Studies in Military and Strategic History General Editor: Michael Dockrill, Professor of Diplomatic History, King’s College, London Published titles include: Nigel John Ashton EISENHOWER, MACMILLAN AND THE PROBLEM OF NASSER Anglo-American Relations and Arab Nationalism, 1955–59 Christopher M. Bell THE ROYAL NAVY, SEAPOWER AND STRATEGY BETWEEN THE WARS Peter Bell CHAMBERLAIN, GERMANY AND JAPAN, 1933–34 G. H. Bennett BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY DURING THE CURZON PERIOD, 1919–24 David A. Charters THE BRITISH ARMY AND JEWISH INSURGENCY IN PALESTINE, 1945–47 David Clayton IMPERIALISM REVISITED Political and Economic Relations between Britain and China, 1950–54 Michael J. Cohen and Martin Kolinsky (editors) BRITAIN AND THE MIDDLE EAST IN THE 1930s Security Problems, 1935–39 Paul Cornish BRITISH MILITARY PLANNING FOR THE DEFENCE OF GERMANY, 1945–50 Michael Dockrill BRITISH ESTABLISHMENT PERSPECTIVES ON FRANCE, 1936–40 Robert Frazier ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH GREECE The Coming of the Cold War, 1942–47 John P. S. Gearson HAROLD MACMILLAN AND THE BERLIN WALL CRISIS, 1958–62 John Gooch ARMY, STATE AND SOCIETY IN ITALY, 1870–1915 G. A. H. Gordon BRITISH SEA POWER AND PROCUREMENT BETWEEN THE WARS A Reappraisal of Rearmament Raffi Gregorian THE BRITISH ARMY, THE GURKHAS AND COLD WAR STRATEGY IN THE FAR EAST, 1947–1954 Stephen Hartley THE IRISH QUESTION AS A PROBLEM IN BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY, 1914–18 Brian Holden Reid J. F. C. FULLER: Military Thinker Stewart Lone JAPAN’S FIRST MODERN WAR Army and Society in the Conflict with China, 1894–95 Thomas R. Mockaitis BRITISH COUNTERINSURGENCY, 1919–60 T. R. Moreman THE ARMY IN INDIA AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF FRONTIER WARFARE, 1849–1947 Kendrick Oliver KENNEDY, MACMILLAN AND THE NUCLEAR TEST-BAN DEBATE, 1961–63 Elspeth Y. O’Riordan BRITAIN AND THE RUHR CRISIS G. D. Sheffield LEADERSHIP IN THE TRENCHES Officer–Man Relations, Morale and Discipline in the British Army in the Era of the First World War Adrian Smith MICK MANNOCK, FIGHTER PILOT Myth, Life and Politics Martin Thomas THE FRENCH NORTH AFRICAN CRISIS Colonial Breakdown and Anglo-French Relations, 1945–62 Simon Trew BRITAIN, MIHAILOVIC AND THE CHETNIKS, 1941–42 Steven Weiss ALLIES IN CONFLICT Anglo-American Strategic Negotiations, 1938–44 Roger Woodhouse BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS FRANCE, 1945–51 Studies in Military and Strategic History Series Standing Order ISBN 0–333–71046–0 (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England War and Empire in Mauritius and the Indian Ocean Ashley Jackson Research Fellow Mansfield College Oxford in association with King’s College, London © Ashley Jackson 2001 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2001 978-0-333-96840-6 All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court Road,London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2001 by PALGRAVE Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVEis the new global academic imprint of St.Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-1-349-42850-2 ISBN 978-1-4039-1954-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781403919540 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jackson,Ashley. War and empire in Mauritius and the Indian Ocean / Ashley Jackson. p.cm.— (Studies in military and strategic history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-349-42850-2 1.Mauritius—History,Military—20th century.2.Mauritius– –History,Naval—20th century.3.Mauritius—Strategic aspects. 