The situation in the New Hebrides clearly is deteriorating rapidly and in a much more serious way than was apparent a fortnight ago when the Minister made his first statement.

May I elicit from the hon. Gentleman a clear reaffirmation of what he told the House on 3 June, which is that Britain and France jointly support the properly elected Government in the New Hebrides, that Britain and France are agreed to discharge their joint responsibilities for law and order, and that they are prepared to make one more effort to persuade the dissident and rebel forces in Espiritu Santo to conform with the requirements of law and order and acceptance of a freely conducted and democratic election?

I have to put this brutally to the Minister of State. Is it not plain that while Britain is determined to carry out its side of this joint declaration, there is evidence—unhappily confirmed by the French withdrawal of the gendarmes who were sent there, without consultation, but only with the lodging of information to the British authorities there—that the French have not the will to sustain their side of the bargain? That creates a situation of the greatest seriousness.

I put one final question to the Minister of State. We are all aware that the declaration of a state of emergency, to which I believe the chief Minister, Mr. Lini, is entitled, can be granted only with the joint agreement of the French and British authorities. But, regardless of whether a state of emergency is declared, is there not an obvious and bounden duty on the still colonial and lawful powers—and in the absence of any separate executive authority belonging to the elected Government of Mr. Lini—to support the civil power in restoring law and order in the New Hebrides?