FRENCH ANARCHY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1762, 29 May 1913, Page 3

FRENCH ANARCHY.

IN THE ISLANDS.

A MISSIONARY'S REPORT. The convener of tho Foreign Missinos Committee of tho'Presbyterian Church of New South Wale's (Rev. ,T. T. M'Gowan) has been furnished by Dr. Taylcr, formerly of Noguga, New Hebrides, with the following statement regarding the Condominium

"Many natives come from all tho islands of the group to work on the plantations, and in many cases their coming into contact with.tha w J hite man is their ruin. Drink is being sokf and given to them, so turning them into drunkards, and on week days and Sundays there aro places where gambling is carried 011 before the public gazX-, and then there is the evil examplo ever present. This degrading process is almost altogether in tho hands of the Frcnch., During my stay in Vila I could see very definitely a dividing line between the British aud French population. In tho majority of cases our own countrymen know lioiv to treat the native, and should there be an occasional exception our present British Administrators at once tench him that tho New Hebridean is a fellow creature. I was proud of the Union Jack, for our Resident Commissioner, Mr. Mahaffcy; and his staff did their utmost to maintain its old traditions of justice and righteousness. Where tho law was broken or tho native ill-treated, the former, a strong man, was soon on this spot to check the law-breakers.

"I am sorry to state that very little can be said in favour of the Flench. Ono has only to attend the court and listen to the charges of cruelty to the nativfcs, of nonpayment to the recruited, of grog-selling, of kidnapping,' to find that 99 per cent, of these cases are committed by tlio French But what is worse, tho French Administration seems to eneournge the lawbreaker. Very few, if any, of tho fines imposed by tho Court have been colbcted, recruiting' laws are very loosely regarded, and natives aro looked upon as lieasts and treated >as such. Just ilecently a very sad proof of this fact was demonstrated. In ono plantation under the French ilag some recruits ran awav, and finally settled on a Briton's ground. Tho French authorities immediately s»t out to restore these people to their masters; but the Englishman refused to allow arrests to be made 011 British soil by French officials. The British officials refused to act. Why? Because the Government Register proved that tho majority of these recruits had finished their time, in some instances years ago. Tho boys themselves maintain that they had not been paid. wiM'e not allowed to return home on completion of their time, were cruelly ill-treated, and got insufficient food. Had the French authorities full powsr they would liavo returned theso recruits. "Finally, I would say that the Condominium laws are good, and if the French would only respect them, a-s the British do, the Governments would be a success; but tlrev will not, and herein lies the failure. The whole situation is impossible, for British honour and British justice cannot unite with French anarchy."