Editing History of Vanuatu (section)

==Condominium==
[[Image:Flag of New Hebrides.svg|thumb|1966 flag of the colonial Anglo-French [[New Hebrides]]]]
{{main article|New Hebrides|Anglo-French Joint Naval Commission|British Western Pacific Territories}}

The jumbling of French and British interests in the islands brought petitions for one or another of the two powers to annex the territory. The Convention of 16 October 1887 established a [[Anglo-French Joint Naval Commission|joint naval commission]] for the sole purpose of protecting French and British citizens, but claimed no jurisdiction over internal native affairs.<ref name="BresnihanWoodward2002">{{cite book|last1=Bresnihan|first1=Brian J.|last2=Woodward|first2=Keith|title=Tufala Gavman: Reminiscences from the Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nhNmCiYYxucC&pg=PA423|year=2002|publisher=editorips@usp.ac.fj|isbn=978-982-02-0342-6|page=423}}</ref>

In 1906, however, [[France]] and the [[United Kingdom]] agreed to administer the islands jointly. Called the British-French [[Condominium (international law)|Condominium]], it was a unique form of government, with separate governmental systems that came together only in a joint court. The condominium's authority was extended in the Anglo-French Protocol of 1914, although this was not formally ratified until 1922. Melanesians were barred from acquiring the [[citizenship]] of either power and were officially stateless; to travel abroad they needed an [[identity document]] signed by ''both'' the British and French resident commissioners.<ref name=cp/>

Many called the condominium the "Pandemonium" because of the duplication of laws, police forces, prisons, currencies, education and health systems.
Overseas visitors could choose between British law, which was considered stricter but with more humane prisons, or French law, which was considered less strict, but with much worse prison conditions.
In their book, ''Vanuatu'' by Jocelyn Harewood and Michelle Bennett, is this memorable passage referring to the 1920s: ''"Drunken plantation owners used to gamble... using the 'years of labour' of their Melanesian workers as currency. Islanders used to be lined up against the wall, at the mercy of their employers' dice. Long after America's [[Wild West]] was tamed, Vila was the scene of the occasional gunfight and public guillotining."''

Starting in 1921, French plantation owners let [[Annam (French protectorate)|Annam]]ese workers from the [[Gulf of Tonkin]] come to the New Hebrides under 5 years contracts. They were 437 in 1923, 5413 in 1930, then after the crisis 1630 in 1937. There was some social and political unrest among them in 1947. In 1949 the plantation owners wished to replace Annamese by "more docile" Javanese. However, a French scholar suggested in 1950 a renewal of Annamese migration, but this time as settlers in villages of their own. A proposal because "It is difficult, indeed, to count on the natives. They live (...) a still wild life".<ref>Charles Robequain, "[http://www.persee.fr/doc/geo_0003-4010_1950_num_59_317_13156Les Nouvelles-Hébrides et l'immigration annamite]{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}", ''[[Annales de Géographie]]'', t. 59, n°317, 1950. pp. 391-392</ref>

[[File:F6F-3 Hellcats of VF-40 at Espiritu Santo 1944.jpg|thumb|US Navy [[Grumman F6F Hellcat|Hellcats]] on [[Espiritu Santo]] island in February 1944]]
Challenges to this form of government began in the early 1940s.<ref name=cp/> During the [[Second World War]], approximately 10,000 Ni-Vanuatu men served in the [[Vanuatu Labor Corps]], a [[labor battalion]] of the [[United States Armed Forces]] at [[Espiritu Santo Naval Base]]. They provided logistical support to the Allied war effort during the [[Guadalcanal Campaign]]. The mass participation of Ni-Vanuatu men in the Labor Corps had a significant effect on the [[John Frum]] movement, giving it the characteristics of a [[cargo cult]].{{sfn|Lindstrom|1991|pp=49–53}} Today, John Frum is both a religion and a political party with a member in Parliament.<ref name=cp/>