JOE DESCRIPTION
NEW HEERITES
1.
The New Hebrides consists of some 65 inhabited islands
with a land area of about 5,700 square miles and a population of about 94,000 (including approximately 87,000 Melanesians, 4,000 French citizens and 1,800 British subjects). Under
the Anglo-French Protocol of 1914 the New Hebrides is constituted "a region of joint influence, in which the subjects and citizens of the two Signatory Powers shall enjoy rights of residence, personal protection and trade". Each Power retains sovereignty over its nationals and neither Fower may exercise a separate authority over the Croup. The indigenous inhabitants bear no formal allegiance to either
Power. By an exchange of notes of 15 September 1977 most
legislative powers were conferred on a Representative Assembly.
Executive powers in most fields were transferred to a Council of Ministers in January 1978.
2. The chain of command whereby the British and French
Governments exercise residual powers is through their High Commissioners, who are resident elsewhere, and through their respective Resident Commissioners to whom the High Commissioners delegate their functions either wholly (as in the British
case) or in part (as in the French case). The Eritish High
Commissioner is, since 1973, a senior FCC official, resident
in London. The French High Commissioner is the Governor of New Caledonia, resident in Noumea.
7
Independence is scheduled for 1980. heserve powers are limited to the fields of defence, internal security, external relations, currency and exchange. Probably ineffective powers of veto exist in the fields of justice, inward foreign investments, external communications, lands
and immigration.
LAMACEMENT IN CONFILENCE
14.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.