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25. Two lessons were learned during this period.

The first was

that the Attorney-General of the country about to become independent can play an invaluable role in the formulation of

the new Constitution. Mr O'Brien Quinn produced the first draft which could speedily be examined in London and outstanding points settled by telegram or correspondence as appropriate. The second was that it is possible to misjudge the thrust of parliamentary interest in Independence Bills in present circum-

stances. We had naturally prepared a draft speech and speaking notes for the Second Reading in the House of Lords (which was first to consider the Bill): this contained a commentary on the various Clauses of the Bill but had concentrated rather on the constitutional issues which had caused greatest difficulty during the two Constitutional Conferences. We were somewhat caught off-

guard, therefore, when members on both sides in the House of Lords

sought rather to examine the implications of Seychelles independence on the immigration problem in the United Kingdom; and not enough material was available to answer questions on the nationality

clauses. The result was that the House decided to consider the

Bill more closely in Committee and a great deal of work had to be done at short notice to set out in plain layman's language what the various nationality clauses meant. The House was eventually satisfied with a general explanation that the effect of Seychelles independence was negligible in terms of the right of abode in the United Kingdom by citizens of the new Republic: but Ministers would clearly have been happier if the subject had been dealt with more thoroughly for the Second Reading. (The House of Commons also took much the same line but by then we were fully prepared.) Both these lessons are worth remembering for the future.

Conclusions

26. It is difficult to know whether the long and complicated history of the Seychelles independence process has much application to the problems of our remaining dependent territories since, inevitably, we were dealing with a specific territory with its individual

/ history

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