The rejection in 1889 of the claim for the introduction of an elected
element into the Legislative Council necessarily meant that the nomi-
nated system took firmer root in the community. Since the British
Government refused to base membership in the legislature on the con-
fidence of the people, aspirants to political power had to seek the con-
fidence of the Governor. The change was clearly marked in 1921 when
Major Wood, later Lord Halifax, visited the -West Indies to consider
the question of constitution reform.
 Major Wood encountered strong support for the nominated system
from the Indians, whose first nominated member was appointed in 1912.
The Indians claimed that the complete substitution of election for nomi-
nation-might operate to their disadvantage. Some of them, calling them-
selves the East Indian National Congress, even went so far as to advocate
communal representation. The leading opponents of the principle
of election, however, were the Chamber of Commerce, who looked
upon the demand for constitution reform as largely inspired by move-
ments external to Trinidad (a reference to the activities of Mr. Marryshow
of Grenada), and pointed to the prosperity of Trinidad under its existing
form of government, which, in their view, afforded adequate repre-
sentation. Thus you see the result of the Colonial Office's denial of
the claim for constitution reform in 1888. Constitution reform was then
advocated by leading'merchants who opposed it in 1921. The East
Indians,wwhose claim to the franchise was almost universally advocated
in 1888, opposed the grant of the franchise in 1921.
 But times had changed and it was impossible to withhold a privilege
which had just been granted to Grenada and which was advocated by
a very vocal section of middle class and working class opinion led by
Captain Cipriani. Major Wood opposed communal representation,
stressed that there would be no logical reason for withholding it from
persons of French, Spanish or Chinese descent, and advised the Indians
not to stand aside from the main current of political life but instead to
share in it and assist to guide its course in the direction of a homogeneous
community.
 So Trinidad at last received its first instalment of democracy which
it was made to buy on the hire purchase plan. A few elected members
were introduced into the Council on a franchise so restricted that in
1938 only 6% of the population of Trinidad and Tobago enjoyed the
right to vote. The change is imperishably associated with the name
of Captain Cipriani and is immortalized in a famous calypso of the
old days-" Who you voting for? Cipriani."
 Then followed all the agitation stimulated by the war for democracy,
the Atlantic Charter, the Four Freedoms and the United Nations, and
Trinidad and Tobago's constitution was steadily modified to permit
universal suffrage; an elected majority, first in the Legislative Council
and then in the Executive Council; the removal of the Governor from
the Legislative Council: the reduction of the official and nominated
elements; and the Ministerial system. But the Legislative Council of
today-differs in degree and not in kind from the system first imposed


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