thus ensuring a balanced supply throughout the year. This scheme, when it is realised, should revolutionise the Seychelles fishing industry. The main export crops are coconuts, cinnamon, patchouli and vanilla but tea is now being produced. The Seychelles Tea Company has some 375 acres of tea planted and will be extending this to 400 acres. Of these, 200 acres are being planted on behalf of the Seychelles Government for allocation in five-acre plots to small settlers in early 1970. A factory has been built and production of tea on a small scale began in August 1966. It is hoped that small holdings and private estates will also be encouraged to plant tea. Total exports in 1968 were valued at Rs. 16,195,706 and imports at Rs. 33,875,243. Britain is the main customer and supplier. For the first time since the turn of the century, copra was displaced by cinnamon bark as the most valuable export. The main classes of imports in 1968 by quantity and value were: flour, 1,369 tons, Rs. 856,522 (£64,239 2s.); rice, 5,047 tons, Rs. 4,074,342 (£305,575 11s.); sugar, 1,600 tons, Rs. 795,776 (£59,683 8s.); other foodstuffs, Rs. 4,910,483 (£363,286 9s.); kerosine, petrol and diesoline, 11,628,067 litres, Rs. 4,417,786 (£331,333 12s.); cotton piece goods, 837,971 yards, Rs. 2,013,440 (£151,088 Os.); other articles, Rs. 17,148,966 (£1,286,172 7s.); total imports, Rs. 33,875,243 (£2,540,643 9s.). The principal form of direct taxation is income tax. This is chargeable on all earned or investment income arising in or derived from the territory. In addition tax is payable by residents on investment income arising in Seychelles or on earned income remitted thereto, the basis of assessment being income arising in the calendar year preceding year of assessment. Rates of tax, after deduction of allowances, are: 5 per cent on first Rs. 1,000 of chargeable income Companies, partnerships, etc, pay a flat rate of 25 per cent. Earned income: Personal (single): One-eighth (maximum Rs. 2,000). Rs. 3,500. Rs. 800 for the first child; Rs.700 for each child thereafter (maximum Rs. 3,000). Additional allowance of Rs. 3,500 may be claimed for child studying abroad (maximum Rs. 7,000). Dependent relative: Rs. 500 (limited to one relative) if relative is infirm, maintained by claimant and not in receipt of any income exceeding Rs. 500. In addition, allowances may be claimed in respect of life insurance, superannuation, alimony and deduction against plant and machinery owned and operated by the assessee. A land tax of 40 cents per acre is charged. The principal sources of indirect taxation are customs duties at varying rates. Licensing exists for most trades and professions. There is also a succession duty at a graduated scale. The territory's revenue for 1967 was £905,544, which was augmented by Colonial Development and Welfare grants of £437,403, Overseas Service Aid of £6,924 and grants-in-aid of £185,000. Total expenditure for the year 1966 was £1,411,699. HISTORY There is some evidence to suggest that the Seychelles Islands were known and visited in the Middle Ages by traders from Arabia and the Persian Gulf sailing to and from ports in East Africa with the monsoons; they are clearly associated with the great Portuguese voyages in the Indian Ocean. The Amirantes group was sighted by Vasco da Gama on his second voyage to India in 1502. The first map showing what is thought to be the main group of islands was drawn at about the same time. However, the first well-documented voyage of discovery to the archipelago was made by the English seaman Alexander Sharpeigh. Commissioned by the East Indian Company, Sharpeigh's expedition visited the main granitic group, including Mahé and nearby islands, in 1609, ante-dating the first French visit, with an expedition under Lazare Picault, by almost a century and a half. A circumstantial account of Sharpeigh's voyage is to be found in the Journal of John Jourdain, published by the Hakluyt Society. It was that greatest of all French Governors of Mauritius, the Vicomte Mahé de Labourdonnais, who briefed Picault in 1741 to explore Seychelles. Had Labourdonnais not fallen victim to base intrigues, it is possible, even probable, that he would have turned Mahé into a formidable naval base against Britain at a time when French and British interests were clashing in India. For fifteen years Seychelles remained forgotten and then, on intelligence that the British were seeking uninhabited islands in the Indian Ocean, France decided to annex Mahé and seven other islands of the group. To that end Captain C. N. Morphey was despatched with orders to set up on Mahé a 'Stone of Possession' engraved with the arms of France. He did so at an impressive ceremony at sunrise on 1st November 1756, whereafter he set sail leaving the islands still uninhabited. By 1763 the French East India Company, owing to mismanagement, had lost most of its possessions in India and disrupted the economy of Mauritius. It was wound up and its remaining assets, including Mauritius and its dependencies, lapsed to the King of France. The