The New Hebrides Condominium

Author(s): Linden A. Mander

Source: Pacific Historical Review , Jun., 1944, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Jun., 1944), pp. 151-167
Published by: University of California Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3634610

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Pacific Historical Review

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 The New Hebrides Condominium
LINDEN A. MANDER

THE NEW HEBRIDES, which were discovered in 160

the stream of European expansion in the nineteenth
of the missionaries in 1839, the operations of the
acquisition of New Caledonia by France in 1853, and
interests to prevent their seizure by the French go
a number of compromises-in 1878 Great Britain an
not to annex the islands, in 1887 they established
for the purpose of protecting the lives and property
1904, following the failure of the commission to m
British commission met to discuss the whole situation
sion a convention was signed on October 20, 1906
changed at London, January 9, 1907.

THE PROVISIONS OF THE 1906 CONVENTION

Under Article I the New Hebrides were to form a
and government. Both French and British subjects we
and each power was to retain jurisdiction over its o
than British or French subjects were to enjoy the sam
six months choose either one or the other of the l
certain provisions named later, the respective nationa
to the laws of their own country.
Under Article II each power was to nominate one
might delegate his power to a resident commissione
to have a police force under his own control; the p
certain purposes be under the joint direction of th
the Resident Commissioners.

The public services to be undertaken in common comprised police, p

and telegraphs, public works, ports and harbors, buoys and lighthouses, pub
health and finance; there were to be special postage stamps, and English
1A description of the New Hebrides is found in Tom Harrisson, Savage Civilization (New Y
1937); and E. Pelleray, "La Question des Nouvelles-Hebrides," La Revue du Pacifique (1922
W.H.R. Rivers, The History of Melanesian Society (London, 1914), 189-216, for anthropolog
data. See also Felix Speiser, Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific (London, 19
S. M. Lambert, A Yankee Doctor in Paradise (Boston, 1941); C.B. Humphreys, The Southern
Hebrides (London, 1926). G. W. Paton, "France and England in the New Hebrides" (unpublis
manuscript); J. I. Brookes, International Rivalry in the Pacific Islands, 1800oo-z875 (Berkeley, 1
239, 247; S. H. Roberts, A History of French Colonial Policy (London, 1929); Edward Jac
France and England in the New Hebrides (Melbourne, 1914); Guy H. Scholefield, The Pacific
Past and Future (London, 1919), 244-273, deal with the Franco-British rivalry. For the prov
of the 19go6 agreement, see British Parliamentary Papers, Cmd. 3300 (1906).
[151]

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 152 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW

French money and bank notes were to be leg

defray the expenses of its own administration; t
of the public services of the condominium w
imposed by the powers jointly. The Joint Nav
in maintaining order; only in case of emergency
request of the two authorities, and it must se
each of the authorities.
There was no provision for any legislative council; the commissioners wer
to have power jointly to issue and to enforce local regulations. The natives o
the New Hebrides were not to acquire the status of subjects or citizens or t
be under the protection of either of the two powers, but the resident commis-
sioners were to have authority over the native chiefs, to make regulations
binding the tribes. They were to respect native customs where these custom
were not "contrary to the maintenance of order and the dictates of humanity"
(Article VIII).
The Joint Court was the key to the situation and much was to depend upon
it (Articles X to XXI). Three judges-one British, one French, and the third
nominated by the King of Spain-were to comprise the court. The fourth offi-
cer, the Public Prosecutor, was to have charge of preliminary inquiries. He too
was to be appointed by the King of Spain. When the criminal cases came be-
fore the court, four assessors from the leading non-native inhabitants of the
islands were to assist; they were to have a vote in deciding whether the accused
person was guilty, but only a "consultative voice" in deciding the sentence.
The court was to have jurisdiction over land suits, over all cases between
natives and non-natives, and offenses committed by natives against non-natives,
and over particular offenses against the present convention and regulations
formed under it. The procedure was to be based upon the English and French
courts, and the Joint Court itself was to determine the modifications of pro-
cedure necessitated by local circumstances and differences between the two
systems of law and by the provisions of the convention. Either English or
French might be used before the court; provisions were made for interpreta-
tion where necessary; the registers of the court were to be kept in both lan-
guages. By Article XIX the execution of the judgment of the Joint Court was
to be carried out by the respective national authorities who might limit or
reduce a penalty imposed by the court in a criminal or police case. National
courts were to deal with civil suits other than land suits and criminal cases
were to be set up, but both non-natives and natives by consent might bring
their cases before the Joint Court, where the law applicable to the defendant
should be applied.
The provisions relating to land were contained in Articles XXII-XXVII.
Rights of non-natives might be proved by occupation for a continuous period

