Franco-Australian Settler Antagonism in the New Hebrides and British Imperial Policy in the Southwest Pacific, 1870-1906

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“Quite Unimportant”: Franco-Australian Settler Antagonism in the New Hebrides and British Imperial Policy in the Southwest Pacific, 1870-1906

Viktor M. Stoll

Abstract in November 1905 at the height of a decades- long Australian-French settler rivalry over the With the withdrawal of British troops from the future control of the archipelago. Australian colonies in 1870, a sense of strategic exposure crept through the colonies over the The New Hebrides, modern Vanuatu, could not following decades. This feeling of exposure was be any further from the main centers of British conspicuously felt in the New Hebridesimperial power at the time, and most certainly (modern Vanuatu), where French settler not any further from its core imperial interests. intrigues threatened the Pacific "island wall" Indeed, this island chain lying 2,500 km the Australian colonies increasingly hoped northeast of Sydney in the middle Southwest would guard against the "Yellow Peril" of an Pacific, held little economic and even less expansionist Japan. However, Whitehall found strategic importance for Whitehall. It did not that the growing Australian-French settler control a chokepoint of Far Eastern trade like antagonism over the New Hebrides interfered Singapore, nor protect the approaches to with its global imperial policy. Britain was British India like Aden. The New Hebrides were forced to balance competing interests between just another set of Melanesian islands where its primary Pacific dominion and its emerging little more than copra could be cultivated, and European ally. The move towards an eventual Whitehall had historically tried everything in its Anglo-French New Hebrides Condominium power to resist being dragged into official (1906), led to a distinct bifurcation of Anglo- colonial administration in the region. Australian imperial policy in the Pacific. It also resulted in the physical, cultural and social While “quite unimportant” to Whitehall policy decimation of native society. makers during the high tide of the British Empire, Vanuatu would emerge as an Keywords: New Hebrides, Australia, French important well-spring of Melanesian Colonialism, Japan, Pacific, British Empire, nationalism during the era of decolonization Anglo-French Condominium, Sub-imperialism following World War II. By the 1960s, land disputes between native groups and European settlers, a common dynamic of revolution in the "His Majesty's Government regards the New decolonizing world, spurred the foundation of Hebrides as quite unimportant from the point one of the earliest Melanesian nationalist of view of defence, and do not consider that movements in the region. Under the leadership their occupation would in any sense be a of Jimmy Stevens, known to his followers as strategic gain."1 This matter of fact response “Moses”, the Nagriamel conservative- was forwarded to Prime Minister of the traditionalist movement and the socialist Commonwealth of Australia, Alfred Deakin, by Vanua'aku Pati party of Anglican Fr. Walter Australian Governor-General Henry Northcote Lini emerged as leaders calling for Melanesian

1 15 | 9 | 4 APJ | JF self-determination. As the two partiesfor Melanesian self-determination in places like competed for influence throughout the 1970’s New Caledonia and West Papua.6 amidst the backdrop of broader decolonization in the Pacific, British and French interests again clashed.

British policy makers, happy to rid themselves of the expense of economically and strategically “unimportant” Pacific colonies, hoped that Vanuatu's independence would coincide with that of the other British colonies in the region. However, French interests, which opposed decolonization in French Polynesia and New Caledonia, actively undermined the independence movement. French interests supported Stevens' Nagriamel movement, which sought a prolonged transition to independence, while the British supported Lini. In the end, Lini’s Vanua'aku Pati triumphed - Map of the modern Southwest Pacific with with Lini becoming Vanuatu’s first prime inset of Vanuatu (former New Hebrides)7 minister in 1980. An effort to establish a separate French-backed state on Espiritu Santo by Stevens was put down with the support of 2 However, a century before Vanuatu's Papua New Guinean troops. independence, this "quite unimportant" island chain gave rise to a dramatic reorientation of Lini’s government, which many in the West British imperial policy during the Edwardian viewed as Communist-aligned, pursued an years. In the New Hebrides, British foreign independent Melanesian socialism which policy's dramatic shift away from its Pacific sought to blend Western socialist thought with colonies and toward Europe would accelerate - traditional forms of the Melanesian economy, diverging from Australia and increasingly culture and society (known askastom ).3 This converging with that most traditional of foes, doctrine gained admirers among Melanesian France. In the signing of the Anglo-French populations throughout the region andCondominium of the New Hebrides in 1906, continues to be advocated by pro-independence Britain would formally subordinate the desire parties in French New Caledonia. Lini also of its Pacific settler colonies to its alliance with sought stronger ties with other Melanesian France. nations, like Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, laying the basis for the Not surprisingly, given the "unimportance" of 4 Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). Lini also the New Hebrides for the British Empire, the remained a vocal critic of continued French historiography of the region in light of its colonial occupation in the region, and Vanuatu imperial relevance is sparse. Most macro- emerged as a major supporter of Melanesian imperial histories fail to even mention the New nationalists in New Caledonia calling for the Hebrides or the Anglo-French termination of French nuclear testing during Condominium.8 In Australian historiography the the 1980s.5 In this role Vanuatu continues to New Hebrides are often little more than a exercise a quite important regional leadership footnote. Only amongst Australian defense role, specifically through the MSG, advocating works, such as Neville Meaney's The Search for

