THE NEW HEBRIDES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1364, 7 October 1886, Page 3

THE NEW HEBRIDES.

The following Is one of tho articles on the New Hebrides question which appears in the Repuhlique Francaise ; - “ It, is only one company of marines that a modest cruiser has landed out there. It is over a few poor huts that the tricolor is floating. But nevertheless wo have not learned of this landing without real pleasure. It is settled at last, or we hope bo at any rate, this eternal question of the New Hebrides. That annex of New Caledonia is at last ours, we may hcpe, in spite of tho claws of England and her superannuated pretentions. If diplomatically speaking, we are not yet the definite possessors of that group cf islmds—the New Hebrides—on which we have just planted our fljg, they are at least ours by the tight of first occupation. I'iplomacy will come next. Protocols will follow. Official Notes will be exchanged, Lut our little soldiers of the infantry and of the marine are already there, and they will not be driven away by diplomatic Notes or by protocols or by formulas. This time it is not messieurs Us Anglais who have fired first. We have got well ahead of them. It Is time to show <ur neighbor that we also a’e a colonial Power, that we also have some rights on the seas, and that when need c His we cm make them respected. We have vessels and marines for that purpose, and above all we have the will, which has too long been lacking. It was formerly an article of faith that all which was not continent —everything which, according to the old geographical formula, was surronnded by water on ell sides—belonged

more or less to England. Th«re is »wo - known anecdote of that Amba j of G eat Bd am to tha Yenet an Kepmdio who was fl >atiog one day » !1 , n gondola on the lajoous. He dipped his hand into the water, avtd then lifting it to his lips, “Ha, ha!" he exc'aimed, “It u salt This is ours." The story ia very English, and the pride of it is English torn But the New Hebrides will be hrench.