Rule Over New

Hebrides

Dual Set-up Causes Rejection Of Plan

AMOVE made in Paris by the New Caledonian representative in the French Senate (M, Henri Lafleur) to secure representation for the French settlers resident in the Condominium of New Hebrides in one of the French Houses of Parliament was rejected after dis cussion.

M. Lafleur said that although the Hebrides were a Franco-British Condo minium, such a representative naturally would only represent French interests. He described the archipelago as a group of 37 islands, with 80 per cent, of its economy in French hands, and pointed out that during the war the French settlers had splendidly shown their patriotism in the way they rallied and in the work they did for the Allied cause.

M. Lafleur also thought that the exist ing Planters’ Syndicat, which worked closely in co-operation with the French ' Resident Commissioner, would be a suit able body to nominate a representative to the Union Francaise assembly.

In rejecting the suggestion on behalf of the Government, the French Minister for Overseas Territories explained that to admit a French representative for the New Hebrides to a French assembly would be an act of doubtful international morality and might place France in a delicate position. Those were the grounds on which he asked the Senate to reject the proposal. Furthermore, the New Caledonian representatives, as M. Lafleur himself had shown, were largely in a position to look after New Hebridean in terests. It was rather like asking for Morocco to be represented without ask ing the consent of the Sultan —H.E.L.P.