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Security in the Pacific, 1901-14, do the New was codified with France, and the Admiralty Hebrides have a place at the table.9 By far the requisitioned all "non-essential" Royal Navy best accounts of the New Hebrides are from ships from the colonial-based squadrons to the French perspective but still fall victim to reinforce the newly constituted home fleet at the nationalist narrative.10 The intent of this Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands off the coast paper is to bring the Franco-Australian settler of Scotland. The Pacific security brought by antagonism over the New Hebrides out of Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese War obscurity and define the role this small, "quite and the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance unimportant" chain of islands played inin 1905 allowed the Admiralty to target the accelerating Britain's turn from empire in the Pacific squadrons for reduction while leaving Pacific. regional security to their Japanese allies. By 1906, five British battleships had left the The end of British Hegemony in the Asia- Pacific.12 This worked out to approximately one- Pacific third of all British ships in Australasian waters removed in less than a year.13 This reduction, The Franco-Australian antagonism over the which capped nearly two decades of creeping New Hebrides, which reached a fever pitch by British disengagement from the Southwest 1905, should be viewed in the context of a Pacific, inflated the sense of strategic decades-long shift in the status quo of the Asia- vulnerability of Britain's settler colonies in the Pacific, which in turn was shaped by the region. evolving strategic situation in Europe following the unification of Germany. The aggressive rise Policy makers in the six self-governing of German Weltpolitik and naval projection Australian colonies (New South Wales, under the influence of nationalist elements Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, beginning in the 1880s, forced a reevaluation Tasmania and Western Australia) became of British imperial policy that sent significant increasingly anxious about declining British ripples through the Pacific. The Secondmilitary support after the formal withdrawal of German Naval Law of 1900, which was British soldiers from the continent in 1870. This spearheaded by arch-Alldeustchen Admiral sense of abandonment was further exacerbated Tirpitz, called for the doubling of the German by the meteoric rise of Japan. An unabashed Navy by 1912. General Bernhardi, a leading jingoism, which was codified in various anti- German strategist, would state that theAsian immigration policies and merged into the Kaiserliche Marine was created specifically to official "White Australia" policy after the wage a bold and energetic campaign against federal unification of the colonies in 1901, British commerce.11 The bellicose posturing of rejected Asian immigration into the colony and the Germans during the Moroccan Crisis and saw Japanese military and industrial the Algeciras Conference (1905) fullymodernization as a great "Yellow Peril" to confirmed suspicions that Britain itself was Anglo-Saxon settlement in the region. But any under an unambiguous threat for the first time Japanese-excluding "Monroe Doctrine for since Napoleon. Australia", as Alfred Deakin later termed it, was solely reliant on British hegemony in the The Foreign Office, in close coordination with region.14 And as Britain withdrew and Japan the Admiralty, acted with foreseeable alacrity rose, the balance of power slowly turned in in countering this German threat as itfavor of the Rising Sun. continued to develop towards the turn of the twentieth century. The Anglo-Japanese Treaty By 1905, the Australian self-governing colonies (1902) was signed, the Entente Cordiale (1904) had been united as the Commonwealth of

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Australia (1901) in light of Britain's withdrawal that would keep Japan from crossing the from the region, while the Japanese secured an equator. In 1905, with Japan’s regional undisputed position of regional primacy. Over strength secured, the Commonwealth the preceding three decades, the Japanese had frantically pushed for British annexation of the militarily defeated the other independent New Hebrides - the final unclaimed section of Asiatic power, Qing China (1895), and their the “island wall” - before Japan turned her primary Eurasian rival, Russia (1905). The newfound capabilities toward Australia. Imperial Japanese Fleet now was quantitatively superior to any other fleet in the region and Franco-Australian antagonism in the New dwarfed the British Royal Navy’s Australia Hebrides Station.15 The Japanese population was twelve times that of the Commonwealth of Australia Tensions between French settlers and British and her GDP was three times as large.16 Japan settlers from the Australian colonies in the New had annexed the Ryukyu Islands (1879) and Hebrides initially arose in response to Formosa (1895) and incorporated the Empire of antagonisms beginning in the 1870s. Economic Korea as a protectorate (1905). Thecompetition between the settler blocs was colonization of Formosa expanded the Japanese growing and it was presumed that either Empire 2000 km further south toward the Britain or France would seek to annex the New Australian continent. Hebrides. French settlers, predominantly from New Caledonia, were unified in support of Moreover, the new Japanese position not only French annexation. However, considerable alarmed Australia. The United States came to differences of opinion on which colonial power view Japan as a likely adversary in the Asia- should annex the islands emerged within Pacific and began reorganizing its military and British settler circles. British settlers from Fiji foreign policy to check continued Japanese on Efate (Sandwich Island) actually demanded expansion, which increasingly dovetailed with French annexation in 1875-76, given the strong Australian security objectives. Japanese victory French support for settler over native interests, over Russia in 1905, crushing the Russian while the movement for British annexation was Baltic Fleet at the Battle of Tsushima Straits led by John Paton, a Methodist missionary and capturing Port Arthur, marked a watershed representing the British settlers from the moment in the reordering of the entire Asia- Australian colonies.17 The fact that British Pacific balance of power. settlers from Fiji, often viewed as representing the interests of Whitehall, generally supported In response to Japan’s new geopoliticalFrench annexation of the New Hebrides against preeminence in the Western Pacific, and the wishes of their Anglo-Saxon cousins from despite the assurances of the Anglo-Japanese the Australian colonies remained a point of Alliance, the Commonwealth government tension between London and the Australian sought to hastily buttress its defense against colonies throughout the period of conflict. possible Japanese aggression. Key to this new colonial defense was Deakin's efforts in 1905 to Public opinion across the Australian colonies close the "island wall" between Australia and certainly supported the calls for British Japanese possessions north of the equator, a annexation, particularly in light of Britain’s concept which had increasingly shapedincreasing disengagement in the region. A Australian defense policy since the late 1870s. letter to the editor of the MelbourneArgus By painting Melanesia and Polynesia, from New stated that British annexation was needed "to Guinea to Samoa, British Red, the Australian check French designs upon the New colonies hoped to create a strategic tripwire Hebrides."18 By October 1877, an official

