A Tropical Island
The Island of the Swan. By Michael Malim. (Longmans. 16s.) THE Island of the Swan is the old Portuguese name for Mauritius, where, shortly after the end of the war, Mr. Malim and his wife spent a year. A second-engineer from Tyneside, encountered in Zanzibar, had told them that it was " t'loovliest island in t'world." On enquiring how to get there, they found that hardly anyone knew where it was ; the few people who did know assured them that it belonged to France. The inhabitants complain that most English- men think that Mauritius is in the'Caribbean.
Arriving in autumn, that is to say in March, they spent the first part of their visit at Curepipe, which Mark Twain called the " nastiest spot on earth, " and which Mr. Malim describes as a mixture of shanty- town and residential suburb. Because ,,f its altitude all the whites who can afford to do so live there during the summer. The whites, who are mostly French, the descendants of the original settlers, regard the English as " beasts "—the Governor being referred to as le plum-pudding—but a,s " just beasts " ; they do not, it seems, want to belong to France again so long as France remains a republic. Later in their stay Mr. Malini and his wife migrated to the coast, and they also spent several weeks in Port Louis, the seat of the Government.
Mauritius was economically ruined by the opening of the Suez Canal, so that everywhere there are signs of want a'nd decay. Its beauty seems to depend on the scenery and the light. But even
these have a melancholy quality. The water in the rivers is dark and black. The trees are draped in moss. The flowers make little show, and the predominant colours are varying greens. The impression is of a land under water, forested with seaweeds. Politically, the island is on the way to self-government, which will probably mean govern- ment by the Hindus. Of these there are 210,000 out of a total popula- tion of 450,000. The whites number 10,000. Had Mr. Malim visited Mauritius a hundred years ago, he would probably have taken the part of the Hindus against the whites, for he is by temperament oh the side of the weak against the strong. But now the Hindus have a special Commissioner from India to look after their interests, and it is the whites who are without a spokesman.
To explain their situation, Mr. Malim describes a conversation with a white liberal called Pierre, who complains that, in framing the constitution of 1948, the Labour Government was motivated less by a sense of justice than by spite against the oppressors of the poor coloured people " and by a wish to please Mr. Nehru. Pierre does not deny that the Hindus should be represented in pro- portion to their numbers, but he maintains that as soon as they have a majority they will, under the influence of agitators from Delhi, demand a plebiscite and secession to India. Yet the Mauritian Hindus, in spite of their poverty, are in paradise compared with the Hindus of Asia. Why should the Indian Government receive sympathy and encouragement for doing what it finds discreditable when done by England—empire-building ?
At Souillac, Mr. Malim met Robert-Edward Hart, a poet of Franco-Irish descent, who is widely read in the East, and to whom the French Government, recognising his distinction, has awarded the Legion of Honour. From the British Government, of which he is legally a subject, he has received the O.B.E., " not so much, if at all, for his poetry, as for his efforts to reveal to his countrymen the works of the English poets." An appendix gives three of his poems, includ- ing the lines " Voici le temps des sauvages scientifiques : Attilas d'universite, Tamerlans atomistes " which appear to summarise Mr. Hart's opinion of the twentieth century. Mr. Malim gives his impressions and ideas by means of a series of separate scenes, each of which describes an adventure or a con- versation. The whole book is light-hearted, well-informed and full of
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