Franceville (present-day Port Vila) was a municipality located on Efate, or Sandwich Island. It was established in 1889 in order to gain basic legal status, during the period when the New Hebrides was a neutral territory under the loose jurisdiction of a joint Anglo-French naval commission. The new government was soon suppressed, and by June 1890, Granville as a commune was reported to have been "practically broken up." In 1906, the naval commission was replaced by a more structured British-French Condominium.