NEW HEBRIDES QUESTION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 745, 11 June 1886, Page 17

NEW HEBRIDES QUESTION.

By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright, (reuter’s telegrams.) Melbourne, June 9. The Victorian Government have instructed Mr Graham Berry, AgentGeneral in London, to ask Lord Granville, Secretary of State for the Colonies, to obtain from France aa accurance that she does not intend to annex the New Hebrides. The Premier (Mr Gillies) has received no information as yet of the alleged annexation of the New Hebrides by France, and he is still inclined to discredit the report. London, June 9. It is believed at the Foreign Office that the French vessels which recently proceeded to the New Hebrides were despatched there solely for the purpose of obtaining reparation for outrages by the Natives on French subjects, and confidence is felt that France will not act in an underhand manner. Paris, June TO. The French Government, in reply to the inquiries of the English Foreign Office, have announced officially that the object of despatching a French man-of-war to the New Hebrides was to protect French subjects, owing to the recent massacres by the natives. Troops would be landed at the points menaced with attack, and possibly a temporary station might be established, but the movement had no political object. (SPECIAL TO UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.) London, June 9. Mr Graham Berry and Mr Garrick have protested against the recent action of France in sending a vessel to the New Hebrides. Lord Rosebery, to whom the protest was made, will ask M. Waddington, French Ambassador inLondon, to give an explanation of the matter. The Admiralty rely on the vigilance of H.M.S. Undine and Raven, j,which are at present in the neighborhood of the islands to look after English interests there. The Agents-General believe that the present action of Erance is simply the prelude to annexation.