A BARBAROUS SPECTACLE

Otago Witness, Issue 4041, 25 August 1931, Page 8

A BARBAROUS SPECTACLE

SIX CHINESE GUILLOTINED.

OCCURRENCE IN NEW HEBRIDES AUCKLAND, August 19.

Great indignation prevails among the British residents of the New Hebrides over the public execution of six Chinese at Vila last month. According to the officers and passengers on the Melanesian mission steamer Southern Cross, which returned to-day from a cruise of the mission field, the execution was carried out by the French authorities with a guillotine brought from Noumea. It is stated that protests have been sent to the British and French Foreign Offices by the acting British Resident, Commissioner P. Blandy. “ Fourteen Chinese were arrested for the murder of a French planter named Chevalier,” said Mr Arthur Grove, who arrived by the steamer after eight years residence in the New Hebrides. “ Six of the men were sentenced by a French court to death, four to imprisonment for life, and four to terms ranging from seven to 12 years. Under the condominium a crime against a Frenchman is tried by a French court, a crime against a British subject by a British court, and where subjects of both nations are concerned by a joint court. “ To carry out the death sentence the French authorities brought from Noumea a guillotine and set it up outside Vila, exactly opposite the French hospital, which contained many . patients, both women and children. The condemned men were chained in a row and were beheaded by a Japanese executioner brought from Noumea. I was unfortunate enough to witness the spectacle, which was too barbarous and ghastly to lie described in words. There were several hundred people present, including natives, and the entire French population. I thought it inconceivable that such an atrocity could be performed in a civilised community. Tfie British people in Vila have entered a strong protest against the public character of the execution and its barbarous details.

It has had an exceedingly harmful effect on the prestige of the white people, and the British suffer with the French.

“ Nothing, to my mind, could demonstrate more emphatically the failure of the condominium. French administration is entirely foreign to our idea, and is driving the British out of the islands. When I went there in 1923 all the big planters were British. Now there are only 18 British subjects in Vila. French are pouring into the islands from Noumea, and French officials outnumber the British officials by five to one. In my opinion a mandate should be granted to New Zealand as soon as possible. Failing that, Britain will undoubtedly lose all control of the group.”

Officers of the Southern Cross stated that when the mission steamer arrived at Vila on her return voyage to New Zealand on August 8 they found the British community highly incensed with the French authorities over the executions.

“We were told,” one officer said, “ that the executions were witnessed by hundreds of people, including a large number of French women and children. It was intended to be a vindication of the law, but the manner in which it was carried out made it simply a brutal spectacle for the idle. The British people in Vila state that the guillotine was brought secretly from Noumea in charge of four gendarmes. Had they known of the intentions of the French authorities they would have protested sooner.”