¹ For the British chain-of-islands scheme, see Darby, Phillip, British Defence Policy East of Suez (London, 1973)Google Scholar; Drawin, John, Britain and Decolonisation (London, 1983)Google Scholar; and Ponting, Clive, Breach of Promise: Labour in power, 1964–1970 (London, 1989).Google Scholar For the debate in the British Parliament over Labour's East-of-Suez policy, see Hansard (London), Vol. 756, 1967–1968, 5th series, cols. 1577–1618, 1787–1911, and 1955–2011.Google Scholar For American involvement, see reports in The Washington Post, 9 05 1965, The Guardian (London), 2 October 1975,Google Scholar and The International Herald Tribune (Paris), 26 01 1976Google Scholar; also Bezbrouah, Monoranjan, U.S. Strategy in the Indian Ocean: the international response (London, 1977).Google Scholar

² Although the Indonesians who peopled Madagascar, probably before the ninth century, may have crossed the Indian Ocean south of the equator, there is no evidence that they stopped at any of the small, uninhabited islands on their way.

³ For the historical background, see Toussaint, Auguste, Histoire des Îles Mascareignes (Paris, 1972).Google Scholar

⁴ Greenwood, Anthony, Secretary of State for the Colonies, Statement in the House of Commons on 10 November 1965; Hansard, Vol. 811, Col. 138.Google Scholar

⁵ Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, National Development Plan, 1988–1990, Vol. I, Mauritius, 1988 (Port Louis), p. 29.Google Scholar

⁶ The population of Mauritius was officially categorised in the census of 1962 as Hindus 51.8%, Muslims 16.5%, General Population 28.5% (in effect the Creoles), and Chinese 3.2%. See Benedict, Burton, Indians in a Plural Society (London, 1961), for a good sociological analysis.Google Scholar

⁷ According to U.N. Resolution 1514 (XV), dated 14 December 1960, ‘(6). Any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations’.

⁸ The Indian Ministry of External Affairs opposed the U.K. scheme right from the start – see, for example, The Hindu (Madras), 27 04 and 19 11 1965. Later that year the General Assembly of the United Nations passed Resolution 2066, expressing deep concern and requesting the colonial power ‘to take no action which would dismember… Mauritius and violate its territorial integrity’.Google Scholar

⁹ Le Mauricien (Port Louis), 24 04 1965.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Sir Seewosagur Ramgoolam, the Prime Minister of Mauritius at the time, and the ‘father of independence’, is on record as prepared to advocate integration despite being told that ‘there is not the slightest chance’ of this happening. ‘Great Britain has no time for us. It is painful for me to stand in this House and say so, because I am a loyal citizen of the British Empire. I owe my fidelity and loyalty to this great Empire’. Mauritius Legislative Assembly Debates (Port Louis), 13 06 1967, cols. 791–2.Google Scholar

¹¹ The Times (London), 23 01 1965,Google Scholar and The Manchester Guardian, 1 February 1965.

¹² The Chagos archipelago has a total land area of 52 sq. kilometres, with Diego Garcia as the largest atoll, nearly 2,000 kilometres from Port Louis.

¹³ According to a report in Le Mauricien, 13 November 1965, a political leader of the Creoles declared: ‘Le P.M.S.D. n'est pas contre le principe de céder les Chagos pour la défence de I'Occident.’

¹⁴ Agreement on Mutual Defence and Assistance (London, 1968), Cmnd. 3629.Google Scholar Much to the chagrin of many Mauritians, Britain decided not to renew the treaty in 1975. According to The Daily Telegraph (London), 17 04 1975,Google ScholarRoy Mason had to go to the island to calm the inhabitants. Reports that France would step in with an alternative defence arrangement were immediately denied in Paris. The Times, 28 and 29 April 1975.Google Scholar

¹⁵ According to the London Press Service, 10 September 1975, the British Government attempted to justify its treatment of the Zilois by claiming that ‘the people… were… Mauritians and Seychellois contract labourers … none owned property… the company undertook the arrangements for the evacuation… all went willingly’. For a wealth of information on these islanders,Google Scholar see Scott, Robert, Limuria: the lesser dependencies of Mauritius (London, 1961). This book by an ex-Governor makes nonsense of the later claim that the Chagos had no permanent inhabitants.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Mauritius Legislative Assembly, Report of the Select Committee on the Excision of the Chagos Archipelago (Port Louis, 1983).Google Scholar

¹⁷ Larus, Joel, ‘Diego Garcia: the military and legal limitations of America's pivotal base in the Indian Ocean’, in Dowdy, W. L. and Trodd, R. (eds.), The Indian Ocean: perspectives on a strategic arena (Durham, NC, 1985), pp. 435–51.Google Scholar

¹⁸ See, for example, Le Monde (Paris), 12 01 1980, The Guardian, 22 January 1981,Google ScholarInternational Herald Tribune (Paris), 22 04 1981,Google Scholar and The Financial Times (London), 14 08 1981.Google Scholar

