In accordance with recommendations made after semi-official discussions between the Representatives of the two Governments, His Majesty's Government will instruct the British High Commissioner to omit from the text of the Convention to be published and made binding on British subjects in the Group the following words which occur in Article LI (4): after two written warnings addressed to the employer," provided that the French Government deal similarly with the corresponding words in the French text: „après deux avertissements donnés par écrit à l'engagiste."

His Majesty's Government have communicated to the British High Commissioner the accompanying Special Instructions relating to the Labour Regulations, and will communicate the General Instructions, the text of which is annexed hereto (Annexes 2 and 3), as soon as the French Government have informed His Majesty's Government that they have communicated, or are prepared to communicate, similar instructions to the French High Commissioner.

His Majesty's Government will authorize the British High Commissioner to postpone, with the concurrence of the French High Commissioner, the promulgation of Articles IX (2), XI to XIX inclusive, XXI to XXVII inclusive, LVI (3), LX (3 and 4), and LXI (2) until the Judges of the Joint Court have entered upon their duties in the Group.

British subjects, guilty of infringing the provisions of the Convention or the Regulations which the High Commissioners may make in order to give effect to them, will, for the time being, be prosecuted in accordance with Article XX and with the provisions previously in force before the British judicial authority, it being understood that the French Government will deal in a similar manner with French citizens.

His Majesty's Government take this opportunity to place on record the fact that the words land suits" and litiges immobiliers," which form the subject of provisions in Article XXII and following Articles of the Convention, include suits with regard to mines, minerals, and everything under the surface of the soil.

1. Regulations respecting salaries, &c., of members of the Joint Court in the New Hebrides.

2. General Instructions.

3. Instructions relating to the Labour Regulations.

Annex 1.

[Version anglaise du Règlement ci-dessus reproduit; v. p. 566]

Annex 2.

General Instructions to the British High Commissioner with Regard to the Application of the Convention of October 20, 1906.

[Correspondant aux instructions données au Haut Commissaire Français. V. ci-dessus p. 568]

Annex 3.

Instructions to the British High Commissioner on the Question of Native Labour in the New Hebrides.

The Earl of Elgin to High Commissioner Sir E. im Thurn. Downing Street, March 21, 1907.

Sir,

I have already informed you that for practical reasons it will probably be impossible for a few months to bring into operation the Anglo-French Convention of the 20th October, 1906, respecting the New Hebrides; but, in anticipation of its coming into force, it may be useful that I should convey to you general instructions on that important part of it which deals with the recruiting and engagement of native labourers.

2. As the New Hebrides have hitherto been without any recognized Government, European settlers in those islands have been subject to no general law, but only to such provisions of the law of their own country as applied to them wherever they may be, together with any special provisions made by the competent legislative authority of the country of which they are subjects or citizens. Such special provision has been made, so far as His Majesty's Government are aware, only for British and French settlers.

3. I shall refer later to the special provision made for British subjects by and under "The Pacific Islanders' Protection Acts, 1872 and 1875", but I may remark here that in practice it has been difficult to see that any laws were enforced, even in the case of British subjects and French citizens. For many years there was neither a British nor a French resident officer in the Group; the only authority was the Joint Naval Commission, whose functions were limited to the protection of life and property, by means of acts (if action unfortunately became necessary) which were technically acts of war or reprisal against the natives. There was for many years no person resident in the Group with any legal authority over European settlers.

4. The anomalies of the international position of the Group involved serious consequences for the natives. They have not been the subjects or citizens, nor have they been subject to the jurisdiction, of any civilized Power. Their country has been one wherein no civilized Power has exercised any legal authority save in respect of its own nationals, and the exercise of even that authority has been for years difficult and almost impossible. I need not discuss the result of these conditions upon the natives as regards their internal affairs, and especially as regards intertribal relations;

it will be sufficient to consider them as affecting the question of the recruiting and employment of native labourers by Europeans.

5. This question must be considered under two heads: first, with respect to recruiting in the New Hebrides for service outside the Group; and, secondly, with respect to recruiting in the New Hebrides for service within the Group. The latter subject is that which is mainly affected by the recent Convention, but I will first deal briefly with the former, which requires less consideration.

6. Since there has been no Government in the New Hebrides able to impose the conditions upon which recruiting of natives by or for Europeans might be allowed, such recruiting has been controlled only by the laws and Regulations of the competent national authorities of the Europeans conducting it. French recruiting for New Caledonia is governed by French Regulations; British recruiting for Queensland in the past, and the recruiting for Fiji, which still continues, though on a very small scale, have been governed (subject, of course, to the general provisions of the Pacific Islanders' Protection Acts) by the laws and Regulations of those two Colonies respectively. When an emigrant from the New Hebrides arrives in New Caledonia or Fiji he finds that the conditions of his service are governed by the laws of the Colony, exactly as in the case of emigrants from India to British Guiana or Mauritius their conditions of service are governed by the colonial laws.

7. His Majesty's Government decided, for the reasons stated in paragraphs 48 and 49 of my despatch of the 16th November last to the Governor-General of Australia (No. 28 in the Parliamentary Paper Cd. 3288 of 1907) not to suggest to the French Government that recruiting should be forbidden for service in places outside the New Hebrides. Such recruiting may therefore be continued, but it will be subject to the provisions of the new Convention. Now that Queensland no longer recruits, New Caledonia and Fiji are the only places which regularly obtain labourers from the New Hebrides. The French Government are of course responsible for the welfare of natives of the Group serving in New Caledonia. Fiji, to which there is now very little emigration from the New Hebrides, has made detailed provision for Polynesian immigrants by Ordinance No. 21 of 1888 and amending Ordinances.