transfer was not completed till 1767 when two official Administrators were sent to Mauritius-Jean Dumas in charge of naval and political affairs, and Pierre Poivre in charge of finance and agriculture-to develop the islands and prepare for further hostilities with Britain in the East. Both men soon turned their eyes to Seychelles. Dumas' interests were to find a cheap and reliable source of timber for his naval dockyards, and he despatched an expedition in 1768. Poivre, who had already introduced into Mauritius the cultivation of spices on a considerable scale to offset the Dutch monopoly in the Far East, extended this operation to Seychelles, and a garden was started, as well as a small settlement on St Anne's Island in 1770. Both operations were unsuccessful. After the first failure, the Administrators of Mauritius repeatedly urged that the King should take over Seychelles. The plan they put forward was to station on Mahé a small garrison and to accept the offer of a number of inhabitants of Mauritius and Réunion to settle there with their slaves. The function of the settlers was to grow food for the garrison and passing ships. Two years later Lieutenant Romainville with 15 soldiers and 12 slaves were sent to set up an Administrative Headquarters on the site around which Victoria was later to arise. Thereafter settlers with parties of slaves began to arrive. These settlers in the main came of previously well-to-do families who had fled France in face of financial disaster and threatening revolution, or had quit India after the collapse of French supremacy there in 1761. All were faced with the necessity of starting life afresh. Though the official role allotted to them was that of farmers, their primary ambition was to rebuild their shattered fortunes, and they found it quicker and vastly more lucrative to traffic in the island's natural and abundant resources-tortoises and timber. Between 1784 and 1789 alone it was estimated that more than 13,000 giant tortoises had been shipped from Mahé, while many others were slaughtered for home consumption. Damage to the island's magnificent forests had been on much the same scale. Appalled by this devastation, the French authorities in Mauritius sent M. Malavois in 1789 with orders to end it. The colonists were confined to fixed areas and all trading was forbidden. Thereafter their activities were devoted to the raising of crops, and it is to the credit of the colonists that, as long as slavery was permitted to continue, they managed, in addition to feeding themselves and their slaves, to fulfil their intended role as ship chandlers and purveyors to the garrison, even at times producing a surplus of maize, rice and cotton for export. Nevertheless, their ignorance of the nature of tropical soils and their wasteful methods of cultivation (burning tracts of forest land, cropping them until fertility declined and then repeating the operation elsewhere) led to further impoverishment of a soil already poor by nature. When the French Revolution occurred in 1789, the population of Seychelles numbered 69 persons of French blood, three soldiers of the garrison, 32 coloured persons and 487 slaves. In June 1790 the colonists set up a Permanent Colonial Assembly and a Committee of Administration. They repudiated all links with Mauritius, and invested the Assembly with judicial and other powers of internal self-government, thus anticipating by 113 years the status of Crown Colony granted to Seychelles by Britain in 1903. Their enthusiasm for the revolution, however, evaporated with the arrival of a Republican Commandant who proclaimed, among other changes, the abolition of slavery without compensation. Almost to a man the colonists boycotted him. He was succeeded by the Chevalier de Quincy, who brought news that the edict concerning slavery had been revoked, and Seychelles once more settled down as a dependency of Mauritius. For a number of years serious depredations to British shipping in the Indian Ocean had been caused by French privateers. Several of the marauding ships were owned by Seychellois, and it was partly to put an end to such activities that in 1794 a British squadron appeared off Victoria, demanding the unconditional surrender of the island. De Quincy had no forces to repel attack, but nevertheless managed by admirable courage and diplomacy to obtain a deed of capitulation most favourable to the islanders. In 1802 the Peace of Amiens was signed but hostilities broke out again 1803. With a view to weakening the British hold on India, Napoleon determined to station a strong fleet on the main trade route in the Indian Ocean. To this end, Mauritius was made the naval and military headquarters, Réunion and Madagascar the depots of food and stores, and Seychelles an advanced outpost. Britain's reply was to place a naval blockade on all these islands. In 1804 Seychelles was forced to capitulate for the second time. Again de Quincy's shrewdness served the colonists well, for he obtained a concession whereby ships of Seychelles flying a certain flag could