Into the Vacuum

After he visited remote Mauritius in 1896, Mark Twain quoted an islander as saying: "Mauritius was made first and then heaven; and heaven was copied after Mauritius."

Two years ago, when the tiny (720 sq. mi.) Indian Ocean island won independence from Britain, one might have got the idea that it was serving as a model for a less elevated region. Ringed by silver sands and azure waters, dotted with scarlet flame trees and emerald sugar plantations, it was suffering nonetheless from economic stagnation, staggering unemployment and mounting racial tensions. At least 24 people died in savage riots just before the independence ceremonies, and Britain had to fly in troops from Singapore to restore order.

By last week, however, when India's Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, flew into Mauritius' tiny Plaisance Airport for an official five-day visit, the island was beginning to look more like the place that Mark Twain described. Indira's visit was a major event, not just because she was the first chief of state to pay a call since independence, but also because about 67% of Mauritius' 807,000 people are of Indian origin. So, for that matter, is roly-poly Premier Sir See-woosagur Ramgoolam.

Mrs. Gandhi's state visit pointed up the fact that Mauritius--situated some 2,400 miles south of the Indian subcontinent and 1,400 miles off the coast of East Africa--has become an object of interest to the great powers. The closing of the Suez Canal in 1967 forced merchant shipping back onto the round-Africa routes to Asia, turning Mauritius into a regular port of call.

Now Soviet warships, in line with Moscow's interest in expanding Russia's naval presence, are frequent visitors. The U.S. has established an Apollo rescue and recovery station. Both Communist and Nationalist China have been working to gain a political foothold on the island. Britain, which wrested control of the island from France in 1810, still supports the price of sugar, which makes up 95% of its exports.

Racial Problem. At independence, Mauritius seemed all too vulnerable to overtures from Moscow and Peking. The island's population is wildly mixed --421,390 Hindus, 227,129 Creoles descended from European plantation owners and imported African slaves, 133,441 Moslems, 25,067 Chinese and a handful of British and French. Most previous attempts to form parties that crossed communal lines had been ineffective. The tensions have now eased considerably, largely because fiery young

Creole Leader Gaetan Duval agreed last February, after years of friction, to bring his followers into a coalition government with Premier Ramgoolam's party.

Increasingly, day-to-day leadership has fallen upon Duval, who is also Minister of External Affairs. A dynamic, innovative man who affects long hair and Carnaby Street clothes, Duval has come up with a series of plans aimed at alleviating the island's problems and ending its near-total dependence on sugar. He hopes to make the entire island a Hong Kong-style free zone, and to lure foreign capital with tax concessions and tax holidays. Duval hopes to develop tourism--and lovely, mountainous Mauritius, lined with coral reefs and frequently framed by giant rainbows, has much to offer.

Despite the improved political outlook, there is growing concern over the activities of the left-wing Mouvement Militant Mauricien, a Maoist group headed by Paul Berenger, 25, son of a well-to-do middle-class Franco-Mauritian family.

Periodically, rumors that the M.M.M. is receiving smuggled Red Chinese weapons sweep sleepy Port Louis, but so far nothing has been proved. Berenger, who holds a degree in philosophy from the University College of North Wales in Bangor and is a veteran of the Paris street riots of May 1968, openly admits that he wants to overthrow the present Mauritian government. The M.M.M. claims about 10,000 hard-core members, but its program has wide appeal to the island's young and unemployed, who still number 50,000.

Seeking to ease the island's difficulties, Mrs. Gandhi last week offered technical aid in improving the island's airport and expanding its agriculture. That should solidly anchor New Delhi's presence on Mauritius. With Britain committed to a military withdrawal east of Suez, which will turn the Indian Ocean into a 28-million-sq.-mi. power vacuum, other nations are soon likely to be seeking footholds for themselves.

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