4.Indian Ocean Region—Strategic aspects.5.World War, 1939–1945—Mauritius.6.World War,1939–1945—Indian Ocean Region.7.Great Britain.Royal Navy.8.Decolonization—Mauritius. I.Title.II.Series. DT469.M47 J33 2001 355’.009698’2—dc21 2001024551 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 Dedicated to Rosa Poppy Jackson and Abigail Jane Jackson Contents Acknowledgements ix List of Abbreviations x Biographical Notes xiii Introduction: War and Empire 1 Mauritius, the Indian Ocean and the Second World War 7 1 Mauritius and the Indian Ocean in Imperial Wars and Imperial Strategy: from the Eighteenth Century to the Interwar Years 15 Mauritius and imperial warfare from the eighteenth century 19 The First World War 22 The interwar period to the eve of the Second World War 25 2 Defence of Empire and the Sea Lanes: the Royal Navy and the British Indian Ocean World 29 Sea power and the challenge to Britain in the Indian Ocean 31 The Eastern Fleet 35 Island naval and air bases in the Indian Ocean 39 The submarine and raider threat 44 Patrols and convoys 48 Madagascar and Reunion 51 3 Defending the Home Front: Local and Imperial Defence Measures 57 The threat to Mauritius and the imperial response 59 Local defence initiatives 63 The Mauritius Civil Labour Corps 66 The Mauritius Territorial Force and the imperial garrison 68 Fortifications 72 The Special Operations Executive and the scorched earth policy 73 vii viii Contents 4 Colonial Military Labour in Europe and the Middle East 78 Recruitment in Mauritius 83 The Western Desert, Tobruk and Alamein 89 Central Mediterranean Forces 93 Welfare 95 Pioneers in the postwar world 97 Mauritians as military labourers and infantry soldiers 99 5 The Mauritius Regiment and the Madagascar Mutiny 101 The Mauritius Territorial Force and the Mauritius Regiment 104 Political opposition to overseas military service 107 Racial tension, morale and leadership 111 Fear of the Japanese and dislike of Africans 113 Mutiny: the official version 117 Mutiny: eye witness accounts 121 After the mutiny 126 6 The Secret War: Censorship, Radio Propaganda and Code-Breaking 131 Intelligence 132 The Censorship Department and Information Office 145 External radio propaganda and broadcasting 147 7 The Effects of War on the Home Front 152 War and politics 153 The economics of war 159 The food situation 163 Development, health and education 168 Franco-Mauritians 171 The Jewish detainees 174 8 The End of the War and Strategic Transformation in the Indian Ocean 176 The soldiers return 177 A continuing military role 180 Notes 187 Select Bibliography 225 Index 236 Acknowledgements Thanks to the Hayter Fund, the Beit Fund, and the Modern History Faculty – all of the University of Oxford – for making it possible to visit Mauritius. Special thanks to two of the leading historians of Mauritius: to Raymond D’Unienville for supplying a wealth of information over the course of a year and for hospitality in Mauritius, and to Marina Carter for providing information and for translating articles from French to English and going some way towards compensating for the author’s shameful mono-linguality. I would like to thank the following people especially: Peter Twining for access to Sir Edward Twining’s papers, Kate Tildesley of the Naval Historical Branch, Louis Hein de Charmoy, the President and Committee of the Mauritius Ex-Services League (BCEL), G. Andre Decotter and the Royal Pioneer Corps Association (Mauritius), the East African Forces Dining Club, Andrew Morton, Archivist at the Royal Pioneer Corps Museum, Monica Maurel for a copy of her father’s diaries, Penny and Tony Ward of the British High Commission in Port Louis, Nicholas Bouchet, Michael Dockrill, and Terry Barringer of the Royal Commonwealth Society Library, Cambridge. Too numerous to mention but equally thanked are all of the corre- spondents and interviewees in Britain, Mauritius, South Africa and America. A. J. W. J. Wadebridge, Cornwall Woodstock, Oxfordshire ix