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[Capitalised letterhead in black ink reads 'COMMONWEALTH SECRETARIAT,' followed by 'MARLBOROUGH HOUSE – PALL MALL – LONDON SW1 [South Western district 1]'] 

[Capitalised and underlined] PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL. 

[Handwritten] Dear Tom, [end handwritten] 

I thought you might like to have some personal impressions of my visit to Mauritius with the Secretary-General for the independence celebrations. I do so because I think there are certain Australian interests in the island and the area which I would like to record. I do this in my personal capacity: Australia was officially represented and the views of the delegation will be available. 

The immediately obvious Australian interests are emigration, trade and air connections. Qantas may one day want an air route through East Africa to Europe either via Johannesburg or from Mauritius direct to Dar-es-Salaam and Nairobi. In either case Mauritius would continue to be useful for refuelling. Our trade is modest but a junior Minister (Planning and Economic Development) in the Government seemed more than ordinarily courteous in his compliments to me about our goods. 

The Kenya Immigration Act and the fear of racial trouble after independence has spurred emigration. I met a number of Mauritians with relatives in Australia; some were critical of reports of living conditions but a number seemed eager to follow. There were complaints from young people about the brain drain from Mauritius to Australia and elsewhere and the loss of trained people will become a serious issue for them. There is plenty of goodwill and interest in Australia among Government and other educated people, which is worth cultivation. 

We have a similar, perhaps competing, interest in the production and export of sugar. To them it is life, to us not so. Mauritius has trained people from Malawi and Kenya in sugar technology and has something to offer other developing countries. 

African Commonwealth countries were well represented at the celebrations and the Prime Minister returns their interest. He has attended one or two OAU [Organisation of African Unity] conferences, spoke warmly of Diallo Telli (who sent a representative to Mauritius) and has announced that Mauritius will seek membership of the OAU. I was puzzled at this interest by Mauritius but perhaps the explanation is not complicated. Africa and Malagasy are geographically close to 

[Postal address of the recipient] 

Mr. T. K. Critchley, C.B.E., 

Senior External Affairs Adviser, 

Australia House, 

Strand, 

London, W.C.2. [Western Central district 2] 

[End postal address] 

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Mauritius. The OAU is a pan-African regional organisation – Asia offers nothing comparable in span at the political level. French is widely spoken in Africa and for most educated Mauritians English is the second language after French. Diallo Telli, therefore, has a link with Ramgoolam. It is also possible that the Prime Minister, as the Indian leader of a largely Indian political party, may want to balance Indian and Pakistani influence and interests in Mauritius. So far as I could sense, the island is Asian and European – certainly the Creoles (people of mixed European and African/Asian descent) don’t appear to have much African inheritance, apart from a traditional dance. The Prime Minister spoke in warm terms of the OAU but it is hard to think what they will gain from it – perhaps one or two shocks at the lapses by African colleagues from Westminster procedure, for which there is some respect in Mauritius. 

I believe it would be useful if Mauritius could be encouraged to some extent to look towards Asia, somewhat wider than the Indian sub-continent, and towards Australia. Mauritians were disappointed with the British Government at the last minute cancellation of Princess Alexandra’s visit. They still have faith in Britain, but have too little self-confidence to fall back on if they should be disappointed too often. The British retreat from Asia gathers pace but the withdrawal signs which are obvious enough here in London don’t appear to have been thought about much in Port Louis. 

I don't know how Mauritius figures in the strategists' calculations. The British retain a shore naval and wireless station, under the defence agreement, but I have no knowledge whether this is of exclusively local use or has wider significance. With the Canal closed it is more important as a fuelling stop; it could be more significant if ships to and from Europe and Asia [handwritten addition] and Australia [end handwritten] should find it inconvenient or imprudent to call at South African ports. At the moment Mauritius is on one of our three principal trade routes and that is of some current importance. The Chinese and Russians were represented at the celebrations. An Asian and an African Minister, both "old school", told me they suspected that the Chinese would make some headway quite quickly. 

My feeling is that we would do well to think more about the Indian Ocean, extend more assistance to Mauritius, perhaps in training to help replace a few of those who have emigrated; and at the Government level, accredit to Mauritius one of our representatives stationed in East Africa (desirably with some knowledge of French) without too much delay so that a modest level of contact can be established and maintained. 

[Handwritten] 

Yours sincerely 

Michael Wilson