers of France were quietly ripening their plans for securing the spoil by a surprise. It hjjlhappened exactly as we anticipated when in our Saturday's issue we said, " It may be 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." The opportunity has been given her, and she has not been slow to avail herself of it. Nor perhaps is she to be altogether blamed for yielding to the temptation placed before her. It makes ones blood boil to find the effete men in Downing-street, who are supposed to watch over the destines of the colonies, talking weak sentimentalism about the necessity of being guided in this matter by the opinion of the colonies, while, by thus disclosing their policy, they were furnishing the French with incentives to immediate action. If the officials in the Colonial Office possessed the heads of schoolboys they might have known long ago that the opinion of at least three-fourths of the Australasian colonists was decidedly opposed to the occupation of the New Hebrides by France, and they ought to have taken such precautions as -would have prevented the possibility of her seizing them. But, ) though they in' their imbecility might | not hare judgment to discern this, the French authorities were well aware of it. They at least knew that the colonists would never give their consent to such occupation ; and, having been told by the Imperial Government that their reply would depend on the view the colonies took of the question, the course to be taken by France at once became clear. That was simply to take time by the forelock, and, seizing the islands, defy England to dislodge her. It may be said, in extenuation of the weak diplomacy which has been shown in connection with this business, that it was desirable to have the deportation of French criminals to the Pacific put an end to, and to obtain possession of the Island of Rapa as an equivalent, for the cession of the New Hebrides. This was the wild goose chase on which our New Zealand Government and, at their' instance, our Agent-General in London, set out, "to the great amusement, as it must have proved, of the French authorities. If they had known their ground as they ought to have done they would have been aware months ago that the Island of Rapa would not be surrendered by France. At one time her rulers might have been disposed to abandon her claim to it; but on the 9th of March last it was pointed out in this journal that, having been warned by their Admiral on the Polynesian station of the great naval importance of its harbour, they had abandoned all intentions of ceding it, and that any hopes our Agent-General had of it being given in exchange for the New Hebrides were utterly delusive. And as for the cessation in the transport of criminals to the Pacific, the idea that France, after obtaining possession of the New Hebrides would in this matter consult any interests save her own is one which only very simple-minded men could entertain. By no engagement which she has ever entered into regarding the Pacific has France ever deemed herself bound; and any expectation that she would in this respect alter her policy, save in so far as it suited her convenience, was nothing more than a dream. There is therefore not the shadow of an excuse for all the trifling and delay which have characterised the proceedings of the British Colonial Otiice in this whole affair. Their plain duty was at once to have returned a negative answer to the proposals of France to be allowed to occupy the New Hebrides, and to have taken immediate measures for guard ins: them against any surprise. But they chose to act otherwise from pure lack of moral courage to face their obligation, and what they will now have to choose between is the demanding the evacuation of these islands by France, at the risk of war, or the incurring, by a weak acquiescence in their seizure, the danger of utterly alienating these colonies from the United Kingdom.