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE NEW HEBRIDES CONDOMINIUM 153

of at least three years, or conditions of such proof as

provements, and so forth, and by title deeds establish
title deed was registered later than 1895, natives wou
did not understand the agreement, that fraud and vi
the conditions of the agreement had not been fulf
was not the land of the vendor or his tribe. Title dee
1, 1906, also made it difficult for natives to challeng
coming into force of the 1906 convention no sale o
valid as between native and non-native in the absence of a written document
signed in the presence of four witnesses (two to be natives) and of an officer
agent of either France or Britain or some other person duly authorized. With
six months the purchaser or grantee was to apply to the Joint Court for reg
tration; if the court judged that the price was inadequate, it might order the
payment of a larger sum; and if such a condition was not complied with,
sale was to be canceled. The resident commissioners might jointly decide t
certain lands were necessary for the preservation of native welfare and shoul
not be sold to non-natives.

The recruitment of native laborers and the conditions of their employment

accounted for no fewer than twenty-six articles. Only persons with a license
(to be secured on the deposit of a sum with the authorities) might engage in
recruiting; the licenses were to be valid for one year, and the officials of each
power were to make a report each month on the number of licenses issued.
Masters of recruiting vessels were to keep a complete register of the name, sex,
tribe, place, destination of the recruited person, the name of the employer, the
length of service, and the rate of wages. Women and children might be engaged
for labor purposes (married women with the consent of their husbands and
unmarried women with the consent of the chief of the tribe). No native was to
be engaged for more than three years; should any deaths occur on board the
recruiting vessel, the master must make an immediate report; laborers suffer-
ing from sickness were to be cared for on landing at the expense of the recruiter
and lodged in a suitable hospital. No laborer might reIngage at the end of
three years without authority from the resident commissioner, and then only
for one year, and after the native had been examined in the presence of the
employer, two non-native witnesses, and two witnesses "selected as far as pos-
sible from the same tribe as the labourer" (Article XL). These safeguards were
most inadequate, and one can understand how easily reengagements could be
unfairly obtained from the helpless natives.
Should a native be absent from work without good cause, time so lost was
to be added to the term of the engagement. Nothing was said, however, as to
who might determine whether the absence had been without good cause.
Article XLII provided that

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
154 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW

a labourer may further be retained after his term of eng

ment for breaches of discipline to which he has been d
the additional period of labour shall not exceed tw
engagement.

It is obvious that the vagueness of these provisions a

for effective official supervision left the way open
less an efficient and imaginative government might
the native population in spite of the imperfection
sighted and energetic policy, and close codperation o
French officials could have assisted both native and non-native inhabitants to

improve their physical and economic conditions, and to reconcile the inte
of the various groups in a just and equitable manner.

THE WORKING OF THE CONDOMINIUM

Unfortunately the condominium was the produc t not of a spirit of

international codperation but rather of a shortsighted rivalry which op
to give the joint government as little power as possible. British and
subjects were to have equal rights under the protection of their res
governments; although the Australian government anticipated the
which would arise if the French courts maintained jurisdiction over
subjects and the British courts over British subjects, the separation was
tained. The Joint Court operated in the face of another most seriou
cap; not only were sentences on non-natives to be carried out by t
Commissioner of the nationality of the accused, but this official was
the power, as pointed out above, of reducing or remitting a penalty
in a criminal or political case. Mr. Deakin, the Australian Prime M
condemned this provision, which, he wrote,
confers authority on the resident commissioner to practically nullify the fina
ment of the highest authority of the island, and it is feared that it may be th
of unfairly discriminating between the peoples of two dominant races.

The condominium suffered from the burden of excessive machine

sets of laws, two groups of officials, two official languages, two legal cur
two flags, and even two sets of postage stamps. The regulations go
recruiting of natives failed to meet the more serious problems; the con
made no provision for native education; the vital question of land reserv
left in vague terms (Article XXVII, Section 8); although the high c
sioners were to make regulations for the native tribes, the convention d
provide for a codification of native law "so that there might be some st
authority whereby native offenses could be judged"; and finally bec
duties of the Joint Naval Commission were not accurately defined, c