4 15 | 9 | 4 APJ | JF petition was sent to Whitehall from the British the greatest land speculation efforts in the Australian colony of Victoria requestingcolonial Pacific. The company soon controlled annexation and the Sydney Morning Herald nearly 100,000 hectares in the New Hebrides blatantly supported this aspiration.19 By and was viewed by the Australians as a back November the powerful Presbyterian lobby in door for a de facto French annexation of the the colony of New South Wales, appalled at the archipelago.24 By July 1883, Australian thought of the New Hebrides metamorphosing suspicions were validated by a major exposé in into a New Caledonian-esque French penal The Argus. Not only was there a major effort colony, appealed directly to Queen Victoria for led by Higginson’s Compagnie Calédonienne to a swift hoisting of the Union Jack over the ensure French annexation, directly seeking to archipelago.20 capitalize on its land speculation, the company's largest financiers were the British The growing raucous calls for annexation firms Morgan and Nephew and Morgan within the Australian colonies alarmed French Brothers. The fact that British capital was settlers in the New Hebrides. Responding to an supporting French attempts to destabilize official request from the French Foreign Office, Australian security further undermined the Georges d'Harcourt, Ambassador at the Court Australian colonies’ confidence in Whitehall. of St James (1875-79), wrote to the British Foreign Office for assurances of neutrality in Higginson's efforts did not materialize without 21 January 1878. In February the French provocation. Victoria Premier James Service received a response from Lord Derby, British had emerged as the leading public advocate Secretary of State for Foreign Affairsfrom the Australian colonies demanding British (1874-78), who was pleased "to inform Your annexation - particularly during the debacle Excellency that it is not the intention of Her over the German annexation of Northeastern Majesty's Government to...modify theNew Guinea. There was a scramble for colonies independence which the New Hebrides at the in the Pacific, and the British had best lay claim 22 present possess." to the remaining unincorporated islands in the region or the security of the Australian colonies The news of this "self-denying ordnance" would would be compromised even further. Tensions not reach the Australian colonies until June with France were particularly high in the 1878, and laid the foundations for decades of aftermath of Britain’s seizure of Egypt in 1882, mistrust between policy makers in the and the possibility of a hostile French naval Australian colonies and the Commonwealth of 23 squadron in Australasian waters was not Australia, and Whitehall from 1901. However, reassuring to any of the Australian colonies. the response did not quell Franco-Australian settler competition in the islands and, by the early-1880s, the intrigues of a naturalized French settler of Anglo-Irish descent were causing increasing anxiety in the Australian colonies.

John Higginson, a well-to-do Anglo-Irish resident of New Caledonia, founded the Compagnie Calédonienne des Nouvelles- Hébrides in 1882. Originally constituted with £20,000 capital, the company aggressively purchased real estate in what became one of

