TNAG-1117-FCO40-1391-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-1982 — Page 9

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.

01

5

/10.