The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-04-16
II FL r
FRIDAY f:
FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN THE WEST
ERN PACIFIC.

During the short tenure of power by
Lord Salisbury, an arrangement was
come to with the French Government
which may have a much wider range OF
influence upon British Imperial policy
than the apparent Importance of the
transaction would suggest. In consider
alton of France relinquishing certain
treaty rights as to the fishing on the
Newfoundland coast, which were OF
trifling money value, but exceedingly
distasteful and annoying to colonial fish
ermen, England agreed to withdraw its
joint guarantee of the independence of
Raiatea, an outlying island of the So
ciety group, and permit France to annex
it. The transaction was altogether ia
vorable to France, but it ignored the
guaranteed rights of the natives OF
Raiatea.
This transaction has caused a good
deal of irritation in the Australian Colo
MES, more especially as it has been fol =
lowed by proposition to give Colonial
assent to a provisional agreement en-
tered into by Lord Derby, while Secretary
of State for the Colonies under Mr.. Glad
stones previous Administration, for a
much larger scheme of partition
France is to be permitted to an
mex the New Hebrides group on
4 promise not to make any island
of that archipelago a penal colony !;
while the Colonies, which want the ISL
and of Rapa for coaling station in the
Pacific, when the Panama canal has
been constructed, are not to be gratified
upon that point. AS a matter of fact
Rapa was used as a coaling station by
the Australian and New Zealand line of
mail steamers, sailing from Sydney and
Wellington to Panama, before the French
occupation. This line having been sus-
pended and the San Francisco route, via
Honolulu, having been established, the
French were left in quiet possession and
their right cannot we'll be questioned at
this date.
The Colonial Governments will not
give their assent to this scheme, and
they have gone great deal further and
fatty refused to contribute to the ex-
pense of the Imperial navy in Austria
Ian and New Zealand waters, which
Admiral Tryon was commissioned to ar
range for. Victoria, New South Wales
and New Zealand are positive and out
spoken. In the general plan of COM
bined defense as outlined by the. Ad-
uairal, New Zealand was to be the base of
defense for the Australian Continent
from any enemy approaching from the
West, and therefore as this was the
quarter from which most danger was
to be apIrehended, New Zealand
should be the great naval rendezvous.
The Colonies were to pay the cost of the
Imperial fleet, also for the construction
of vessels to be built at the discretion of
the Lords of the Admiralty for that
station, and in the event of war were to
place their own armed vessels and tor
pedo boats absolutely at the disposal Of
the Admiral commanding. Further
more, the Colonies were to engage to pay
for the destruction of all property at I'M
defended points, which might be liable
to fall into the hands of an enemy in the
event o. war. This involved a very
heavy expenditure without control by
the Colonial Governments, but it is
probable that they would have consented
to a modification of the plan if it had
not been for the general surrender by
the Home Government to France of all
the points in the annexation game in the |
Western Pacific. New Zealand has
formulated its objections in this way:
III That the commercial interests of /
England herself entered much more large /
lv into the question than the Admiral al I
lowed to appear; (2l that the concern of |
New Zealand has been much modified by |
the colonial policy of the British Govern
ment in several particulars-(a) by with I
holding the Royal assent from Sir 6.
Crews bill of 1882 which provided for per
mission to annex any island of the Pacific
whose people might wish to be annexed to
New Zealand; (b) by the policy of the
Government of Great Britain, in respect to
certain islands of the Navigator Group,
and by overtures since made for the cession
Of the New Hebrides to the French hepub-