8. That part of the Convention which deals with the recruiting and engagement of native labourers must therefore in practice apply, and was so drawn as to apply, primarily to recruiting for service within the Group and to the conditions of such service.

9. These conditions have hitherto been almost entirely unregulated, at least as far as natives employed by British subjects are concerned. They were matters which it was beyond the competence of any British Colonial Legislature to control, for obviously neither Fiji nor Queensland had power to pass laws which would bind British subjects resident in the New Hebrides. It follows that the only means by which the dealings of British subjects with the natives could be controlled were either Imperial legislation

or Regulations made by the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific under the Pacific Order in Council, 1893. Under this Order in Council the only relevant Regulation is No. 2 of 1896, which provides that no action shall be brought in the High Commissioner's Court against any native in respect of any contract entered into after the coming into force of the Regulation but that a native may bring an action against a non-native person. The prohibition of action against natives was superfluous in the New Hebrides, since the natives there have never been subject to the jurisdiction of the Court. There remains, therefore, only the Imperial legislation contained in "The Pacific Islanders' Protection Acts, 1872 and 1875." Those Acts make provision merely for the prevention of kidnapping and connected offences; they lay down no detailed Regulations whatever as to the conditions of recruiting other than that the native must himself consent, and that the master of any British vessel desirous of earrying native labourers must obtain a licence and enter into a bond of 500l. They do not regulate in any way the conditions of employment.

10. The position within the New Hebrides has therefore been as follows:French citizens have been controlled in regard to the natives working for them by French Regulations; British subjects have been under practically no legal control; Europeans other than British or French appear to have been entirely unrestricted in their dealings with the natives whom they employed.

11. His Majesty's Government are glad to believe that, as a matter of fact, native labourers have in general been well treated by their employers, but it was obviously impossible in drawing up the basis of a new régime to leave the conditions of employment so entirely to the individual employer. The labour clauses of the Convention of the 20th October last constitute the first step in the introduction of law and order into the relations between European settlers generally and the natives whom they employ. The Convention leaves to His Majesty's Government and the French Government respectively the administration of its provisions so far as concerns their own nationals and the natives employed by them; but for the first time it lays down identical principles binding upon persons of both nationalities, and provides for the application of those principles to Europeans who are neither British subjects nor French citizens.

12. The Anglo-French Commission of last February, when drawing up the labour clauses, and His Majesty's Government in examining them, were confronted with two difficulties. In the first place, considerations of time rendered it impossible to include in the Convention Regulations as elaborate in detail as exist in some Colonies; and, secondly, even if such Regulations could have been framed here, it would have remained doubtful how far they could be put into force, at least for some time, in a country where practically the whole machinery of administration had still to be created. Necessarily, therefore, the Convention leaves room for much elaboration in matters of detail. It will be the duty of the High Commissioner and the Resident Commissioner, by the use of the powers which the Convention confers upon them, to provide for the supplementing of

its provisions when experience has been gained of the working of the new system, and as the administration of the Group becomes more complete and efficient.

13. There are, however, some special points to which I desire to draw your immediate attention.

14. Under Article XXXI of the Convention a licence from you or the Resident Commissioner is necessary before any vessel under the British flag can recruit native labourers. You will, of course, be careful not to issue a licence in respect of any vessel unless you are satisfied that the master is a person of good character who may be trusted to conduct his operations in full accord with the spiri tan dthe letter of the Convention. In particular, care should be taken that no natives are allowed to do the actual recruiting and engaging of labourers. It is, of course, open to you

to refuse licences, except on such conditions as you may see fit to impose, and it will no doubt be desirable, as you have suggested, to require British. vessels licensed to recruit more than a certain number of natives to carry on board a Government officer to supervise operations.

15. In Article XXXIII it is provided that children shall only be engaged if they are of a certain minimum height to be fixed by the two Resident Commissioners jointly. The clause was framed in this manner because it appeared that, as you are doubtless well aware, owing to the difficulty of fixing or ascertaining the ages of natives, which they themselves frequently do not know, an age limit would have been comparatively useless. If, for instance, the clause had run, „No children under the age of 14 years shall be engaged," it might have been impossible to decide in particular cases whether or not the Regulation had been broken. If the clause had run, „ Natives shall not be engaged unless they are of a minimum height, &c.," it might have resulted in prohibiting the employment of persons fit for work and desirous to engage.

16. It was, of course, never intended to permit the employment of children of tender years; and you will instruct Captain Rason to be careful, in settling with his French colleague the minimum height required, to fix it so as absolutely to exclude the engagement of such children, and to insure that only those natives are engaged who are of fit age for employment.

17. If, when the Convention comes into operation, it is found that the Heads of tribes mentioned in Article XXXIII are unfit to exercise their responsibilities as to the engagement of unmarried females, you will, of course, consider what alternative arrangements are possible, and report to me on the subject. The administration of the provisions of this Article will require the greatest care and circumspection in the interest of women and children who fall within its terms.

18. His Majesty's Government desire that the Resident Commissioner and the labour officers subordinate to him should also exercise the greatest care in sanctioning the prolongation of a term of engagement as a punishment for breaches of discipline under Articles XLII, XLVIII, and XLIX,