TNAG-0595-FCO40-742-Principles-and-procedures-of-granting-independence-1977 — Page 38

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tracking station was even more difficult to achieve since the Americans had unilaterally, and perhaps unwisely, agreed to the payment of a rental, thus arousing in the Seychelles leaders wholly unrealistic expectations of the amount the Americans would be prepared to pay. There were frequent and prolonged bargaining sessions which occasionally threatened to lead to an impasse. However, in the result, the Americans put forward a final offer of $8,900,000 payable over ten years and this was accepted. We believe a crucial consideration in the Seychelles

decision to accept was the thought that continuance of the satellite facility would imply some sort of US political commitment to the independent Seychelles: they were unprepared to present the Seychelles public at one and the same time with the withdrawal of British responsibility and the closing down of the visible US presence on the islands.

The Independence Bill and Related Matters (January to June 1976)

24. As soon as the Constitutional Conference was over, work began on the preparation of the necessary legislation and Orders-in-Council. An analysis of the various stages, and indeed the steps to release the ex-Seychelles BIOT islands on the assumption that the tripartite talks in March would prove successful, showed how complicated the independence process would be even after agreement in principle had been reached. Time was also pressing. On Mr Larmour's instructions, therefore, two critical path analyses (copies attached) were produced covering the independence legis- lation and the legislative action needed to return the islands. These proved invaluable and should, we suggest, be standard practice for the future. Progress was reviewed every week and appropriate measures taken whenever it appeared that the timetable was slipping. In the result, apart from a small delay in the proceedings in the House of Commons due to pressures on the parliamentary timetable,

all the various deadlines were met.

/ 25. Two lessons

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