pass through the blockade unmolested. The many ships calling at Mahé for supplies and a virtual monopoly of trade secured by the Seychelles under the terms of the capitulation, brought considerable wealth to the colony. However, with the fall of Mauritius to British forces in 1810, when Britain made it clear that slavery was to be abolished, a number of colonists with their slaves, estimated at nearly half the population, left Seychelles. During the pourparlers to the Treaty of Paris, Britain offered to restore Mauritius and its dependencies to France if that country would renounce all claims to its small remaining possessions in India. France refused and so in 1814 all these islands were formally ceded to Britain. Although all previous undertakings to respect French ownership of property, law and customs were omitted from the treaty, these continued to be honoured in deed. As a further proof of good-will, the Chevalier de Quincy was invited by the British Government to become Judge de Paix in Seychelles. He accepted and served with distinction in that office until his death 13 years later. From the date of its foundation until 1903, Seychelles was regarded as a dependency of Mauritius. A series of Civil Commissioners under the tutelage of Mauritius administered Seychelles from 1811 to 1888, but some degree of separation was effected in 1872 when a Board of Civil Commissioners was appointed with financial autonomy. The powers of this Board under a Chief Civil Commissioner were extended by another Order in Council of 1874. In 1888 the importance of the islands warranted a further change in the constitution, and an Order-in-Council was passed creating an Administrator with a nominated Executive and Legislative Council as from 1889. In 1897 the separation from Mauritius became more marked when the Administrator was endowed with the full powers of Governor. Six years later, by Letters Patent of 31st August 1903, separation was completed and Seychelles became a Crown Colony with a Governor and Executive and Legislative Councils. CONSTITUTION The new Constitution which was introduced in late 1967 created a single Council with both executive and legislative functions and an unofficial majority. The General Election held under the Constitution in December 1967 was also significant in that for the first time it was contested on the basis of universal adult suffrage. The new Governing Council now consists of three ex-officio members, eight elected members and up to four nominated members, with the Governor as President. LAND POLICY All land, other than Crown land, is held in freehold. Individual ownership is recognised, but aliens may purchase land only with the approval of Government. GOVERNMENT GOVERNING COUNCIL Up to four nominated members CIVIL ESTABLISHMENT GOVERNOR AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF: Bruce Greatbatch, CMG, CVO, MBE Chief Secretary: R. V. Rostowski Secretaries to Government: C. P. Mercier, Director of Medical Services: P. Hossen Director of Public Works: A. S. Boyce Britain: H. O. V. Jensen, Esq., Registrar of Co-operative Societies: J. G. Director of Tourism, Information and Chief Surveyor: Y. L. E. Savy JUDICIARY Chief Justice: Sir Campbell Wylie, QC, ED TRADE REPRESENTATIVES 340 Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London, W.C. 2, England East Africa: A. W. Bentley-Buckle, Esq., Box 875, Southern House, Kilindini Road, Mombasa, Kenya READING LIST BENEDICT, B. People of the Seychelles. H.M.S.O., 1966. BRADLEY, J. T. History of the Seychelles Islands. Port Victoria, 1936. OMMANNEY, F. D. The Shoals of Capricorn. Longmans, Green, 1952. THOMAS, A. Forgotten Eden. Longmans, Green, 1968. TOUSSAINT, A. History of the Indian Ocean. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966. TYACK, L. A. M. Mauritius and its dependencies; the Seychelles, treasures of the Indian Ocean. France Inter Presse, Lausanne, 1965. WAUGH, A. Where the Clocks Chime Twice. Cassell, 1952. WEBB, A. W. T. Story of Seychelles. Seychelles, 1964. Seychelles: Proposals for constitutional advance. Commonwealth Office, T TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS HE Turks and Caicos Islands lie to the south-east of the Bahamas between latitudes 21 and 22° N. and longitudes 71° and 72° 30′ W. The Turks Islands are said to derive their name from a species of cactus (echinocactus myriostigma) whose scarlet flowers resemble a Turkish fez. There are a number of theories on how the Caicos Islands got their name, one being that the name is derived from the Spanish name 'Cayos' for cays. The territory is made up of two groups of islands separated by a deep water channel about 22 miles wide known as the Turks Islands passage. The Turks Islands lie to the east of the passage and the Caicos Islands to the west. The Turks Islands consist of two inhabited islands, Grand Turk and Salt Cay, six uninhabited cays and a large number of rocks. The principal islands of the Caicos group are South Caicos, East Caicos, Middle (or Grand) Caicos, North Caicos, Providenciales and West |