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE NEW HEBRIDES CONDOMINIUM 155

of authority subsequently ensued. Roberts writes that the c

of arm-chair theory."'
The condominium began its labors under certain d
claimed that the offices and houses of the officials were to
vision of a house costing ?4,500 for an official who draws a
annum is palpably absurd."' Had ?1o,ooo only instead of ?
on buildings, wireless telegraphy might have been insta
supply arranged for and some system of sewerage and scav
Fifteen years later in 1929 the annual colonial report menti
tal still had no modern system of sanitation, no waterwork
until that year was a sanitary service organized for the
lecting and disposing of refuse and rubbish from all ov
the intervening period a wireless had been erected by t
The British and the French officials were housed in tw
and had to deal with many matters by correspondence?
joint offices, they might have settled a great many questio
conversation. Both British and condominium officials w
in the early years, according to Jacomb, only thirteen out
administrative services knew both English and French.
have interpreters of pidgin English; hence the natives w
represented. Officials had little opportunity for vacatio
few opportunities for promotion occurred, and the local in
or no chance to take part in the government even by m
commission. The French group appears to have had some
organ, but not the British. These defects were serious e
has well written, that "any dyarchy of this kind deman
all details in advance, and cannot be introduced by a gen
ing only with principles," but when neither governmen
conduct the joint venture with energy or enthusiasm th
likely to be most serious and even utterly disastrous.
The Joint Court began work on November 15, 191o, b
time it did little, and the inhabitants consistently complain
meetings and its delay in dealing with land claims. A 19
that "honest settlers have no security of tenure and nat
against aggression on their lands." The delay played int
scrupulous persons who took possession of land belongin
and the natives had no means of ejecting them. The peti
2 Roberts, op. cit., 533.
Jacomb, op. cit., 59.
4 Ibid., 60.
Lambert, op. cit., 223: "The only occasions I ever saw the Condominium get together were on
the King's Birthday and July Fourteenth."

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
156 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW
the court had not even met during the years 1919-1923, and that the pen
which it imposed were so small that the sentences did not deter lawbr
The activities of the Joint Naval Commission came in for severe cri
It will be recalled that by Article VI of the convention the commissi
to codperate in keeping order, but that, except in urgent cases, it wa
only on the joint request of the two resident or high commissioners. The
son for not defining the commission's power too closely lay in the fact t
condominium police had not yet been formed, and in the absence of r
and effective communication between the islands such assistance as the naval
commission might render was likely to be required. As the years went by the
commission extended its activities and dealt with a great number of native
disputes and crimes. It became in practice almost an independent tribunal,
largely because of the failure of the condominium to set up adequate executive
authority throughout the group and to draw up a native code of laws. Paton
wrote in 1923: "It is a disgrace to any administration that the greater part of
its inhabitants should not be subject to any criminal law and should be at
the mercy of an arbitrary tribunal,"" which frequently heard cases in camera
and refused to allow the natives to employ counsel for defense. There were
occasions on which natives had been kept for long periods in prison without
trial, and the charge was made that natives had been accused of extortion when
their only offense was to advise their friends to join in paying money to a
lawyer for the purpose of defending their land claims.
The land situation was in truth a serious one. The administration of a
native people can be as surely judged by its land policy as by anything els
Take the land from natives and they are helpless; it is then possible to exploit
their labor, uproot their customs, and demoralize their life. Judged by th
standard, the condominium stands condemned. The 1929 annual colon
report revealed that "ownership at the present day is based on native deed
but such deeds do not constitute a valid title until judgment has been pro
nounced upon them by the Joint Court," but of about 1,000 claims lodged
the court for about 2,150,000 acres only 54 titles had been granted and all
these were on the island of Efate. The report added that the granting of such
titles depended largely upon the land surveys, and that, although the cou
had attached to it a staff of surveyors, the nature of the country and the exten
of the claims made progress a slow matter. Theoretically the court, in grantin
land titles, looked into the requirements of the native population and, i
necessary, set aside reserves for them, and the condominium appointed
official native advocate who was supposed to help the natives in land dispu
with the white settlers. Even when one makes allowance for all difficulties, it
seems surprising that in twenty years the court settled only about fifty land
6 Paton, op. cit., 42.

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE NEW HEBRIDES CONDOMINIUM 157

claims.' Its dilatoriness caused a serious position to d

informal character of many of the original land sa
white settlers, because in many cases the original buyer
else, because of the disappearance of landmarks, the
guishing marks cut on trees, the disappearance of st
change of river courses, frequent opportunities for
the settlers took possession of the land and the nativ
obtain redress. Jacomb describes the situation in the
If a non-native chooses to help himself to land claimed
whether such taking be supported by a concession or not
to the administration for help, for the administration
interfere in land matters; nor can he apply to the Joint Cou
to grant interim injunctions or to hear ejectment actions
brought later on after the lodgement of an application a
Consequently there is nothing whatever to prevent any E
himself on native lands whether he has purchased them or n
indefinitely, for there is nothing to compel him to go to
cation. As long as someone else does not put in an applic
assailable. In short, if a white man wishes to take a native's land he can do so with
impunity.8

