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There are few who know that whole area as well as I and few 

 with my experience of tropical East African shores. Besides, I 

 was far from happy about going to Madagascar without first 

 trying for a nearer goal. I do not believe in dodging trouble, and 

 those who know me say I often provoke it to shorten a crisis, 

 and that may be true; but to go to Madagascar when it might not 

 be necessary might well set in train a series of increasingly difficult 

 complications and situations that could easily get out of hand for 

 both sides. I could not help feeling that for this South African 

 military plane on this particular errand to land at Diego Suarez 

 might well irritate the scarcely healed wound caused by the forcible 

 seizure of Madagascar during the war, in which South Africa 

 had played so great a part. There would be officials and others 

 there who had not forgotten, and it would not help that that whole 

 affair merely followed the pattern of the British action at Oran. 

 I did not say this directly, but stressed that we all wanted to get 

 back as soon as possible and sometimes there are unexpected 

 delays at headquarters. I soon sensed that on this matter Blaauw 

 and I saw eye to eye, and I suspected that he probably realised 

 the possible effect of that war-time seizure of Madagascar on this 

 affair as clearly as myself. I pointed out that it was worth a bit of a 

 risk to avoid the certain delay that would ensue if I had to make a 

 voyage by boat from Madagascar to the Comores and back. But 

 even if we had to go to Madagascar, I felt it would be better to 

 fly over the Comores, at least to see Mayotte, and if there was no 

 information, we might just look at that airstrip ourselves. Could 

 we not judge its possibilities by flying low down ? Screwed-up 

 faces without words were not encouraging, but I was convinced 

 that this would be the soundest policy and said so, firmly. 



By the time the island of Mozambique came into view opinion 

 in the plane had veered definitely north of east — if you look at the 

 map you will see why. 



In my own mind I felt no ethical uneasiness about going for 

 this fish, rather the reverse, for even though this Coelacanth had 

 been found in French waters, it was mine by every right. Even 

 though I hoped that there would be no opposition, if it came to a 

 matter of establishing that right in the face of official obstruction, 

 while seven South Africans at Diego Suarez might set feelings 

 running high, at Dzaoudzi they would not have that effect. I 



