THE NEW HEBRIDES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8278, 3 November 1906, Page 5

THE NEW HEBRIDES.

TRENCHANT {CRITICISM. A WARNINGReceived November 2, 10.13 a.m. SYDNEY, November 1. The Sydney Herald, commenting on Mr Winston QhurcbiU's statement in the House of Commons in regard to the New Hebrides, says:—"Mr Churchill has apparently strangely misunderstood the attitude of one Commonwealth and New Zealand in regard to the New Hebrides. When Mr Churohill states tnat Australasian acquiescence in the Convention has been obtained, it is stretching the courtesy of diplomacy to breaking-point. What Mr Deakin and Sir Joseph Ward said in the end was that as the Imperial Government had disregarded their proposals, they left the responsibility of completing the Convention on the shoulders of the Colonial Office. They should not have said this. They should have declared plainly that the Convention was and is opposed to the best interests of New Zealand and Australia, and they therefore must refuse to sanction it." "Anyway," continues the Herald, "their acceptance, as was inevitable, has been translated into acquiescence in the policy of the new arrangement, and this translation of their attitude will be eloquent warning foe the future. Australians may hardlv be blamed for recognising in the Convention new evidence of a desire to buy ioreiga friendship at the expense oi the colonies. The Convention is absolutely against tho interests both of the colonies concerned, and oi our Empire; it is a weak, unworthy concession to politeness or pressure." Received November 3,1.10 a.m. MELBOURNE, November 2. Mr Deakin states that the Commonwealth and New Zealand Governments had no option but to leave the whole of the responsibility of tho New Hebrides Convention with the Imperial Government.