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John Higginson (left) and James Service take over full administrative and fiscal (right)25 responsibilities was not replicated in British New Guinea (occupied in 1884) and arguably of far greater strategic importance, until 1902. The French settlers responded to Service's Thus, it appears that the importance of the agitation with a major gathering in Noumea New Hebrides for Australian defense had taken (New Caledonia) in 1883 where Service's center stage by the mid-1880s. support was termed an act in "violation of our rights" and "a mortal blow" to French interests The British Foreign Office would again find in the region.26 The audience solicited Mons. itself pulled into the Franco-Australian settler Pallie de la Barriere, Governor of Newstruggle. Much to their annoyance, Britain Caledonia, with a resounding call to bolster the would invest significant resources in something tricolor that "has been planted in the New utterly worthless to Whitehall. Even as late as Hebrides."27 By September reports were1914, the New Hebrides were destitute when arriving in Australia from Paris that Higginson contrasted with comparable colonial and Morgan were attempting to import French possessions in the Pacific. British total exports convict labor to the New Hebrides to create an from Tonga reached £240,104 by 191131, Fiji overwhelmingly demographic majority for the reached £1,425,940 by 191332, and French French. And rumors were rife throughout exports from New Caledonia peaked in 1914 at Australian colonial policy circles about an 15,468,607 francs33 (£608,521).34 This impending French annexation.28 compared to less than £121,000 in total exports, French and Anglo-Australian, from the The Compagnie Calédonienne, refusing to ease New Hebrides in 1914. However, the its provocative quasi-official speculation, archipelago's unimportance to the Foreign continued to aggressively purchase landOffice did not deter the French, with support of throughout the New Hebrides as tensions the British settlers from Fiji, or the Australian simmered. By 1884, Higginson’s company settlers, from continuing their calls for controlled the vast majority of cultivated land, annexation. By 1885 the Foreign Office was further exacerbating fears in the Australian obliged to directly approach the French colonies of a de facto annexation. Higginson, government to resolve the quarrel before some ruthless in his quest to monopolize trade, spark ignited a violent confrontation between brazenly undercut investors of the recently the two parties. founded Anglo-Australian Company on Malekula in late 1884. Arriving with French During the 1885-1887 negotiations over the marines, Higginson intimidated the local chiefs New Hebrides, neither theMinistère des into nullifying previous contracts with the Affaires étrangères nor the Foreign Office Anglo-Australian Company and selling to called for direct annexation. Indeed, both Higginson exclusively.29 With French marines governments were even open to sidelining the supporting settler land grabs, the specter of interests of their own settlers to gain more French annexation elevated to a distinct important diplomatic concessions elsewhere. likelihood. The Australian colonies had had Although he was awarded the Légion d'honneur enough and by late 1884 an official request was for his work in early 188735, the French stated sent to London from Premier Service on behalf that they would gladly sacrifice Higginson’s of all the colonies, stating that they were ready claims to the New Hebrides for British to meet "any expenses in taking possession of concessions in Tahiti and Newfoundland. the archipelago" as long as Britain hoisted the Concurrently, Whitehall was not wholly Union Jack.30 It is interesting that this offer to opposed to French control over the

6 15 | 9 | 4 APJ | JF archipelago, but sought to restrain the rowdy support for French annexation still Australian colonial lobby before some major existed.39 Settler opinion aside, the commission incident occurred.36 Though it should be noted dashed Higginson's hopes for direct French that the British still supported the Australian annexation and caused theCompagnie colonies' concerns over French settler calls for Calédonienne efforts at land speculation to annexation, and the British informed the spectacularly collapse.40 By 1894 the French French that its position "could not but be government was forced to reorganize the mainly guided...by the opinion of the Australian company as theSociété Française des colonies."37 Ultimately, both governments Nouvelles-Hébrides, which excluded Higginson settled on an Anglo-French Joint Navalfrom the board of directors.41 With their arch- Commission (16 November 1887), an effort to antagonist dislodged, the Australian colonies reduce both security and administrative costs were far less agitated. France further thwarted to the extent possible. a subversive effort by French settlers to found a new municipality at Francheville on Vila in The commission's leadership would alternate 1889.42 Paris was serious about upholding its monthly between French and Britishend of the bargain, a bargain substantially in commanders who would coordinate responses its favor. French officials in Paris believed that to any violent disturbances on the islands and the agreement was preferable to direct protect and police their own national settlers. annexation. With a growing preponderance of Only in cases of imminent danger to the white French settlers, land ownership and population from the native population would commercial control, France already reaped the independent military action be allowed.38 The majority of the benefits of direct colonial rule commission, which was also tasked with while sharing the burden of administration and diplomatically settling land disputes between security with the British.43 the settler factions, seems little more than an attempt by both London and Paris to control their unruly and unpredictable settlers in order to prevent any escalation which could damage Anglo-French cooperation in more important theaters. This commission brought both governments closer together at a time of significant Anglo-French antagonism over Egypt and the Scramble for Africa following the Berlin Conference (1884). The willingness of both parties to ignore the calls for direct annexation by their settlers, and the equality of the military aspect of the commission, speaks to the growing relationship between Britain and France. A French Copra Plantation during the While fraught with administrative deficiencies, Anglo-French Commission Period (ca. the commission did lower Anglo-French1890)44 antagonisms for the better part of two decades. However, a petition of 42 British and 14 French landholders, representing a supposedDespite a growing French settler population, 1,650,000 acres, sent to the Governor of New the commission’s judicial structure was viewed Caledonia in August 1899 demonstrates that as favoring the settlers from the Australian