The labor problem had also become acute. The convention, as already
pointed out, set up provisions for the protection of recruited laborers which
in practice proved to be entirely inadequate. In many cases natives were
recruited without sufficient inquiry by officials, with theresult that frequent
abuses occurred. The recruiters were often granted their licenses without care-
ful investigation as to their character, their vessels, and their treatment of
laborers. Although Articles XXXII-XXXIX provided for plantation inspec-
tion by labor inspectors, the infrequent visits of the latter, the fact that many
laborers did not even know of such a system of inspection, and the lack of
energy (particularly on the part of the French government) meant that many
of the old evils still remained. The recruitment of single women opened the
way to serious abuse, and accusations were not infrequently made that French
plantations recruited women for immoral purposes and arranged temporary
"marriages." The spread of disease and the breakup of native family life fol-
lowed in consequence.
The British authorities in 1912-1913 tightened up their rules; they abol-
ished the recruiting of women, placed the minimum age of recruitment at
sixteen, legislated in detail concerning the food and clothing to be supplied
to laborers, and reduced the number of working hours per week. These regu-
7 Judging from the 1938 report, progress in settling land claims had shown little improvement
during the period 1929-1938.
s Jacomb, op. cit., 135-136.

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
158 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW
lations, good in themselves, tended to put the British settlers
in securing labor, and complaints to this effect increased
decade.
AMENDMENTS ADOPTED BY THE 1914 CONFERENCE
The weaknesses surveyed above became so obvious that in 1914 the two g
ernments held a conference in order to discuss the situation. The official re-
port shows that Britain and France continued to have different purposes
mind. The former still urged an increase in the power of the condominiu
and a corresponding curtailment in the authority of the national courts; t
latter, on the plea that French law made it difficult to allow "any derogati
from the separate national authority," stood out for the principle of unim
paired sovereignty of each nation over its own nationals. The fundamenta
of the condominium therefore remained unchanged. The principle of divid
authority continued, despite the adoption of amendments.
Of these amendments the establishment of four administrative districts
proved to be the most important. These districts, known later as the Southe
Centrall, Central2, and Northern, were each to have administrative age
one British and one French. Great Britain at the conference urged that
agents should be given power over all non-natives irrespective of nation
ity; the French representative objected on the ground of national sovereign
It was finally agreed that the two agents of an administrative district shoul
reside in different parts of an island (if their district covered more than on
island), otherwise on different islands, that they should divide the wor
native administration, but that each should possess exclusive jurisdiction
his own nationals. It was hoped that the setting up of permanent officia
these districts would eliminate the abuses which arose from over-concentratio
of government, and that decentralization of authority would result in m
effective control.

In order to prevent the "unfortunate incidents" which arose from the ill-
defined powers of the Joint Naval Commission, the conference decided that
hereafter the commission must not act on the initiative of one national com-
mander alone, but only at the joint request of the condominium authorities;
however, in cases of emergency the Joint Naval Commission might take action,
but must properly furnish a report to the authorities.
By Article VIII of the revised convention provision was made for the codi-
fication of native laws-a desirable addition. By Article XXI courts of sum-
mary jurisdiction were established in each of the administrative districts so as
to relieve the Joint Court of smaller local cases. These courts were to consist
of a British and a French district agent with a British or French assessor chosen
by lot.
The position of the Joint Court received consideration. It will be recalled

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE NEW HEBRIDES CONDOMINIUM 159

that under the 1906 convention the respective reside

remit the penalty imposed by the court. After much d
agreed that any reduction or remission of penalty was
the agreement of the British and French residents; i
agreement, the average was to be taken of the amounts
to take off of the sentence. Thus, if the Joint Court sh
penalty and one resident wished to reduce the sentence
other resident by one year, a two-year reduction sh
The British desired to create a joint police force un
instead of having two separate forces, British and F
tional commandant; the French refused to agree, an
mands still remained. Each of the British and French commandants therefore

continued to act in a dual capacity (1) as the police officers of the condomin
and (2) as police officers in charge of conducting police cases before thei
spective national courts. Since the condominium maintained no sepa
prison staff, and each government had its own national prison, any sentenc
imposed by the condominium involved the use of these national prisons, pay
ment for which came from condominium funds!

Other amendments included the following: (1) Non-British and non-Fren

subjects were given only one month instead of six in which to elect to com
under either British or French rule; (2) both nations were given express a
thority over corporations as well as over individuals; (3) each power was t
regard foreign laborers introduced by it into the islands as dependents of itse
(4) the condominium services were extended to include (in addition to th
Joint Court) Courts of First Instance, Native Courts, Joint Native Prisons, th
Land Registry, the Department of Survey, and the Service of Administrat
Districts; (5) a native code of law was to be prepared and native courts s
up to deal with native offenses against natives; (6) the Joint Court was to add
to its jurisdiction by dealing with serious native offenses against natives, and
to review the decisions of native courts; (7) the court also now received t
power to imprison offenders who defaulted in the payment of fines and
issue warrants of arrest, "the latter prerogative not having been hitherto recog
nized in the case of French citizens"; (8) provisions for the defense of natives
in criminal and civil proceedings before the Joint Court: the native advoca
who had previously appeared before the court only at the express request
natives concerned was now bound to appear on behalf of all natives; (9) add
safeguards concerning the recruitment, engagement, and employment o
native labor, including the provisions that the resident commissioners alo
could issue recruiting licenses, that they were empowered to stop or restr
recruiting in any section of the islands if native unrest or the decline of popu
lation warranted such a step, that restrictions were placed on the recruitment

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 160 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW
of single women (a restriction which did not affect British inte
already prohibited the practice), and that each power was to app
of labor.

