New Name For The Album

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31724, 6 July 1968, Page 16

New Name For The Album

(Specially written for "The Press" by KENNETH ANTHONY) This stamp, with its attractive picture of a native fishing boat off the Seychelles, may not at first sight seem to have any bearing on the decision to withdraw British garrisons east of Suez over the next few years. But there is a distinct connection—hidden in the initials, “8.1.0. T. overprinted on the design. In fact this is not a Seychelles stamp at all; it is one of a series overprinted on Seychelles to form the first issue of a new stampissuing country, the British Indian Ocean Territory. In this new colony are grouped together the Chagos Archipelago, lying 1180 miles north of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, plus the islands of Aldabra, Farquhar and Desroches, much further west. The main industries are coconut growing and fishing, and the colony's population is very small. At present even Diego Garcia, largest of the Chagos group is connected with the outside world, via Mauritius, by only three or four sailings a year, though it was of considerable strategic importance during the last war. Aldabra is famous for its wildlife, some of which is unique, and an announcement in 1967 that an R.A.F. station

staJp STORY

was to be built there led to a storm of protests from naturalists. The plan now seems to have been abandoned, at least for the time being. By ordinary standards the islands of the British Indian Ocean Territory would never need stamps of their own; indeed, before the new series appeared in January, 1968, there was not even a post office there.

But, taking a long-term view, it seems likely that these remote and lonely places may have an important role to play in maintaining communications with Australia, especially in relation to the reduction of British forces elsewhere in Asia and the Far East. The stamps, so to speak, stake a claim. It is what the British Indian Ocean Territory may eventually become, rather than what it is now, that has led to a new name in the stamp album—and a new set of initials for collectors to learn!