New Caledonia: Orphan of the South Pacific

Abstract

LURING the present world upheaval the South Sea islands have so far remained in the happy obscurity which has been their lot since the eighties and nineties of the last century when the Great Powers, after years of wrangling, settled for the time being the distribution of sovereignty in the South Pacific. Even the removal of Germany from the Pacific scene during the first World War was accomplished without much ado. But the collapse of France has raised new problems of territorial ownership and control in this area which may well bring some of the South Pacific islands out of their obscurity before very long. The orphaned Dutch and French territories of Southeast Asia have already become bones of contention among the Powers; and their unhappy fate may soon be shared by other orphans farther south. The most important of these by far is the French colony of New Caledonia. Apart from New Caledonia the French holdings in the South Pacific are small and relatively insignificant. The Society Islands and the Marquesas, clustered around Tahiti and known for administrative purposes as French Oceania are too remote and of too little economic value to be worth fighting over. The same is true, more or less, of the New Hebrides, although their location gives them greater strategic importance. Here France since 1906 has shared authority with Great Britain in a Condominium, and since the French collapse the New Hebrides have become for all practical purposes a British colony. The case of New Caledonia, however, is very different and the island is decidedly worth fighting for. Its position alone gives it great strategic importance since it lies only a little over 7oo miles from the Australian coast and barely iioo miles from New Zealand. From its sheltered harbors and airports warships and planes of a hostile power could menace the principal cities and shipping lanes of both dominions. Its value as an air base has been emphasized by