British In The New

Hebrides

How Long Will Condominium Farce Continue?

THE position of the British residents in the Condominium of the New Heb rides goes steadily from bad to worse, and now remains as a reproach upon British colonial administration. It is a matter for regret that no attempt is made to deal with the situation.

Before the war, British people were in duced to take up plantations under the Condominium system in the New Heb rides. They were mostly Australians, and the Commonwealth Government then dis played a keen interest in their welfare.

The French authorities were equally keen in encouraging the settlement of their nationals.

But in the last 30 years the whole out look has changed. The French, appar ently, are as eager as ever to assist their nationals in developing the resources of the rich little group; but the British authorities seem to have lost all interest in. the New Hebrides.

In 1905 there were within the group 225

British and 417 French subjects. In 1933 (the last figures available) there were 180 British nationals and 789 French na tionals. Those 180 British had associated with them about 60 foreigners and Asia tics; whereas associated with the French, mostly assisting them as indentured labourers, there were 1289 Asiatics and other foreigners. To-day, if a census were taken, it would be found that there are barely 100 British left in the group.

The French planters have been allowed to make use of indentured labour; the British have been forbidden to do any thing of the kind and have had to depend for labour upon the unsatisfactory New Hebrides natives. The French planters have been generously assisted from time to time —after hurricanes, in depression periods, etc. —by subsidies from the Gov ernment of France; the British planters have had no assistance. Finally, in re cent years, the French have devised a system by which their coconut planters are able to enjoy a substantial bounty on production (equal to an increase of £4 per ton in the price they receive for copra); but the British have had no such help, and still receive the open market price.

Copra Subsidy Confusion.

The system under which French copra is subsidised has had a really ex traordinary effect in the group. Copra produced by French interests is sold readily in Vila for £ll per ton; but copra produced by the British realizes only £7 per ton —£6/10/- until recently. In many cases, the plantations are side by side, and the copra is produced under identical conditions —yet one lot brings £ll per ton, and the other £7 per ton. The posi tion regarding copra produced by the na tives is even more extraordinary. If the copra is purchased from the natives by a British trader he can get only £7 per ton for it; if it comes through the hands of a French trader, it is worth £ll per ton. The amount of confusion can well be imagined. The British planters and traders are using every device known to human ingenuity to get their copra away as French copra; and various Frenchmen, working on a commission basis, are re ceiving the copra from the British and passing it out to the market through their agency, so that it automatically becomes French.

Incidentally the current price of British copra in the New Hebrides (classified as South Seas smoked) —namely £7 per ton, Australian, on the beach —compares un favourably with the current London quo tation (for Marseilles and Genoa), which is now equal to about £l7 per ton Aus tralian, c.i.f.e.

No Land Titles

Another extraordinary feature of the Condominium Administi'ation is the man ner in which Land Titles have been granted. Settlers who went there before the war and immediately lodged claims for Land Titles have not yet received the documents required. We have the case of Mr. C. G. Ross, who settled in Undine Bay before the Condominium was created.

About 1906, he made formal application for a Land Title; and he eventually got his Title in November, 1935. He is re garded as one of the lucky ones. “And then,” says Mr. Ross, “I was charged 2,000 francs for survey fees, and I am prepared to take an oath that a surveyor was never on my property!”

In these circumstances it is not sur prising that the British have become thoroughly disheartened and have either sought French nationality or have sold out to French interests.

The Condominium Administration long ago became a farce. It is, of course, divided into two sections, French and Bri tish, and the cost of each is borne res

pectively by the French and British. A full-blooded British Administration, com plete with Commissioners, District Officers, Legal Officers, Postal Officials, Customs Officers, etc., is maintained in the New Hebrides, at the cost of the Bri tish Colonial Office, in order to govern about 100 dispirited Britishers, and assist the French in looking after some 50,000 natives. The work of administration could be carried out much more cheaply by the French, and perhaps more efficiently—because it stands to reason that one cannot have efficiency where there are two cumbersome organisations working side by side, with the same object.

Naval Considerations

Of course, the true position is quite well known. Britain long ago abandoned the attempt to compete with the French in the settlement of the New Hebrides.

The French, apparently, were eager to spend money in that direction- —Britain was not; and the British said, in effect, “You can have the New Hebrides.” Why, then, has Britain hung on to her dwind ling interests in the New Hebrides and spent at least £lO,OOO per annum in maintaining her share of the administra tion?

The answer apparently lies in the har bours of the New Hebrides. So long as Britain holds her connection in the Con dominium, British warships have the right to use the magnificent harbours in the group. If the New Hebrides were entirely French, there would be a serious gap in the defence fringe of tropical islands which now guard the valuable north and north-eastern coast of Aus tralia. Britain then would have no har bour between the Solomons and Fiji.

Britain, presumably, is prepared to pay £lO,OOO per annum for the right to make use of the deep land-locked harbours of the New Hebrides.

But from the point of view of British prestige it is not a good arrangement.

The remaining British planters in the New Hebrides are embittered critics of the British Colonial Office; and everyone who examines the position there comes away feeling a little ashamed of the po sition that British indifference and inac tivity have created. If it were not that the group is so isolated, and world tra vellers rarely find their way there, the Condominium would have been laughed out of existence long ago.

It might be far better for everyone con cerned if the British Government handed over the New Hebrides entirely to the French, provided that some rights could be retained regarding the use of one or two harbours in the group. The French would gladly accept such a position, be cause the New Hebrides Administration might then become part of the New Cale donian Administration, and substantial economies might thereby be effected.

It is an interesting coincidence that, just as the above article was completed, we received a letter from Mr. Edward Jacomb, who now is a resident of Jersey, in the Channel Islands. Mr. Jacomb was a resident of the New Hebrides before the war; and his book, “France and Eng land in the New Hebrides,"’ remains as the only really authoritative summary of the Condominium position. He said; “It can never work. It never has worked, and it never will work. . . . The experi ment of the Condominium was based on a negation of all previous political ex perience. ... It has failed —the longer it goes on, the worse it gets.”

Mr. Jacomb wrote that in March, 1914!

Mr. G. W. L. Townsend, District Officer in the Sepik area, left Sydney for Boram, North East New Guinea, on January 30.