The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-06-05
THE NEW HEBRIDEs.

If1E NEW I1LD1SIDG0'
There are times when Australians
resent their isolation. They are apt to
take a too languld interest in affairs
oversee which do not directly touch
them; but when law courts in South
Africa and diplomatists In London are
at work on matters of Australian con-
Germ. and the irresponsible cables fling
them only the scantiest scraps OF news
after long days of silence, they find the
strain too much for their nerves.
Just at present there rs a double
strain on them. The chief actor in the
most daring raid on Grown lands yet
known is sitting snug in Natal, deriving,
apparently the Fugitive Offenders act
because Of some wiredrawn technicality
of urocedure and the Natal authorities
seem not only unable to send him back
here for trial, but unwilling to give us
the slightest information about him.
In what rs practically an extradition
case, with the Government of New
South Wales as plaintiff, we are left
to gather morsels of information from
private wires, mostly sent by the de-
PENDANT. 1t is regretable that we
should be denied by kinsmen In South
Africa the courtesies which would be
extended to us by every foreign nation
except perhaps, Venezuela.
| But London, just now, is nearly as
reticent as Durham. The New Heb
rides are the one still unsolved prob
lem of the Southern Pacific. and the
/ n ny N
Australia. Yet a conference sits in
London to deal with this prpblemi Bril-
| tain sends to 1t men most admirable,
no doubt, as to their diplomatic quail
| ties, but with only the merest book
| knowledge of the island; France sends
| men who have studied the problems on
| the spot The conference meets under
the auspices of a Government which
knowns nothing of and, we fear much,
cares nothing about the real wishes
and difficulties and rights of distant
| colonies 1t meets at time when the
| soothing Of France with concessions
| that do not seem to affect London may
! be considered more important than the
interests of the Empire in the Pacific,
| And Just when we want to hear every
| thing, to know what has been settled in
| time to make protests before the settle
ment Is irrevocable, we wear nothing;
or rather we hear just enough to put
our nerves on edge. We hear that the
| French commissionerS--wh know ex-
actly what France wants in the islands
have gone home jubilant; we hear
that each nation is to have its own
courts administering the joint law ac-
cording to its own ideas, and that
municipalities are to be formed where
possible. And we out here know what
| the British commissioners seemingly
did not know and would not trouble to
| learn from us, that those two decisions
! are equivalent to giving France absp-
! lutte control OF the whole group
Here you need TO study the map, re-
menbering that Britain has two inter-
ests in the islands-their value for
trade and colonization, and their value
as strategic points commanding the
| transatlantic trade route. This last is
the specially imperial interest, for they
! lie across the routes from Sydney to
| Vancouver or San Francisco on the
| flank of the trans-Pacific rotues to
| Panama, and in the middle of the Solo,
mon Ellice-Fiii- section of the
| Western Pacific which is the aclnow-
1 lodged sphere of British influence. The
! group is naturally subdivided into four
| sections; at north one large island,
santo, with three uimportant ones to
| eastward; south of 1t, separated by
Bougainville and Selwyn Straits, lie
Malekula, Ambrym, and Epi, with
many attendant islets; then Efate, or
Sanwich slaInd, by itself and three
wilder islands, Erromango, Tanna and
Aneityum, trail away to the southeast.
| Efate Is the centre of the group, for
business and for strategical purposes:
on it lies villa, the one trading town
ship, and on its northern side is the
finest harbor In the Pacific earring
| Sydney, of course,) Hayannah Harbor.
In Malekula there is another good har-
Dor, Port Sandwich; and in Santo a
third, Port Olry.
| Now when you name Villa and Port
Sandwich and and Port Olry, you name
| the three centres of French settle
ment; and if you add to them Ring
| dove Bay in Epi, a station on Havan-
nah Harbor, and a few scattered
plantations on Malekula, you have
named practically alVl the French set
| Elements there is. The English planters
| live lonely, as a rule. There are eight
| or nine at Annandale. in the southern
| end of Santo; there are six or seven at
Undine Bay, in the north part of Efate
otherwise 1 do not belive there are
| three British settlers together any
where in the islands. Therefore any
scheme for municipal self-government
simply puts the control of the three
harbors into French hands. There was
an attempt some years ago to munich
| palize Villa, and the then Imperial
Government wisely interfered and re-
fused to let France strengthen her posi-