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13. The Commission met in London in October and spent six weeks in Seychelles hearing the views of the parties and, indeed, of anyone wishing to make representations. Tan Siew Sin proved a weak and not wholly satisfactory Chairman and there was considerable friction between him and his colleagues. Happily he proved influenceable by the more dynamic da Costa and Sir Leslie Monson played a useful role as a discreet influence on both. They were considerably surprised by the relative lack of enthusiasm for independence on the part of many ordinary Seychellois who appeared to them fearful of the future under political leaders who would henceforth no longer be answerable to a Governor appointed by HMG; and several references to this in their Report was one reason behind the decision not to publish it before the Second Constitutional Conference which, we believe, is without precedent. However, their main conclusion, that electims to the National Assembly should be by a system of 8 single member constituencies and a National Roll from which an additional 17 members should be selected on the basis of the total number of votes cast for each party, proved acceptable to the party leaders and was thus adopted at the Second Constitutional Conference. (An important element in this success was Tan Siew Sin's insistence that both parties should know of, and approve, the proposal before it was included in the Commission's Report.) Calculations showed that, if this system had been adopted for the 1974 elections, the SDP would have won 16 seats and the SPUP 9 seats: it would thus have not entirely eliminated the disparity between the popular vote and representation in the House but the attachment of the Commission members to the constituency principle, and their evident impartiality and authority, proved sufficient to overcome the SPUP's former objections to anything short of proportional representation.
14. The Commission's terms of reference did not include consideration
of the question of fresh elections before independence but, to ensure the cooperation of the SPUP, the members were told that they were free to listen to any views which any person, or persons, cared to offer on this subject while they were in Seychelles. To both the
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