NEW HEBRIDES, an island group in the western Pacific, under French and British joint administration. Area about 5,700 sq. miles. Pop., natives about 6o,000, Europeans 882, other nationalities 2,440. For full account of geography, etc., see PACIFIC ISLANDS.
The Portuguese Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, sighting Espiritu Santo in 1606, thought he had discovered the great southern con tinent then believed to exist, and named it Australia del Espiritu Santo. Louis de Bougainville visited the islands in 1768, and Captain Cook, who gave them the name they bear, in 1774. The subsequent visits of several explorers, the exploitation of the sandal-wood, and other products by traders and the arrival of missionaries helped to open up the islands and to give them a certain commercial importance by the middle of the 19th century. Trade was mainly with New Caledonia, and France was thus indicated as the dominant power in the New Hebrides; even Brit ish planters pressed France to annex the islands in 1876, but in the following year some of the missionaries urged the same course on England. In 1878 the islands were declared neutral by Great Britain and France. The presence of British and French settlers under independent authority led to unsatisfactory ad ministration, especially in regard to the settlement of civil actions and jurisdiction over the native population. As to the establish ment of commercial supremacy, French interests clashed with Australian, and in 1882 M. John Higginson of New Caledonia (d. 1904) consolidated the former by founding the trading so ciety which afterwards became the Societe francaise des Nou velles-Hebrides. In 1886 one of the most serious of many native outbreaks occurred, necessitating a French demonstration of force from New Caledonia. An Anglo-French convention of Nov. 16, 1887, provided for the surveillance of the islands (protection of life and property) by a mixed commission of naval officers. The Anglo-French agreement of 1904 had a clause providing for an arrangement for proper jurisdiction over the natives and for the appointment of a commission to settle disputes between British and French land owners.
On Oct. 20, 1906, a convention was signed in London, confirming a protocol of the preceding Feb. 27, and providing that "the group of the New Hebrides, including the Banks and Torres Islands," should form "a region of joint influence," in which British and French subjects should have equal rights in all respects, and each power should retain jurisdiction over its own subjects or citizens. The claim of other powers to share the joint influence was excluded by the provision that their subjects resident on the islands must be under either British or French jurisdiction. A British and a French high commissioner were appointed, each assisted by a resident com-_ missioner; provision was made for two police forces of equal strength, and the joint naval commission of 1887 was retained for the purpose of keeping order. The high commissioners were given authority over the native chiefs. A joint court was established, consisting of two judges, appointed respectively by Great Britain and France, and a third, to be president, and not a British subject or French citizen, appointed by the king of Spain. The convention provided against the establishment of a penal settlement and the erection of fortifications.
This convention was bitterly criticized in Australia on the ground that many of the provisions which nominally established equality between British and French would operate in practice to the advantage of the French ; and there was no little dissatis faction on the ground that the Australian Government was neither represented at the preliminary conference, nor fully con sulted during the negotiations. A second protocol of Aug. ratified by France and England on March 18, 1922, guaranteed British, French and native interests, fixed the conditions of land tenure and provided regulations for the recruiting of native labour. Cannibalism still prevails on Espiritu Santo, Malekula and Pentecost Islands.
See Parliamentary Papers, France, No. i (1888 and 1906) ; and "Correspondence relating to the Convention. . . ." (Cd. 3288) (1907) ; M. Cannibal Land (New Hebrides) (1922). (See also PACIFIC OCEAN.)