![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Guy-k-300x210.jpg?resize=489%2C342\")
<\/p>\n
This photo of the late Hon Guy Rozemont was taken immediately after the proclamation of the results of the 1953 elections.<\/p>\n
At that time, cries of Hindu hegemony, annexation of Mauritius to India and screams about Mr Koenig\u2019s bateau langouti<\/em> were loudest but Guy Rozemont with his usual knack of firing the imagination of the masses foiled the anti-Hindus with their own weapons.<\/p>\n (Mauritius Times \u2013 Friday 6th<\/sup> April 1956)<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>* * *<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Une cinquantaine de Rodriguais ont \u00e9t\u00e9 import\u00e9s pour concurrencer les milliers de ch\u00f4meurs du pays. Un d\u00e9l\u00e9gu\u00e9 est venu nous porter plainte, en nous disant qu\u2019on lui avait offert du travail comme laboureur sur la propri\u00e9t\u00e9 Sans Souci \u00e0 Rs 5 la journ\u00e9e mais qu\u2019il ne touche que Rs 2.00 \u00e0 Rs 2.25 par journ\u00e9e de travail\u00a0; certains travailleurs ont \u00e0 subvenir aux besoins d\u2019une femme et de plusieurs enfants et ils n\u2019ont pas de quoi acheter les provisions de la semaine avec les maigres gages qu\u2019ils touchent, qu\u2019ils sont log\u00e9s dans des cahutes en tr\u00e8s mauvais \u00e9tat, n\u2019ont ni cuisine, ni salle de bains et que p\u00e9n\u00e9trer dans un cabinet d\u2019aisance c\u2019est s\u2019exposer \u00e0 contracter des maladies transmissibles.<\/p>\n Nous avons \u00e9crit au Commissaire du travail le priant de d\u00e9l\u00e9guer son adjoint pour aller enqu\u00eater sur les lieux et prendre les dispositions n\u00e9cessaires pour am\u00e9liorer l\u2019existence des laboureurs import\u00e9s. La meilleure solution c\u2019est de retourner \u00e0 Rodrigues les travailleurs import\u00e9s pour concurrencer les ch\u00f4meurs du pays qui meurent de faim.<\/p>\n L\u2019ann\u00e9e derni\u00e8re, les autorit\u00e9s ont expuls\u00e9 une Mauricienne install\u00e9e \u00e0 Rodrigues, elle fut contrainte de vendre ses animaux, sa maison et ses plantations \u00e0 vil prix parce qu\u2019elle concurren\u00e7ait ses s\u0153urs, les travailleuses de Rodrigues.<\/p>\n Wilferid L\u2019Etang (Mauritius Times \u2013 13th<\/sup> April 1956)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>* * *<\/strong><\/p>\n To the Editor of the Times The proposals for the new constitution in Mauritius contain two suggestions that are wholly bad. I refer to the proposal to retain up to 12 nominated members in the Legislative Council, and to the suggestion that Proportional Representation be adopted as the voting system. As a colony advances to self-government, the number of nominees in the Legislative Council should lessen. This is not the case in the Mauritian proposals. If, however, there are to be nominees, they should be appointed by the Governor after consultation with the leader of the majority party, or else represent definite scheduled interests. I refer as a precedent to the dispatch on the Malayan Constitution from Mr Malcolm MacDonald in 1954. Neither of these alternatives is met in Mauritius.<\/p>\n In the particular circumstances of Mauritius, Proportional Representation is the worst possible method of voting. It will emphasize in the Legislative Council the racial and religious differences among sections of the population. Instead of promoting national unity and racial harmony, Proportional Representation will accentuate and perpetuate racial and religious differences, to the detriment of the possible eventual emergence of a spirit of pan-Mauritian consciousness. It is true that Mauritius has a plural society, but so have Trinidad and Malaya, and no one has ever sought to impose Proportional Representation there. If this retrograde step is accepted, Mauritius will be the only colony with such a voting system.<\/p>\n Running throughout the constitutional proposals and the dispatch of the Governor of Mauritius, Sir Robert Scott, is the implication that Labour representation in the Legislative Council should be weakened; and Proportional Representation as the voting system will do so. This means that the proposals will confer sectional advantage on the minority by denying social and political justice to the majority.<\/p>\n Your Port Louis correspondent recently referred to the Mauritius Times <\/em>as a \u201cHindu nationalist\u201d weekly. May I say that it is nothing of the sort. My paper is an independent democratic weekly; any nationalism which appears therein is Mauritian nationalism. And with reference to your own recent leading article, it is untrue to say that the Hindus are in a large majority. The Hindus numbered, at the 1952 census, some 258,000; the non-Hindus, i.e. the Muslims, General Population and Sino-Mauritians, numbered some 243,000. A majority of 15,000 in half a million cannot be construed as large.<\/p>\n I am, sir, yours faithfully,<\/em><\/p>\n Peter Ibbotson * The Hindu majority is, in effect, large because the minorities are not likely all to combine against the majority.<\/p>\n Published in The Times<\/em> \u2013 April 2, 1956<\/p>\n (Mauritius Times \u2013 13th<\/sup> April 1956)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mauritius Times 60 Years Ago — Guy Rozemont with his usual knack of firing the imagination of the masses foiled the anti-Hindus with their own weapons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":8945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,6],"tags":[231,5827,36,314,75,1306,1697,1772,5828],"class_list":["post-8944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-latest-news","tag-guy-rozemont","tag-malcolm-macdonald","tag-mauritius-times","tag-parti-travailliste","tag-peter-ibbotson","tag-proportional-representation","tag-rodrigues","tag-sir-robert-scott","tag-wilferid-letang"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Guy-k.jpg?fit=1000%2C699&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-2kg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Une Concurrence D\u00e9loyale<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n<\/strong>Vice Pr\u00e9sident du Parti Travailliste<\/p>\nMauritius Times<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 representative writes to London Times<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n<\/em>Sir,<\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/strong>London Representative, Mauritius Times
\n100, Canonbie Road S.E. 23<\/em><\/p>\n