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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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Copies of the Agreements concluded in 1887 and 1888 between Great Britain and France were furnished to him, and he was informed of the assurances exchanged between the two Governments-both verbally and in writing-in 1878 and 1883, that neither Power intended to annex the group. His attention was also called to the restrictions imposed upon British subjects with regard to trade in arms and spirits with the Natives.
It was further explained to him that the French Government and public were exceedingly sensitive with regard to that part of the Pacific, and suspicious of any proceedings on the part of British subjects which had the least appearance of an encroachment, and that it was absolutely necessary, in order to prevent difficulties arising, and in the interests of the Corporation, to avoid any action or language which could be construed as being contrary to the various agreements.
Lord Dunmore said that he quite understood the position of affairs, and that he would exercise the greatest caution.
(Confidential.)
No. 4.
I am,
&c.
SALISBURY.
FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Foreign Office, March 16, 1897. SIR,
I AM directed by the Marquess of Salisbury to transmit to you, for the informa- tion of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the accompanying copy of a despatch which has been addressed to Her Maiesty's Ambassador at Paris,* informing him of the intention of the Earl of Dunmore to visit the New Hebrides in the capacity of Special Finance Commissioner for the International Corporation (Limited), the nature of whose interests in the group is explained in a letter communicated by Lord Dunmore, of which also a copy is herewith enclosed.†
No. 5.
I am, &c.
F. H. VILLIERS.
SIR E. MONSON to the MARQUESS OF SALISBURY. (Received March 20.)
(No. 202.) MY LORD,
Paris, March 18, 1897. WITH reference to your Lordship's despatch No. 117, Confidential, of the 13th instant, respecting the interests of the "International Corporation (Limited)," in the New Hebrides, I have the honour to state that in M. Siegfried's Report on the Colonial Estimates for 1897 (a copy of which formed one of the enclosures in my despatch No. 404, of the 18th December 1896), the following information is furnished as to the provision annually made in the French Budgets for the subvention to the New Hebrides Company
*
*
Chapter XXIII.-The third of the fourteen annuities to be paid to agricultural undertakings for the benefit of French Establishments.
· Expenditure for Financial Year, 1894-360,000 fr. (14,4007.).
Vote granted in 1896-360,000 fr. (14,4007.).
"Vote asked for 1897 and supported by the Budget Commission-360,000 fr. (14,4007.).
"These annuities are the consequence of the Contract of March 1894 between the French Government and the Compagnie Calédonienne des Nouvelles-Hébrides.'
"This Company consented to the abrogation of the Convention of the 29th March and the 31st July 1888, and of the 31st April 1891, relative to the supply of convict labour for working the nickel mines, and they handed over to the French Company of the New Hebrides all the assets of the Caledonian Company, on the undertaking that the new Company discharged the liabilities of the Caledonian Company.
"On the other hand, the State undertook to pay to the French Company of the New Hebrides a non-repayable subvention of fifteen annual payments of 360,000 fr. each.
† See Annex to No. 1.
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This engagement was not by Article 5 of the Agreement to take effect until after the date of the annual payment alloted for the year 1895, when the principle of a periodical subvention would be sanctioned."
These annuities have, says the Report, been voted by Parliament, and as it did not come within the province of the Budget Commission to examine the former Conventions, they propose that the vote asked for by Government should be accorded.
I have, &c.
No. 6.
EDMUND MONSON.
MR. GOSSELIN to the MARQUESS OF SALISBURY. (Received June 28th.)
Paris, June 26, 1897.
(No. 432.) MY LORD,
I HAVE the honour to enclose copy of a note which, in accordance with the instructions conveyed to me in your Lordship's despatch No. 238 of the 10th instant (which only reached me two days ago), I addressed to M. Hanotaux, calling his Excellency's attention to the repeated communications made by Her Majesty's Embassy during the last two years, with regard to the restrictions on the trade in fire-arms and spirits with the New Hebrides Islands, and expressing the earnest hope of Her Majesty's Government that the French Government would no longer delay in replying to the proposals made on the subject by Her Majesty's Government.
In handing this note personally to his Excellency yesterday, I said that your Lordship trusted that the important subjects with which it dealt would receive his Excellency's early attention.
M. Hanotaux, who made a note of my request, said he was aware that the matter had long been under the consideration of the competent authorities, but he was not himself altogether satisfied with the proposals of Her Majesty's Government; could not some larger scheme be discussed?
I reminded his Excellency that it had been originally proposed that the restrictive Regulations should be applied by international agreement to the South Pacific generally, and that the enforcement of the same by France and England in the New Hebrides group formed only a part of the general scheme.
His Excellency at once replied that he did not wish for any international discussion, but had rather in his mind a definite settlement of all the matters connected with the New Hebrides group, such as convict settlements and administration, and not merely the adoption of Regulations for the restriction of the arms and spirits trade.
"Perhaps," said his Excellency, "you might be authorised to discuss these matters with me, and that reminds me, we must at once arrange for the resumption of the sittings of the Niger Commission."
The rest of his Excellency's observations I shall record in an African despatch of to-day's date, but judging from the apparent connexion which existed in M. Hanotaux's mind to-day with regard to the New Hebrides and the Niger, it seems to me not unlikely that the French Government may be contemplating a proposal for the simultaneous settlement of the territorial claims of England and France in the South Pacific and West Africa.
I have, &c.
MARTIN GOSSELIN.
Enclosure in No. 6. MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE,
Paris, June 25, 1897. On the 9th November last I had the honour, by direction of Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to remind your Excellency that no answer had been received to communications made in 1895 by Her Majesty's Embassy with regard to the proposed restrictions of the sale of fire-arms and spirits to the Natives of the New Hebrides Islands; and on the 15th February last Her Majesty's Ambassador made a renewed representation to your Excellency on the same subject.
No reply to any of these communications has as yet been received from the French Government, though the evils arising from the continued existence of this traffic cannot but be known to the French Colonial authorities.
The question is one which for a long time past has engaged the earnest attention of the Governments of the neighbouring British Colonies, and so lately as the 5th
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