THIE FRENCH IN THE NEW HEBRIDES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1489, 22 February 1887, Page 3

THIE FRENCH IN THE NEW HEBRIDES.

That it is the intention of the French permanently to establish themselves i> the New Hebrides, and ultimate!) assert rights of sove reignty over thost islands, does not admit of the smallest possible doubt m the mind of caybody, except possibly those curiously tciisti-i tutcd beings who from time to timt ; have the management of the Colonial branch of Imperial administration. Colonial Secretaries and Under-Secre-taries can seldom or never see an inch beyond thtir own noses, and they per-! sist with a fatuous stupidity m believing tne representations of Foreign Powers,' and discrediting the counter-represen-tations of British subjects, the result! being (hat they are hoaxed and hum-; bugged with a facility which makes' British officialism a perfect laughing stock, While the French Government, talks of temporary occupation of the. New Hebrides for the protection of the interests of French settlers, as agains j the unfriendliness of the natives, news comes to hand that their troops m the New Hebrides are themselves behaving towards the natives m an unfriendly manner. The object is plain enough, [ust as the Czar of Russia is manufacturing a pretext for interference m the affairs of Eastern Europe, and is causing, a great national memorial to be got up praying for that interference m the cause of the Christian faith, so j the unfriendly treatment of the native people m the New Hebrides is exactly what is wanted to bring about native hostility and provoke native outrages, which would be the excuse Foi avowedly turning temporary occupation into annexation and permanent occupancy. When the. French troops were first landed the British Govern men: was assured by the French Premier and by the London Ambassador of France, M. Waddington, that they were simply sent for the protection of settlers m the New. Hebrides, whose safety was endangered by the action of the natives, and that so soon as that object was attained the troops would be removed. But nobody other than the Colonial Office was so verdant as to accept these assurances as gospel, and now there is the most indubitable proof that France did nor, and does not, intend to remove her troops at all. For at the present moment the French military authorities m the New Hebrides are busy surveying and laying out sites for fortifications, and laughing at England and, her credulity. Now all this is distinctly a breach of the treaty with England, which bound both England and France to abstain from occupation and annexation, and unless we are prepared to surrender the New Hebrides wholly and finally to France, it is necessary that we should claim the right of establishing a military post m the islands wherever France establishes one. Not that, for ourselves, <ye object to France obtaining the New-Hebrides, but that we object to her doing so without a quid pro quo, such as would be afforded by her ceasing to send any more Tctidivistes to the Pacific. That would be a boon worth giving up the New Hebrides to gain, and it is a, thousand pities that when France herself proposed this arrangement the jingoism oi Victoria prevented its being accepted. And it is precisely because, even yet, this may be attained, if England is only firm as- regards the New Hebrides, that joint occupancy of the latter should be insisted upon until such an agreement has been arrived -at. The present condition of affairs is fitly characterised by an Auckland exchange (the New Zealand Herald) as "a political farce," of which the British authorities appear content to be the helpless spectators ; that paper conclud- . ing an article on this subject with the following just remarks ':-—" What a contrast this pusillanimous attitude presents to that which would have been assumed by Germany under similar circumstances ! The Prince Chancellor would have given the French Government a week to bring to a close these miserable excuses; and, if. by that time they had not cleared out their troops with bag and baggage, b,e would have held them liable for any consequences that might happen. We repeat, what we have already said, that it is this do-nothing policy which the British authorities persist m, by allowing the subjects of Britain and the natives who implore her protection to have their lives and property endangered by the aggressive action of a hostile Power, that is ruining England's reputation m. the Pacific, and weakening the loyalty of her colonies m Australasia. People are beginning to ask seriously how long this unsufferable state of things is to be allowed to go on ? It is high time that the wretched policy of 'letting things slide ' should be put an end. to, and that the British protection m the Pacific should be a reality, and no longer a delusion and a snare."