Give back the Chagos Islands and apologise

This is a shameful episode in our history and one that should have been righted long ago by politicians more enlightened than the ones who forced mainland Mauritius to relinquish this land or face being kept as a British colony instead of rightfully gaining independence.

The Chagos islanders must have wept when they looked on from their exile in Mauritius to see Britain high-handedly inviting the US to build a military base on their spiritual and ancient home.

The gift wasn't ours to give and now the UN has told us in plain terms that the peacetime (1965) forced eviction of a whole population for no good reason - and our actions since, where we "graciously" allowed people tiny, controlled visits back to their rightful homes as long as they toed the line - were the worst sort of colonialism, thoroughly illegal and extremely bad practice.

The Mauritians have been telling us for 50 years that it was wicked to force them to give up these islands as part of an independence deal.

We should have realised that for ourselves long before now and certainly before it reached the stage of being told off by one of the highest courts in the world.

It’s says we ll hand them back when we ve finished with them ....How arrogant can we get

Its how the "British" government has always behaved though .Gibraltar should be Spanish the Falklands should be Argentinian ...sadly some refuse to accept the days of Empire are long gone and the arrogance that went with it won't be tolerated in the 21st century and neither should it .

God why is it always the British who have to wear a hair shirt?

What about France for example - French Guiana in South America, Martinique in the Caribbean.

I’m sure there are many other countries if we Google!

FGS paddyann Gibraltar doesn't WANT to belong to Spain! Have you never heard of the Treaty of Utrecht?!! The Falkland Islanders do NOT want to belong to Argentina! They both want to remain British! I'm sure you find both these attitudes difficult to comprehend, but they are true. If people want their independence then, unlike the EU, they are welcome to it! Scotland in particular, roll on the day!! If they don't, then it will never be imposed on them! Unfortunately, where Scotland is concerned!

Two wrongs don’t make a right we can’t take the high ground for what others do but doesn’t make our sins right though does it
You can’t say she stole £10 so it doesn’t matter if I steal £10 too

What about Spain with its Moroccan enclaves! Canary Islands?!! No, Britain is not the only country to have dependencies?!!

How can it be a sin to support people who don't want to be handed over to a country they hate?!!

Does no one else get fed up of past acts being judged on today's standards. The past is a different place (or words to that effect)

Surely it’s up to the people of the islands themselves?

If they vote to stay british or not that’s it?

Nowt to do with any court.

paddyann

You are a faciest then? You ignore the will of the people to decide their own future.

Horrible

And you are surely the arrogant one here

All this whataboutery is rather deflecting from the purpose of the thread. The Chagos islanders want their island back. The British had no right (other than misplaced imperial arrogance) to take it from them. The UN has told Britain to give them back.

Quite right; give them back.

The British didn’t ‘take it from them’ they bought it in a DEAL (signed by both parties) in 1965 for £3,000,000. (equals £60 million today).

It's alarming how little some people know about the history of the Britain, especially that which is fairly recent, modern history and certainly within our lifetime. How can anyone, who has even a modest understanding of modern history, have failed to know that the people who live on Gibraltar and the Falklands are adamant that they want to remain British and have fought to do so? Or is it a case of some posters just want to be seen seizing on any percieved injustice that they think the British have incurred on other countries; no matter how ill informed they are?

I'm sorry to say that Paddyann's post is woeful in its ignorance of modern history.

This constant British bashing by Scottish posters on GN gets tedious......or should I say, England bashing.
Am guessing * Caledonail* is a Scot, as is Paddyann.

There isn't a place called Chagos! It's the Chagos Archipelago made up of small islands. Diego Garcia is the one where the inhabitants were removed!

It’s now a military base for the USA and we rent to to them for £20 million p.a.

That's not quite how their Wikipedia entry puts it:

On 31 August 1903 the Chagos Archipelago was administratively separated from the Seychelles and attached to Mauritius.[17]

In November 1965, the UK purchased the entire Chagos Archipelago from the then self-governing colony of Mauritius for £3 million to create the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT),[18] with the intent of ultimately closing the plantations to provide the British territory from which the United States would conduct its military activities in the region. On 30 December 1966, the United States and the United Kingdom executed an agreement through an Exchange of Notes which permit the United States Armed Forces to use any island of the BIOT for defence purposes for 50 years, until December 2016,[18] followed by a 20-year optional extension (to 2036) to which both parties must agree by December 2014. As of 2010, only the atoll of Diego Garcia has been transformed into a military facility.

In 1967 the British Government bought the entire assets and real property of the Seychellois Chagos Agalega Company,[19] which owned all the islands of the BIOT,[20] for £660,000[21] and administered them as a government enterprise while awaiting US funding of its proposed facilities, with an interim objective of paying for the administrative expenses of the new territory. However, the plantations, both under their previous private ownership and under government administration, proved consistently unprofitable due to the introduction of new oils and lubricants in the international marketplace, and the establishment of vast coconut plantations in the East Indies and the Philippines.

Between 1967 and 1973, the entire population was removed against its will from the islands and moved to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for a joint United States-United Kingdom military base on Diego Garcia.[22] In March 1971, Seabees, United States naval construction battalions, arrived on Diego Garcia to begin the construction of the Communications Station and an airfield. To satisfy the terms of an agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States for an uninhabited island, the plantation on Diego Garcia was closed in October of that year.[23]

The Chagos Islands and their inhabitants were bought and sold like commodities. They appear to have had no choice in the matter.

I rather think that had the entire population of, say, the Isle of Wight been removed against their will to make way for an American military base British people would not be relaxed about it...

It seems a feature here in GN that one or two Scots grans plus the far left members indulge in wailing and knashing of teeth about the horrors of being British.?
It’s a wonder that so many immigrants want to come here isn’t it, do they realise how truly awful Britain is? !

It was bought, not annexed ( that would be Russia) and the people were not slaves and were not ‘bought’.
Don’t let the facts get in the way though.

Such a useful contribution to the discussion, lemon. not

I have African slaves in my ancestry as well as sturdy English peasants. I feel a bit sensitive about people being treated like commodities.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

How do you know the English peasants were sturdy?