THE NEW HEBRIDES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18709, 15 May 1924, Page 8

THE NEW HEBRIDES.

JOINT RULE A FAILURE.

SCATHING CONDEMNATION. PITIFUL LOT OF WOMEN. PRESBYTERIAN' CHURCH CLAIMS. [BX TELEGRAPH. —OWN COAE£SPOKDENT.J CHEISTCHUBCH, Wednesday. Conditions in the New Hebrides under the condominium were strongly condemned by members of the Christchurch Presbytery to-day, and a motion was passed asking that the condominium should be brought to an end. The question arose out of proposals to celebrate the centenary on May 25 of Dr. J. G. Paton. The Rev. H. H. Barton, secretary of the Presbyterian Church Foreign Mission Committee, wrote stating that a petition would be sent to the •lW Zealand Parliament asking it to urge that the Islands should bo brought under sole British control. e "The condominium is an admitted failure," said Mr. Barton in his letter. "Nobody, French or British, wants a continuance of it. It has failed to maintain law and order in the group, to protect the natives from oppression, or to settle a single land claim. This failure is due to the fact that the French administration fails to cary out its part of the joint convention. Unless prompt and vigorous, action is taken the Islands may pass into the hands of France. In spite of our friendship toward that great nation we cannot blind our eyes to the fact that those who understand the conditions and tendencies of the times in the New Hebrides best believe that the undivided rule of the French would probably result not only in the ultimate extinction .of the Presbyterian missions, which have carried on their beneficent work for 70 years, but probably in the extinction of the native race also, and its replacement by foreign indentured labour from French possessions."

Women as Decoys. The letter continued: —"A recent missionary conference stated that the position of "women in the French plantations is growing more and more intolerable. They are illegally recruited, illegally kept beyond their time, used to decoy men to recruit, married or divorced at the will of the flanter, or given to the promiscuous use of the men. The British Government acknowledges this, but professes its inability to move the French Government to put a stop to such brutal and wicked practices." The statements in the letter were supported by the Rev. J. V. Jacobson, and the Rev. N. L. D. Webster said he had been told that the conditions in the islands were very dreadful. The Rev. F. Paton, Dr. Paton's son, was a friend of the. speaker, and Mr. Paton's sister, Mrs. Gillon, had told him that the cruelty and immorality of the French traders were simply horrible. He Had been told that the divided rule had been an utter failure. The Presbytery should urge that steps be taken to 'have that scandal removed.

Imperial Government's Attitude. t It was stated by the Rev. J. Paterson that the New Zealand and the Australian Governments were in sympathy with the Presbyterian Church !in regard to the islands. The Federal Government had made representations to the Imperial Government. The Presbyterian Church had spent vast sums in missionary work in the islands, and the Imperial Governmentseemed to be utterly indifferent to the claims of * the Presbyterian Church from even the economical point of view. . The moderator of the Presbytery, the Rev. W. Tanner," said that nonconformist influence now was more pronounced in the Imperial Parliament, and consequently in the Imperial Government, than previously. Representations to the ' Imperial ' Government should have a good effect. It was asked by Mr. Jacobson how the British Government could go about obtaining sole control of the islands. Would it buy the French interests'? Mr. Webster: That's for the British and French Governments to settle.

The Presbytery decided to ask the New Zealand Government to take any steps possible to end the condominium, and to establish sole British control, and to commend to members of congregations, and electors generally, the petition in circulation.