7 15 | 9 | 4 APJ | JF colonies, particularly regarding disputes over brashly derided the Foreign Office for failing to land claims. Vital to the early success of the take "even the simplest and most necessary commission was thede facto governing measure to protect British [particularly capacity of the well-established Protestant Australian] settlers" which had resulted in missions, tied to churches in the Australian "discouragement throughout the colonies, which helped mitigate inter-Commonwealth."48 indigenous and inter-settler rivalries. These missionaries, who were often the onlyDeakin's brazenness earned the ire of the Europeans to speak native languages and gain British Foreign Office who had painstakingly familiarity with native culture, acted as arbiters crafted a land settlement agreement with the and assisted the commission in settling land French since June 1905. This sentiment was disputes. However, the primacy of these reflected in Northcote's terse reply on 03 Australian-based institutions was soonNovember 1905. In addition to describing the challenged by the arrival of the antagonistic islands as "quite unimportant", Northcote Catholic Marist mission, sponsored by the Vicar stated that "His Majesty's Government have Apostolic of New Caledonia in the 1890's. taken...action in regard to the islands solely at the wishes of Australia and in her non-military The aggressive push by the Marists led to interests."49 Not only would Whitehall not increased land-claim disputes as Frenchsupport the Australian position for annexation, settlers now had the powerful political backing it had invited a "French official" to expedite the of the French Catholic Church. Ultimately, establishment of a new land claims growing land-claim disputes, combined with an tribunal.50 Eventually Deakin, who was increasing French settler population and completely sidelined during the negotiations, commercial control, rekindled calls for British was forced to abandon the idea of direct annexation by a now united Commonwealth of annexation and moved to support joint control Australia. The divided state of affairs,by early 1906.51 increasingly incited by the inter-missionary rivalry, had made the islands ungovernable by During consultations with the French, 1904 and the ability of the Joint NavalWhitehall realized that a more substantial form Commission to adequately resolve land-claim of government was needed and, on 27 February disputes collapsed.45 1906, produced a draft envisaging an Anglo- French Condominium - a form of joint rule The growing land-claims issue led thepreviously employed in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Commonwealth government under Deakin to (from 1899). The draft was forwarded to the force a final showdown with the French governments of Australia and New Zealand, settlers, much to the annoyance of Whitehall. which duly replied with a significant list of By 1905, and against the larger backdrop of amendments. Then the issue sat at the Foreign Japan’s new position as the region’s hegemonic Office until September, despite repeated power, Deakin officially proclaimed that "the enquiries from the Commonwealth as to the New Hebrides will become part and parcel of status of the agreement and its proposed the Commonwealth."46 Deakin informed amendments. According to Le Matin, the delay Governor-General Northcote that, "nowas due to Australian protests at being settlement will be satisfactory to theexcluded from the negotiations.52 However, Commonwealth which does not decide the within weeks, the condominium was hastily possession of the Group, and that the only finalized and ratified. An Anglo-French ownership which can be acceptable...is that of Condominium was established on 20 October Great Britain."47 In his conclusion, Deakin 1906 without any input from their respective

8 15 | 9 | 4 APJ | JF settler representatives. When news of Whitehall’s chicanery reached Australasia, the Anglo-French condominium In contrast to the 1885-87 crisis, the British was roundly attacked in the press. The Foreign Office failed to even tacitly support the agreement was presented by theSydney wishes of the Australians during theMorning Herald as "new evidence of the negotiations. A draft of a Whitehall press [British] to buy foreign friendship at the release dated 03 November 1906 demonstrates expense of the colonies" and that it went the utter lack of consideration for"against the interests...of the colonies Commonwealth interests on the part of the concerned and of the Empire.57 New Zealand British during the negotiations. According to Premier J. G. Ward echoed these sentiments by Whitehall, the Commonwealth was onlydescribing the whole affair as a "subordinating informed that the French were seeking a of the self-governing colonies to the Imperial condominium on 09 March 1906, four months requirements with France."58 The Times after Northcote's "land claims tribunal" reply correspondent in Sydney reported that public and two weeks after the draft condominium opinion "is one of disgust that British electors was submitted.53 Lord Elgin, Secretary of State can impose upon the Empire a Ministry which for the Colonies (1905-08), was even more within a single year endangers the interests of 59 disdainful, informing the Australians that the Australasia." draft must be "confirmed or rejected practically 54 The antipathy was mutual at Whitehall. Lord as it stands." Loreburn, Lord Chancellor, candidly declared The British had had enough of Australian that "the motherland must not make ruinous agitation and set about engineering a panic in sacrifices to the colonies and ...there ought to Australia to achieve the objective ofbe no more annexations” – to Loreburn, the permanently ending this unimportant matter in colonies should provide their own defense and not expect assistance from Britain in the the New Hebrides. The British falsely hinted future.60 The French did not miss the that the condominium needed to be approved opportunity to twist the knife withLa Patrie immediately as a "third party" annexation, congratulating the French diplomats on greatly possibly by Germany or Japan, was imminent. "irritating" the Australian lobby.61 The Journal The Foreign Office correctly surmised that the des Débats Politiques et Littéraires, hopeful Australian government would prefer a joint that the future would "open the eyes of condominium to Japanese annexation. An Australians", lectured the Commonwealth on its anxious Commonwealth, left completely in the role as an unconditional supporter of Britannia dark by the Foreign Office, requested on 31 and her French entente partners.62 August, 08 and 18 September, that a Joint Protectorate be immediately establishedOf course, there were other interests in the 55 "leaving the details...to be settled later." In archipelago than simply French and Australian response to the Australian position, the French settlers which found themselves wrapped up in government forwarded their request fornearly half-century antagonism. The native immediate action on 20 September 1906. The Melanesian population of the islands, known British coyly agreed that haste was needed and today as Ni-Vanuatu, had suffered considerable failed to support any of the proposedharm over their decades-long contact with Australasian amendments.56 The British Foreign French, British and Australian settlers. A Office had completely subordinatedsystem of indentured labour established in the Australasian interests to that of their new 1860s to support cotton and sugar production French allies. in places like Queensland, Fiji, New Caledonia