Owing to the World War of 19 1 4-1918, the convention was not ratified until
March 18, 1922, and not until 1923 was it proclaimed in the New Hebrides.
The governments had made some improvements, but the fundamental defects
of cumbersomeness, lack of co6peration and authority, divergent purposes and
inefficient administration remained.

EVENTS SINCE 1923'

The revised convention gave little satisfaction. Early in 1924 a Presbyter
deputation waited upon the Australian prime minister, Mr. Bruce, and b
terly complained of the failure of the condominium. It asserted that the posi
tion of women on the French plantations was growing intolerable; that wome
were illegally recruited and kept beyond their time; that they were used
induce men to recruit; that not infrequently they were married or divor
at the pleasure of the planter. Some months later a deputationwaited on M
Massey, the New Zealand prime minister, with similar complaints. He agr
that the condominium was an abominable thing, but no effective action w
taken. The Presbyterians then began a renewed agitation to have the N
Hebrides brought under some form of British control. They and the Brit
planters in the islands urged that the French commercial interests were forg
ing ahead and endangering the British economic position.
The French replied with bitter criticism of Australia. The circumstanc
were interesting. It would appear that in 1921 or thereabouts the French New
Hebrides Company, facing financial difficulties, offered the Australian g
ernment its lands and concessions for ?500,ooo. The offer was rejected, a
soon afterwards the French changed their policy and began introducing Asiat
labor. According to the missionaries and others, the French planters co
now disregard the New Hebridean supply "which at best was both spasmo
and expensive," and the British planters found themselves with a "total
' Much of the material of this section has been drawn from Australian newspapers, especially
Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Argus, which contain letters from missionaries a
commercial firms, as well as summaries of main events.
For an outspoken French criticism of the Australian point of view, see E. Caillard, "Les Nouvelles-
Hebrides et L'Australie" in La Revue du Pacifique (1924), 361-376: ".... la colonisation franqaise
fut, une fois de plus, copieusement flitrie et vilipendde, la France accusde de favoriser la destruction
de la race indigene pour la remplacer par des asiatiques, et la conclusion fut qu'une solution s'im-
posait dans le sens d'une annexion f la Grande-Bretagne ou, tout au moins, d'un partage qui
liquidit la situation des Iles."
A French view of the 1914 Protocol is found in E. Pelleray, "Le Protocole de 1914 relatif aux
Nouvelles-Hlbrides," La Revue du Pacifique (1922), 60o-68.
French writers also complained of labor shortage and of the ill effects flowing from it. See La
Revue du Pacifique (1924), 197,.where E. Pelleray, Secr6taire G-ndral du Comiti de l'Oc6anie Fran-

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE NEW HEBRIDES CONDOMINIUM 161

inadequate native supply" for plantation

employed the local natives during the ru
by the prospect of only a short time of lab
tations, battling under severe handicaps
The importation of indentured labor (th
engaged for a period of five years) enable
which were in dispute, and to strengthe
Reverend Maurice Frater supported the B
duction of indentured labor in an effort
and to enable the Hebridean natives to carry
and thus to be less disturbed in their soci
recruiting tended to flourish when native
order but that peace and security operated
policy was to encourage native agricultur
interest in life, but the fact could not be ig
settlers did entail an intensified labor pr
ditions which prevailed because of the lac
the British settlers. "Coconuts which should
ing all over the ground. Cotton and coffee,
people in other lands, are rotting under the
increasing disappointment of the mission
weary of the struggle against "abuses and ir
Great Britain, following urgent represen
commission to investigate the problem o
Hebrides. The British interests looked forw
mendations; but after a long delay, the
introduction of Asiatic labor, a situation
Disquieting reports concerning the liquo
in 1913 had noted how frequently the rules
and how often European settlers and trad
Caise writes: "I1I n'est que trop vrai que faute de ma
r'trograder, ou tout au moins de stagner dans ces ile
inclined to blame the missionaries. "C'est la consequ
presbytbriennes qui n'h6sitent pas a recourir aux pir
plantations, afin d'entraver la marche de la colonisatio
10 Reference to the efforts of a number of French colon
Population Problems of the Pacific (London, 1927), 28
this group advocated "une entr'aide coloniale," which
the Far East and the Pacific by transferring the abu
colonies in Indo-China to New Caledonia, the French
thereby "build up a belt of French influence stretching
other Power .... first mooted by the Comit6 de l'Oc~an
by the Deputies and, after a long delay, by the Govern
See E. Pelleray, "Les Nouvelles-H6brides" in La Revue

