ABSTRACT
A discussion of French policy towards an area so far removed from Europe requires a distinction between written orders from Paris and the reports and actions of official and unofficial agents in the Pacific itself. But the traditional policy of protecting French traders and missionaries by ships of the Pacific Naval Division was not uniformly applied after 1850. The share of the French administration at Tahiti in the Pacific labor traffic in the 1860's and 1870's had to be reduced. A major problem which concerned the Navy and the Foreign Office from the 1860's on was the regulation and supervision of France's share in the Pacific labor traffic. In the eastern Pacific, the interest of Paris in indentured labor was a reflection of the attempts of the local administration to turn Tahiti into a plantation colony. French policy in the New Hebrides was similarly influenced by the Leewards question-though the ground for intervention had been better prepared from New Caledonia.
