NEW HEBRIDES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 144421, 8 July 1914, Page 3

NEW HEBRIDES.

THE FRENCH VIEW. NO HOPE OF PURCHASE. BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH COPYRIGHT. (Received July 8, 9.50 a.m.) SYDNEY, July 8.

Judge Heimburger, of the French colonial service, wlio is en route for Now Caledonia, interviewed, was emphatic that France would never- sell any of her possessions in Oceania. On the contrary, she was consolidating her colonial empire by means of costly wireless installation. The French Pacific Sands wero a necessary link in the drain of stations extending from Paris through tho colonies. Tho wireless plant would havo an effective range of 5700 miles. Ho indignantly repudiated the suggestion that the French authorities countenanced the sale of liquor to natives in tho islands. If abuses existed in tho New Hebrides or elsewhere the Government, pursuing a humane policy, would surely suppress them. Ho added that it was not a monetary or economic consideration at all. Franco could not relinquish any portion of the islands in the Pacific without staining tho names of her heroic and sulf-sacrificing navigators of past centuries. She could not stain their memory without staining the national honour.