9 15 | 9 | 4 APJ | JF and Samoa – known as “Blackbirding” – removed many males from traditional enlisted tens of thousands of Melanesian men subsistence agriculture and political authority. from New Guinea, the Solomons and the New The European planters, whether Anglo-Saxon Hebrides.63 It was a practice that persisted to or French, also contributed to widespread the establishment of the condominium. native land alienation. European land speculation companies like Higginson's coerced The practice, which often involved coercing local groups to sell prime cultivated land for illiterate islanders into signing years-long European plantation cultivation en masse, contracts and employing brutal corporal removing whole groups to agriculturally poor punishment to ensure obedience, tore apart regions. For a native economy based chiefly on indigenous societies. It is estimated that nearly subsistence agriculture and a cultural tradition half of the male population of the Newof shared access to land, land alienation was Hebrides were employed in overseasdevastating in both economic and social plantations during the height of blackbirding. terms.65 Under this multifaceted pressure With many males absent, indigenous birth rates during the inter-European antagonism, it was plummeted. Many laborers also died of disease estimated that the native population of the New on the plantations, and those that survived Hebrides fell from 650,000 in 1870 to only often brought back diseases, like syphilis and 100,000 in 1900.66 tuberculosis, which decimated local populations. Returning laborers also introduced Western ideas about social hierarchies and, combined with increased wealth from plantation pay, undermined traditional chiefly power structures. This, in turn, led to inter and intra-tribal conflict, which was exacerbated by the uncontrolled trade in European fire arms, alcohol and opium.64

This societal collapse was further aggravated as British, French and Australians increasingly settled in the archipelago. Various Protestant missions, most of which were based in Australasia, began proselytizing in earnest by Irrigated Native Taro Field on Espiritu the late 1860s. Although the missions assisted Santo (ca. 1913)67 in native health care and education during the antagonism, and were leading advocates for the abolition of blackbirding throughout the period, But European settlement also led to they also undermined native hierarchies based widespread changes in native society which on indigenous religious authority. Furthermore, today form the basis of a Ni-Vanuatan identity. many young Ni-Vanuatu converts sawMissionary activity led to a native population Christianity as a way to challenge traditional which is predominantly Protestant. The training power brokers – ultimately destabilizing native and education of native clergy has likewise social cohesion. developed unique Melanesian forms of Christian practice and worldview. Father Lini’s The establishment of industrialized plantations political rise to power, successful independence by Europeans from the 1870s, with cotton and movement, and Melanesian nationalism more copra being the chief products, furtherbroadly were rooted in this unique Melanesian

