A CRYING SCANDAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 39, 6 July 1914, Page 6

A CRYING SCANDAL.

BRITAIN MUST TAKE THE ISLANDS. A RESIDENT'S VIEW. By Telegraph—Press Associalion. Auckland, July 3. "The ohief reason why the New Hebrides should not be handed over (o the French is a moral one," says Mr E. Jacomb, a resident of tiie group, who is a passenger by the Niagara, on his way to England. Mr Jacomb has written a book to demonstrate the failure of the Anglo-French Condominium, which provides for joint control of the islands. This failure, which is now generally admitted, opens alternative } courses. The islands may be divided between the two powers, or they may be taken over by either France or Britain. Mr Jacomb urges that the moral consideration will forbid Britain from abandoning them. The natives have sufferM much at the hands of the French. They are rapidly dwindling in numbers as it is, and Mr Jacomb considers the withdrawal of the English would be their death warrant. It has been estimated by Dr. Spciser, a Swiss ethnologist, that the natives of the New Hebrides have decreased in numbers from 650,000 to 65,000 in 30 years. Even if this figure is approximately correct, it indicates an appalling mortality, and the French attitude to indentured labor is bo callous as to suggest that the rate would not be decreased if Britain withdrew. Partition of the islands is considered by Mr Jacomb to be impracticable. Their relative positions are such that to secure anything like fair partition, the group would have to be divided into three or more strips, and the British territory would bo sandwiched between French territory and rice versa. This is due in part to the fact that there are only two good harhors in the group, one of which would have to go to eaeli power, and these are not far apart. The solution that appeals to Mr Jacomb is that Britain should purchase tho French rights by cash payment. "I am a loyal British subject," he said to an interviewer, "and I want to remain under the (lag. The British of New Hebrides look to the people ot Australia and New Zealand to support their ease, otherwise it may be overlooked by the Imperial Government. 'The group is so relatively unimportant from a commercial standpoint that we may he sacrificed unless Australia and New Zealnnd show any interest in us.'' Mr Jacomb hopes that the joint commission will not visit, because it will not get at the true facts. Two Commissioners, one British and one French, would be far more likely to obtain reliable evidence. The New Hebrides will always depend on native labor, states Mr Jacomb. The damp beat will prevent the islands ever becoming purely a white settlement. Nevertheless, industry and commerce, when developed, will support a very much larger white population than there is now. Cultivation is very backward; indeed, the islands may be said to have, been only scratched. Tho natives themselves grow nothing | for export, though they are large!v em- ! ployed on the Europeans' plantation. 1 The most promising crop is cocoanut, ' but the sugar industry could be established with proper government and pro- , per land titles.