THE NEW HEBRIDES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19487, 17 November 1926, Page 12

THE NEW HEBRIDES.

It appears from Mr. Amery's statement to the House of Common? that, as an outcome of discussion by the Imperial Conference, negotia tions have been reopened with France concerning the New Hebrides condominium. This is one of the most thorny questions in the Pacific, yet there is abundant reason for reviewing it. The era introduced by the condominium's proclamation in 1907 cannot by any stretch of imagination be called either a serviceable or a happy one. There was no reasonable hope that it could be either. Government by two Powers without demarcation of territory, the two Resident Commissioners exercising ostensibly equal jurisdiction, seemed then to be a striving after the impossible, and events have justified the fear. Difficulties have repeatedly arisen in the joint court- empowered to deal with native affairs and with those involving suits between British and French litigants. The court's record is one of endless delays, weakness and pro-French partiality. The joint naval commission, continued from earlier days ,with the declared aim of co-operat ing to maintain order in the group, has repeatedly acted in French in terests with grotesque disregard of law and equity. Instead of promoting order, it has made itself a scoffing for its tyrannical lawlessness. The handling of both land and labour questions, critical in the just and prosperous development of the group, has been worse than weak: it has allowed scandalous practices to become established. The whole position is such that protests against it, in which New Zealand's Government has joined, have been raised everywhere. As an experiment in government, the condominium has been a ghastly failure, and should be ended. But France cannot hope to have sole possession without her claim being contested. There is a considerable British interest in the group, represented by hundreds of British settlers, Nor can France claim so excellent a record as a colonising Power that she should expect, especially in A day when care for the well-being of undeveloped native races is a guiding principle of colonial rule, to be allowed to go her own way. The reopening of the question should lead to some now and less anomalous arrangement, but there is bound to be strong French opposition to anything short of the New Hebrides becoming a French possession, and to this there is equally bound to be vigorous objection, by others.