The New Hebrides

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 41, 9 July 1914, Page 5

The New Hebrides

AND THE HONOR OF THE MEN. NO CHANCE OF SELLING TO BRITAIN. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright Sydney, July 8. Judge Heimburger, of the French colonial service, who is cn route for New Caledonia, interviewed, was emphatic that France would never sell any of her possessions in Oceania. On the contrary, she was coasolidating her colonial empire by means of costly wireless installation. The French Pacific islands were a necessary link in the chain of stations extending from Paris through the colonies. The wireless plant would have an effective range of y7OO miles. He indignantly repudiated the suggestion that the Fernet authorities countenanced the saie of liquor to natives in the islands. If abuses c:;- ; 'ed in the New Hebrides or elsewhere t :e Government, pursuing a humane ~u-iicy, iicy, would surely suppress them. He added that it was not a monetary o r economic consideraton at all. France could not relinquish any portion of the islands in the Pacific without staining the names of her heroic and self-sacri-ficing navigators of past centuries, and - she could not stain their memory without staining the national honor. •