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
162 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW

alcohol to the natives without being punished. He pict

in a poignantly vivid passage. The natives, he wrote,
drink in a senseless way, simply pouring down one bottle a
are quite overcome. Some never wake up again; others hav
indigestion from the poison they have consumed; still m
monia from lying drunk on the ground all night. Quarrels
and it is not a rare sight to see a whole village, men, wome
on the sand completely intoxicated. The degeneration wh
all the sadder as originally the race on Ambrym was partic
and energetic. If the liquor is not speedily suppressed the

Fifteen years later the Reverend Frater spoke of liquor

as a growing menace. The Presbyterian Mission Syno
on the island of Tongoa, had reached the conclusion that
be ignorant of the extent of the liquor traffic. On som
brym, Epi, Tongoa, the traffic was on the increase, and
several years before, believed intoxication to be a gre
population. "Among primitive people with no balance
moderation drink works untold havoc, and it is gradu
islands of their virile manhood." Both governments of
both nationalities must be held responsible. Spirits br
were sold by French and British traders. In Ambrym, fo
traders monopolized most of the trade and did so wi
official, according to Mr. Frater, had visited the islan
increase of the liquor traffic had so threatened the bu
traders by depriving them of money which ordinary tra
that in self-defense they also engaged in the illicit tr
Compagnie Coloniale of Ringdove Bay, Epi, apparentl
trading establishment of the central islands, tried to bea
underselling them and so forcing them out of the is
of driving out poison with poison was disastrous to the n
paying one pound per bottle, could now get it for fiv
is flooded with grog, and chaos and confusion reign."
point to the remark that the disappearance of the na
not to the superior qualities of the white and the inab
live up to a higher civilization, but rather to the natu
native faced with the evils and vices of a white civilizatio
seem to be: Can these weaknesses and these vices be eliminated or must the
New Hebridean be doomed to perish through the inability of the governments
to control social evils and to initiate a positive program of native welfare?
In 1927 the French and the British governments agreed to certain minor
11 Speiser, op. cit., 12.

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE NEW HEBRIDES CONDOMINIUM 163

alterations." The salaries of the members of the Joint Court

creased; the fines drawn up in the 1914 protocol were to be incre
per cent (this clause affords evidence of the prior insufficiency
meted out to lawbreakers); restrictions imposed by the resident
on the Joint Court in connection with its land work were to be
certain measures were to be taken for the improvement of sanit
These changes did little to touch the fundamental problems, an
negligible, perhaps even backward! European settlement pro
Even in 1929 there were no hotels in the group. Practically all w
and perishable commodities had to be imported. In that year
tion took steps to complete a ford over a river and thereby
the administrative center, and Devil's Point, seventeen miles awa
a few roads had been made by contract with local planters but in
administration purchased road machinery and, through its pu
partment (which, however, expended only ?6,900 in 1929 on
did a little repair work on roads; it has already been pointed
tion was in a backward condition and only in 1929 was a sanit
set up to enforce certain elementary regulations.
The condominium neither controls nor supports schools,1"
of the natives remains solely under British and French missio
in this respect has been of a splendid character." The Rockefe
in 1929, in conjunction with the condominium, began a yaws
campaign. During the twelve months over eleven thousan
treated, a great majority being in the southern and the first cen
"At the present time," runs the report, "there are four Euro
Medical Officers in the Group who devote themselves to nati
fare, in so far as the exigencies of their duties permit, and w
allowance from the Condominium Government for that purp
later the British Colonial Office reports indicate very little
development of government medical services. Indeed, the 193
the impression that missionary medical work still exceeds th
ernment.

The survey would seem to indicate that the condominium

12 Treaty Series No. 8, 1927. Notes between the United Kingdom and France
tinuance of Treaty Series No. 7 (1922), Cmd. 1681, and Treaty Series. No. 28
13 Colonial Annual Report for 1938, p. 18: "There are no schools controll
Condominium Government, nor are there any facilities for European childr
but a primary education, which is not of a very high standard."
1" S. M. Lambert, op. cit. Although Dr. Lambert is often critical of missi
the Presbyterians in the New Hebrides: "without their intervention over
the last native there would have died," and to the Melanesian mission in the Solomons. Of the Rev-
erend F. J. Paton he writes, "The New Hebrides needed dozens of Patons." The Colonial Office
Report for 1938 (p. 18), speaks of the excellent work of the mission schools.

