BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERRITORY (Continued)
8. The tiny scattered islands of the Chagos Archipelago
present a complete contrast. The Ilois did not constitute a
settled and self-sustaining community with its own institutions
and civil administration. The Ilois were brought to and
remained in the Chagos Archipelago purely, I would repeat,
on the basis of their contracts to work in the plantations
providing copra, a commodity for which demand had been in
long-term decline. This long-term decline in the market
for copra led to the progressive reduction of the area under
cultivation. Even before the Second World War, one group
of islands had to be abandoned, with the consequent
departure of its workforce.
9.
While a proportion of employees (the Ilois) passed
the whole of their lives on the islands, bringing up their
families there, the majority were returned to Mauritius (or
the Seychelles) at the expiry of their contracts. Neither
the employees, nor those permitted by the plantation owners
to remain, owned land or houses and the employees were all
treated as mobile, being moved from island to island as the
work required; and, if a plantation ceased to be viable,
it was abandoned.
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/10.