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Protestant tradition of which he was trained. port call in Australian waters and a symbol of a The establishment of European plantations also new Anglo-Saxon solidarity.68 Deakin altered the character of the islands’ economy. specifically described the new relationship as Copra now makes up a third of Vanuatu’s total an alliance of Anglo-Saxon Pacific powers, tied exports, while cattle, introduced by French together by a common fear of the "Yellow settlers, are the nation’s second largest export. Peril". Over the next decade, Australia greatly Moreover, the widespread introduction of expanded its own military, coastal defense and Bislama, a form of Pidgin English which naval forces with an eye toward Japan, despite became a lingua franca for various indigenous the good standing of the Anglo-Japanese groups working on the plantations, is today a Alliance. unifying national language. Although European settlement greatly undermined traditional At the outbreak of World War One, Australia society, the antagonism also influenced the rise and New Zealand moved quickly to ensure that of a particularly Melanesian form ofJapan did not breach the "island wall" by nationalism which has been exportedoccupying Germany’s colonies south of the throughout the region. equator. The capture of New Guinea, Samoa, and Nauru effectively sealed the Japanese out Conclusion of the Southwest Pacific. But despite the final achievement of the "island wall", and the fact After thirty years of growing Franco-Australian that the Imperial Japanese Navy escorted settler antagonism over the New Hebrides, the Australian ships from Suez to Sydney Foreign Office had made clear Britain’sthroughout World War One, the Australian reorientation from the Pacific and embrace of government continued to view the "Yellow France in 1906. The self-denying ordnance of Peril" as its main strategic threat. It was the 1878 attempted to maintain the status quo, Australasian government which, during the while the 1887 Joint Naval Commission sought Paris Peace Conference in 1919, insisted that a to placate Australian colonial ambitions while Japanese-sponsored racial equality clause be incorporating the French in administration. By excluded in the final Versailles Treaty. Such a the time of creation of the Anglo-French clause would undermine the "White Australia" Condominium in 1906, colonial demands were policy, which now extended to all Australasian completely subordinated to the interests of the occupied territories south of the equator. By Anglo-French Entente (1904). Perhaps most the Imperial Conference of 1921, Australia and telling was Whitehall's unapologetic stance on New Zealand vehemently argued for the the issue. Despite the outrage of the Australian termination of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in government, press and people, the Foreign favor of a stronger relationship with the United Office refused to apologize for its demeaning States. Unlike during the debate over the New actions. Hebrides, Australian posturing, combined with a desire to maintain its relationship with the It was now apparent to policy makers in Japanophobic United States, led Britain to Australia and New Zealand, that they would terminate the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1923. need to look to their own defense and set their own "sub-imperial" foreign and security policies Ultimately, the "quite unimportant" issue of the based on regional threats - specifically that of New Hebrides exacerbated the shifting Japan's "Yellow Peril". Within a year of the dynamics of British prewar imperial policy. The Condominium's establishment, Australiaanimosity between the Australian colonies (and appealed directly to America for a visit of the later Commonwealth) and Britain, generated by Great White Fleet (1908), the first foreign naval Franco-Australian settler antagonisms over the

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New Hebrides and a fear of strategic"Yellow Peril", altered the perception of abandonment in the face of the Japanese imperial responsibilities in the Pacific by both parties.

Viktor M. Stoll is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Cambridge and current Doctoral Fellow at the Academic Foundation of the Berlin House of Representatives (Freie Universität Berlin). His research explores the transnational influence of anthropology on colonial rule and development theory in the interwar Pacific. He received his MA in Modern History from King’s College London (2014) with a focus on comparative British, French and German imperialism in the Pacific.

Notes

1 Governor General Henry Northcote to Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, 03 November 1905, Prime Minister Papers, No. 05/4706, para 4, National Archives of Australia, Canberra [hereafter NAA]. 2 "Vanuatu: History", The Commonwealth, accessed on 30 March 2017. 3 Mark Kurt Tabani, "Walter Lini, la coutume de Vanuatu et le socialisme mélanésien", Journal de la Société des océanistes, Vol. 111 (2002). pp. 173-194. 4 "Melanesian Spearhead Group", accessed on 30 March 2017. 5 Stephen Henningham, The Pacific Island States: Security and Sovereignty in the Post-Cold War World (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1995), p. 38-40. 6 PMC Editor, "Solomon Islands, Vanuatu promote MSG support for West Papua", 13 May 2016, accessed 30 March 2017. 7 This composite map was created from two separate maps. "Southwest Pacific" and "Vanuatu Base", CartoGIS, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, accessed 07 April 2017. See here. 8 John Darwin, Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain (London, 2012). 9 Neville Meaney, The Search for Security in the Pacific, 1901-14 (Sydney, 1976), p. 16-21 and 117-119. 10 For a substantive view of the New Hebrides in a French Regional Context, see: Robert Aldrich, The French Presence in the South Pacific, 1842-1940 (London, 1990). 11 "Das schließt natürlich ... überraschend einsetzen müßte." Friedrich v Bernhardi, Deustchland und die nächste Krieg (Berlin, 1912), p. 176. 12 Henry P. Frei, "Japan in World Politics and Pacific Expansion, 1870s-1919", The German Empire and Britain's Pacific Dominions 1871-1919, (ed.) John Moses, and Christopher Pugsley (California, 1999), p. 182. 13 Niall Ferguson, Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World (London, 2004), p. 246. 14 Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 12 September 1901, Vol. 4. p. 4805-7, 4817, in F. K. Crowley, Modern Australia in Documents, Vol. I (Melbourne, 1973), p. 17. 15 By 1905, the Imperial Japanese Navy consisted of six first-rate battleships, eight heavy