¹⁹ According to an interview given by the British High Commissioner to Week-End (Port Louis), 8 03 1992, although vessels from Mauritius can be licensed to catch fish in the F.C.M.Z. of the Chagos archipelago, they must not do so inside the lagoons of the atolls, and one was recently fined for such a legal infringement.Google Scholar

²⁰ Sources: Mauritius Legislative Assembly, Report of the Select Committee on the Excision of the Chagos Archipelago (Port Louis, 1983)Google Scholar; Week-End, 20 October 1991 and 19 January 1992Google Scholar; Letter de I'Océan Indien (Paris), 23 11 1991, 25 01 1992, and 15 February 1992Google Scholar; Le Monde, 14 March 1992Google Scholar; and The Indian Ocean Review (Perth), 4, 12 1991, p. 4.Google Scholar

²¹ Many of the numerous Seychelles islands are not premanently inhabited. Over 80 per cent of the total population (45,000 in 1965, estimated to be 66,000 by now) live in Mahé.Google Scholar

²² The People (Victoria, Mahé), 27 03 1974Google Scholar; Seychelles Bulletin (Victoria, Mahé), 19 03 1976Google Scholar; and The Times, 20 March 1976.

²³ Le Monde, 25–28 May 1976; The Guardian, 20 June 1981; and The Times, 9 November 1987.

²⁴ The central concept in the world-wide decolonisation movement was, of course, autodétermination or self-determination, thereby leading to independence. France has always taken the view that Réunion, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Guyanne remain integral parts of France by autodétermination, freely expressed over and over again at elections.

²⁵ The other three ‘old colonies’ are Martinique and Guadeloupe in the West Indies, and Guyanne on the north-east coast of South America. During General de Gaulle's first régime, before the advent of the Fourth Republic, all four were made Départments d'outre mer (D.O.M.), partly motivated by possible American intentions to take over the West Indian territories. The Communists, who then shared power with de Gaulle, wished to change the structure of the ‘old colonies’ by integrating them in a ‘progressive’ France.

²⁶ Le Monde has published a number of special supplements on Réunion – for example, ‘La Réunion à bout de bras’, 5–8 April 1968; ‘Les Petites Frances d'outre mer’, January 1975; ‘La Réunion sours le vent du changement’, 13 March 1982; and ‘Une Semaine avec la France dugrand large’, 11–15 September 1984.Google Scholar See also, L'Année politique (Paris), yearly since 1947,Google Scholarand Annuaire des pays de l'Ocean Indien (Aix en Province), which has provided first-class analyses of developments in the Crreole islands since 1974,Google Scholar as well as regular bibliographies, chronologies, and other documentation. La Letter de I'Océan Indien (Paris) is a very informative weekly.Google Scholar

²⁷ Le Monde, 27 February, 6, 19, and 21–22 March 1991, and L'Express (Paris), 15 03, 5 and 12 04 1991.Google Scholar

²⁸ Following the rapid increase in population that occurred after World War II and the eradication of malaria, the demography of both Réunion and Mauritius has now stabilised at about the same level as that of advanced industrial societies. In part because of unemployment in Europe and the rise of racism associated with its heavy incidence in certain countries, the state-assisted emigration of Réunionais have been phased out in favour of aligning their out-of-work benefits with those paid in the rest of France.

²⁹ McQueen, Matthew, ‘Mauritius, Successful Export Diversification Under Adverse Conditions’, in The Courier (Brussels), 05–06 1991, pp. 74–5.Google Scholar

³⁰ For elaboration of these points, see Houbert, Jean, ‘France in the Indian Ocean: decolonising without disengaging’, in The Round Table (London), 298, 1986, pp. 145–66.Google Scholar

³¹ Le Monde, 20 June 1990. Mitterrand's visit to the Indian Ocean islands was reported in Week-End, 10 and 17 June 1991.Google Scholar

³² La Lettre de l'Océan Indien, 11 January and 21 March 1992; and Week-End, 25 December 1991, 12 and 19 January 1992.

³³ Le Monde and The Financial Times, 28 July 1992, and La Lettre de l'Océan Indien, 1 August 1992.

³⁴ See Les Dossiers de l'outre mer (Paris), 84, 3, 1985,Google Scholar published by the Centre national départment d'outre mer (Cenadom),Google Scholar the research institute dealing with the overseas departments. Also, Annuaire des pays de I'Océan Indien, 1982–1983, devoted entirely to co-operation between the islands, and I.O.C., La Commission de l'Océan Indien (Port Louis, 1991).Google Scholar

The new President of the Republic of Mauritius, Cassam Uteem, a Muslim leader of the M.M.M., has recently stated that he would like to see India become a member of the I.O.C., almost certainly in order to please the Hindu population. Radio France International, and Week-End, 15 March 1992.Google Scholar

³⁵ On doing his about-turn on independence, Mancham, James R. wrote to The Times about how sad he was to see the Union Jack go down over the Seychelles, whereupon James Callaghan, the Prime Minister, said how very touched he had been by the letter and that he would never forget. Seychelles Bulletin, 28 January 1976. However, despite pleas for help, Britain decided to take no action when, the President was toppled in 1977.Google Scholar