Trouble In Wallis

Island

French Imprison 11 Natives

AS a result of trouble and demonstra tions in the Wallis Group, 11 Wallis natives have been brought to Noumea on board the small French vessel “Le Phoque,’’ and imprisoned at Camp Est on He Nou in Noumea harbour.

A British subject Mr. Brabant, with his wife and two children, have been de ported on the demand of the local Resi dent (Dr. Major Chaumet), by an order of the Governor of Caledonia, who is General Commissioner of the French Republic in the Pacific Ocean. Brabant was one of two traders in the group.

The other is a Frenchman.

It is reported that the “king’’ of the vVallis Group has been deposed by the French allegedly for pro-English senti ments. It appears that the trouble was a form of protest against the French Resi dent, who seems to have been returned post-haste to France by Pan American plane. Many of the natives of this neglected and isolated group are restless.

In the past the French have had trouble with the islanders and their kings.

Long ago one or two were deposed in favour of French nominees.

Of the 98 passengers brought to Noumea by the “Le Phoque,” 50 were Wallis natives who are to undergo military ser

vice. Three native stowaways were also discovered.

Wallis is a lonely group (northwards of Fiji and Samoa) about which Alain Ger bault has written, for he spent months there while his yacht underwent repairs.

For a long time the Catholic mission has virtually governed the island with little outside interference; but the islands (though belonging to Polynesia) are nominally under the New Caledonian Governor. The people are closely re lated to the Tahitians in speech and manners, although to-day they are less sophisticated. Some 400 Wallis islanders were brought to Noumea during the war. to work for the Americans, who found them satisfactory.

A percentage of men and women has always tried, in a spirit of adventure, to leave the island and get to other parts of the Pacific. Young girls have been known to swim out to sea or paddle out in canoes to beg passages from passing ships, in order to see life away from their home land.

The US Forces had a weather station on the highest mountain on the main island during the war a very lonely outpost, but one of use to the Air Force, and there was a small air strip.

Wallis and Futuna lie just over 500 miles west of Samoa and were discovered by the English seaman who gave his name to the Wallis group. A French Catholic mission has been there since 1837. and the “king" of the island signed a treaty of friendship with Prance in 1842. Two years later France declared it a protectorate, and a Resident was ap pointed under control of the Governor of New Caledonia. Like Tahiti, for many years Wallis had a queen as head of the state. The French made her a present of a church organ.

The native population to-day is about 6.000. The main island is 8 miles long, of volcanic origin, rising to about 600 feet, and is surrounded by a reef, with the main entrance to the south. A radio station keeps the residents in touch with New Caledonia, but comunication by ship in recent years has been infrequent with Noumea. The islanders are more in touch with the outside world through Fiji and Samoa. To-day they are said to be somewhat pro-British.