12 15 | 9 | 4 APJ | JF cruisers and seventeen light cruisers. The Royal Navy’s Australia Station maintained only ten 2nd and 3rd rate cruisers. Masayoshi Matsumura, Baron Suematsu in Europe during the Russo- Japanese War (1904-5); His Battle with Yellow Peril, Ian Ruxton (trans.) (Morrisville, 2011), p. 72. 16 In 1905, the Japanese population was 46.8 million and her annual GDP was 54 billion (in 1990 US dollars). Australia, by comparison, had a population of four million and an annual GDP of 17.1 billion. Angus Madison, Historical Statistics for the World Economy, 1-2003 A.D., accessed 12 February 2017. 17 Historical Section of the British Foreign Office, Peace Handbooks (1920), Vol. XXII, No. 147, p. 10. 18 Argus, 03 October 1877. 19 Sydney Morning Herald, 09 October 1877. 20 The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser, 13 November 1877. 21 Le Marquis d'Harcourt to Lord Derby, 15 January 1878, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères Paris, Affaires Des Nouvelles-Hébrides et des Îles-sous-le-vent de Tahiti, Documents Diplomatiques, (Paris, 1887), No. 2. 22 Peace Handbooks, Vol XXII, No. 147. p. 10-11. 23 The Brisbane Courier, 04 June 1878. 24 Argus, 26 October 1882. 25 La Dépêche coloniale illustrée (Paris), 31 Julliet 1902, Cover Page, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, accessed on 20 April 2017, James Service, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, H93.359/5, accessed on 20 April 2017. 26 "Un tel acte ... patriotiques de développement colonial". Argus, 24 July 1883. 27 "Au nom de la colonie ... iles de l'archipel néo-hébridais". Argus, 24 July 1883. 28 Argus, 14 September 1883. 29 Peace Handbooks, Vol. XXII, No. 147, p. 11. 30 Ibid, p.12. 31 Peace Handbooks, Vol. XXII, No. 144, p. 115. 32 Ibid, p. 104. 33 Statistiques du Commerce des Colonies françaises, in Peace Handbooks, Vol. XXII, No. 145, p. 61. 34 Conversion rate of 25.42 Francs to Pounds Sterling based on adjusted conversion rates of the British Foreign Office in 1920. Peace Handbooks, Vol. XXII, No. 146, p. 29. 35 Aldrich, p. 132. 36 Jean-Philippe Dumas, "La Marine et les intéréts française aux Nouvelles-Hébrides (1860-1907)", La Revue administrative, 57e Année, No. 337 (Janvier 2004), p. 75-84. 37 Lord Rosebery to Mons. Waddinton, 07 July 1886, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Affaires Des Nouvelles-Hébrides et des Îles-sous-le-vent de Tahiti, Documents Diplomatiques (Paris, 1887), No. 24. 38 Declaration between Great Britain and France, for the constitution of a Joint Naval Commission for the protection of Life and Property in the New Hebrides (Paris, 26 January 1888). 39 "16. Que les pétitionnaires ... pour la condition des colons". E. N. Imhaus, Les Nouvelles- Hébrides (Paris, 1890), p. 153.

13 15 | 9 | 4 APJ | JF

40 By 1888, only 250 out of 100,000 hectares were under active cultivation by the Compagnie Calédonienne. Aldrich, p. 132. 41 Aldrich, p. 133. 42 W. P. Morrell, Britain in the Pacific Islands (London, 1960), p. 349. 43 "Une opinion absurde ... chaque île du groupe", Imhaus, p. 146. 44 Imhaus, p.91 45 Morrell, p. 351-355. 46 Argus, 10 October 1908. 47 PM Deakin to GG Northcote, 23 August 1905, Prime Minister Papers, No. 05/5377, fo. 4, NAA. 48 Ibid, fo. 5. 49 GG Northcote to PM Deakin, 03 November 1905, Prime Minster Papers, No. 05/4706, fo. 2, NAA. 50 Ibid, fo. 1. 51 Peace Handbooks. Vol. XXII, No. 147. p. 15 52 "Après qu'eurent ... de la convention franco-anglaise". Le Matin, 21 October 1906. 53 Draft notes from Whitehall Press Statement, London, 03 November 1906, Department of External Affairs, No. 06/8527, fo. 2, NAA. 54 Ibid, fo. 2. 55 Ibid, fo. 3. 56 Ibid, fo. 4. 57 Sydney Morning Herald, 02 November 1906. 58 New Zealand House Debates, Vol. CXXXVIII, p. 43, NAA. 59 The Times, 02 November 1906. 60 The Register, 08 December 1906. 61 "The British colonies are irritated at seeing their representations have not been taken into consideration and they hold that the clauses of the agreement are too favorable to France....that once again is to the honour of M. Marcel Saint-Germain...it would be impossible to congratulate them too warmly on their achievement". Argus, 06 December 1906. 62 "Peut-être un avenir ... européens de ce dernier". Journal des Débats Politiques et Littéraires, 10 November 1906. 63 Gerald Horne, The White Pacific: U. S. Imperialism and Black Slavery in the South Seas after the Civil War (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007), Chap. 2. 64 Felix Speiser, "Decadence and Preservation in the New Hebrides", Essays on the Depopulation of Melanesia, W. H. R. Rivers (ed.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922), p. 25-61; John R. Baker, "Depopulation in Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides", The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 58 (January - June 1928), p. 279-303. 65 Palauni M. Tuiasosopo, "Land Alienation in the New Hebrides: Colonial Policies of France and Great Britain", Unpublished MA Thesis (Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1994). 66 Horne, The White Pacific, p. 33. 67 Felix Speiser, Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific (London: Mills & Boon, 1913), p. 180. 68 Meaney, p. 165.