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 202u, 01 Jan 1976 12:34:56 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
164 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW

duty toward the natives. In part this failure is undoubtedly

factors. It is no easy matter to police and develop a grou
hundred miles in extent. Nor should one overlook the difficulties inherent in
the varieties of tribal organization and language. But when every allowanc
is made, it is not easy to resist the conclusion that political jealousy has pre
vented the two governments from codperating in a beneficent and energet
government.1" One looks in vain for an adequate appreciation of the anthro
pological factor, for the reports give no hint of an attempt to map out clearly
native life and custom; nor has the example of the governments of Papua and
of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea in appointing a government an-
thropologist been followed. The annual reports make dull reading. They do
not contain any material comparable with that issued by the governments o
Papua and of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea. Year after year the
same sentences are repeated under the general chapter headings of Geography,
Government, Population, Health, Education, Public Works, and so forth,
with only such modification in statistics as the passage of a year will have mad
necessary. In the bibliography attached as an appendix to the annual report
one finds no evidence of an adequate discussion of the problems and event
of the last forty years. A few books and scattered articles written by private
citizens or visiting anthropologists must be consulted if one is to obtain infor-
mation concerning the inhabitants and resources of the islands.
It seems obvious that at the end of the present war the condominium should
be replaced by a more effective government. The present arrangement sati
6 The following are some judgments on the condominium:
Edward Jacomb (1914), "Delendum est Condominium."
Rev. J. S. Needham, Chairman of the Australian Board of Missions in 1929: "The New Hebride
Condominium is the most disgraceful thing under the sun and should be abolished."
Dr. S. M. Lambert (op. cit., 1941): "... . the Condominium Government as I saw it was inviting its
own downfall" (p. 247). He calls it "the mad Condominium" (p. 235), the "bad government" (p. 223).
Felix Keesing, The South Seas in the Modern World (New York, 1941), quotes Hopkins, who i
1928 wrote, in the International Review of Missions: "This great costly machine does not revolv
but creaks and groans as it grinds out doles of expensive justice, spasmodically to a dying out popu
lation."
Harrisson, following the example of the others, calls the condominium the "pandemon
ernment" which, he writes, "has always been and will always be a failure," but adds tha
"one must dislike the Condominium for the abuses it tolerates, at the same time one must
ful to it for tolerating things which we have put down as abuses in other colonies. Only un
Condominium could cannibalism thrive a few miles from a government officer, radio, and h
B3ut this somewhat "anthropological" defense of weak rule is offset by his later descriptio
effects of white influence upon the native peoples. He himself notes that the bad elements
native wars "were due to illegal operations of whites with guns, drink, woman-stealing, non
ation, and illegal recruiting" (p. 420). He writes of this "horrid mess" and complains that
is done "to help the most interesting, in many ways the most admirable people left in the
and that "carelessly, we obliterate humans who are unlike ourselves. It is ghastly" (p. 424).
E. Pelleray writes in La Revue du Pacifique (1924): "L'on chercherait en vain les travaux
publique entrepris et ex6cutds par l'administration commune pour le developpement &co
de l'archipel. Tout est encore 5 crber.... Le tribunal mixte ... n'a pas rempli sa tiche.
"En definitive, l'administration du condominium a d~montr6 qu'elle ne peut pas assure

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE NEW HEBRIDES CONDOMINIUM 165

fies neither party. The more ardent nationalists of each coun

abolition of the joint rule and the substitution of their own n
eignty. Many Australians justify their claim to rule the New H
plea that the welfare of the natives would be better safeguarded a
ity of Australia better guaranteed (under a vague kind of Aust
Doctrine it would seem); the French colonial group urge that the o
acceptable in their eyes is
celle de la drvolution de la souverainth des Nouvelles-H6brides k la F
un avenir que nous aimerions t croire prochain, les Nouvelles-Hdbri
manquer de devenir frangaises. Aussi bien est-ce 1t la seule solutio
au droit et t la justice.
The French writers claim that French economic interests outstrip
Australian interests three to one, that the great natural riches
which at present lie undeveloped under the paralyzing influen
dominium would be efficiently and energetically exploited un
sively French regime, that the New Hebrides are necessary for th
of New Caledonia, and that they could be used as a base to pre
mergence of French interests now confined to all-too-isolate
Pacific.

Thus, although British and French writers join in condemning the condo-
minium, they differ radically as to the solution. Each group wishes to annex
the islands or at least, as suggested by some French colonial writers, to parti-

veloppement Pconomique des terres plaches sous son autorit6 et qu'elle est incapable de garantir
la srcurit6 des biens et des personnes" (p. 311).
The same writer in 1922 had urged: "Ces iles sont une drpendance naturelle de la Nouvelle-
Calhdonie .... Mais les Nouvelles-H6brides nous sont encore indispensables comme complment de
la Nouvelle-Calhdonie, pour accroitre nos possessions si restreintes du Pacifique. Nous en avons
besoin pour fortifier notre influence dans cet ocean, pour empacher que le cercle britannique qui
entoure disormais notre colonie calidonienne ne I'6touffe" (p. 71).
He adds: "et dans un avenir que nous aimerions h croire prochain, les Nouvelles-H6brides ne
peuvent manquer de devenir frangaises. Aussi bien, est-ce lA la seule solution qui r~ponde au droit
et A la justice" (p. 75)-
M. Leon Archimbaud, former Under-Secretary of Colonies and Director of La Revue du Pacifique,
wrote in that periodical in 1931 an article entitled, "Le Condominium Franco-Britannique des
Nouvelles-H6brides doit disparaitre" (pp. 507-509). "Le budget du Conominium est en deficit," due
in part to the feebleness of English economic activities and England's lack of interest in its na-
tionals there. The duality of authority leads to stagnation. He suggests a division of the islands:
those where French interests are predominant should go to France, the others should be the object
of a new agreement. Since Great Britain does not seem inclined to grant subventions to make up
budgetary deficits and since the budget of the New Hebrides cannot be balanced in any other way,
partition along the lines just suggested would, in the opinion of M. Archimbaud, be clearly and
incomparably superior-for all concerned, British, French, and natives alike-to the situation which
"now exists."

For another example of the failure of an international experiment resulting from an un

promise in the realm of international power politics see Graham H. Stuart, The Internati
of Tangier (Stanford University, 1931). The present writer has attempted to analyze t
between power politics and the weaknesses of the mandate system under the League of N
his Foundations of Modern World Society (Stanford University, 1941), 501-oi-5o6.

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
166 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW

tion the islands according to dominant economic

recent changes which have revolutionized mo
would the transfer of the islands to either G
France be a satisfactory solution? It is submitted
in the affirmative betrays an ignorance of world
transformed the question of colonies, becaus
total war and hence have altered imperialism
predominantly military matter. All the islands o
Pacific now have added military significance
struggle for critical war materials. All the isla
ingly be drawn into the struggle (as indeed th
Solomons has shown) unless some adequate sol
war is reached. And this solution surely must
world organization capable of restraining aggr
Britain continue to fritter away their energies o
rivalries and local tugs of war in such places a
combining forces to meet much larger evils thre
they will suffer a repetition of their present pl
a desperate battle against a terrible foe which th
At present the French interests in New Cal
have been submerged in the world conflict at pr
trol appears to have increased. It will be the heig
return to the old dog-in-the-manger policy
when the whole foundations of their empires ha
lutionary forces of total war. It follows, then, t
out of the arena of power politics if they are to
of the natives themselves and of the peoples wh
the case is strong for transferring the islands eit
of the United Nations (the nucleus, we hope, o
or to a mandate system much stronger and mor
ity than was the mandate system under the L
taken, the officials on the spot will no longer ha
fying administrative conditions as have the offi
world has, or soon could have, an adequate sup
and colonial administrators who could make
forty years have to show. The United Nations ha
than restore the status quo in the New Hebrides.
Early in 1942 the present writer suggested t
not to remain one of the most fertile fields o
these conditions must be fulfilled:
1. The establishment of an adequate system of inter- or supra-national secu

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE NEW HEBRIDES CONDOMINIUM 167

ity to remove the area from the range of military contest. (It
in view of the technical developments of modern war, this sy
imate some kind of international federalism.)
2. The establishment of an international system of econom
order to eliminate possible complaints from the have-not
their access to markets and raw materials and to protect con
tions against unfair monopolistic practices of international t
3. The strengthened international supervision of colon
that the welfare of dependent peoples may be realized. Th
tive races, as well as that of all nations, depends upon th
an efficient government for a world which has been transfo
science. Upon this fundamental reconstruction and unpr
tution-building will depend the fate of all peoples, colon
communities alike."

It is difficult to resist the conclusion that the same principles hold tr

the Pacific islands, including especially the New Hebrides.

University of Washington LINDEN A. MANDER

16 Linden A. Mander, "The British Commonwealth and Colonial Rivalry in
the Pacific Historical Review, XI (March, 1942), 26. Felix Keesing (op. cit., C
excellent discussion on the prospects facing the native peoples of the South S
to Keesing's volume, J. B. Condliffe prophetically indicated that the Pacific isla
a decisive role in the balance of power in the Pacific," a balance which "may
acquisition of air bases and raw material supplies in the islands."

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:54:47 UTC6 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms