PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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Reference :-
C.O. 882
1
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH——NOT TO
98
Had it not been for the effect of this prevention, a similar warfare to that which lasted for eighteen months in 1818, and was only eventually crushed by the tardy proclamation of martial law, would have dragged on for months, spreading terror and ruin on all sides, and terminating only after the most extensive devastation of property and de- struction of human life.
But it is taking a narrow and circumscribed Effect of deterring other districts
view of the operation of martial law, to regard, it merely, in relation to its effects in restoring quiet in the two actually disturbed districts.
The important point of view in which I estimate its value, was in preventing the extension of in- surrection to the surrounding districts, and thus involving the whole Kandyan Country, as in 1818 in one simultaneous blaze of rebellion.
The effect upon those hitherto undisturbed dis- tricts of the province has been described to me by the native and the public officers as prodigious.
Martial law had not been in force in Ceylon since 1820, a period of nearly thirty years; à new generation had sprung up, and the remembrance of its operation and vigour had to a great extent passed away when they saw it thus suddenly re- vived, and each district as it raised the standard of revolt was not only put down rapidly, but kept down by this unexpected engine.
The bystanders with arms in their hands, and apparently watching for the signal to take the field, paused when they saw the effect of martial law;
and although signal fires were lighted nightly by the rebels in the jungle on the hills of Matelle and Kornegalle to invite the adjacent districts to come to their assistance, they declined the invita. tlou, and remained quietly in their villages.
There is not a district the most remote, from which the Government have not had the assur ance, that such was the indirect operation of martial law in preventing rebellion as well as suppressing it; and the authorities both military and civil, have recorded their opinion, that with- out the sustained influence of martial law, the mere defeats of the rebels in their entranters with the Queen's troops, could' not of tébolt have sufficed to prevent the remote distilėta Kurrýing towards them with reinforcementh and renewing the conflict.
from rising.
Helplessness of the Civil Power.
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5654
5691
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Mr. Wodehouse is of opinion that martial law was unnecessary, because the insurrection might have been suppressed by the Civil power, with the aid, if necessary, of the military; and that he cannot contemplate the possibility of any insur- rection being successful against them.
But Mr. Wodehouse must forget the insurrection of 1818, which spread to every corner of the country when encountered by the civil aided
power
by the military, and was only effectually crushed by the proclamation of martial law.
But the military authorities themselves, who diff. saw the extent of the danger, were of a very ferent opinion from Mr. Wodehouse; they felt they were inadequate to cope with the insurgents, and their first impulse was to send off by express for reinforcements from Madras to strengthen their own force.
If then, even with the aid and co-operation of martial law, the military felt unequal to the emer- gency without considerable reinforcements, what would have been the condition of the country before peace could have been restored by the civil power, with their aid and co-operation?
Mr. Wodehouse even suggests that the necessity
of co-operation of the military was problematical, and says that it could be given to the civil power
"if necessary.”
But the civil power had already had ample oppor tunities of testing what they could achieve in such an emergency unaided by the military, and the result
had been a succession of signal defonts.
On the 6th of July the civil power and the police were overpowered by the meeting in Kandy, and peace was restored only when the assemblage had been dispersed by the bayonets of the military. On the occasion of a similar assemblage at the same place on the 8th of July, tranquillity was preserved only by the presence of the military and the knowledge of the fact that they were armed and at hand.
On the 25th July, a riotous assembly `st Borelle, near Colombo, overpowered and drove in the police, and the civil power was 'only defended
Mr.
Ir. Mórris's sooount of the Borelle ettekir isken by Mr. Eilloft, and the general 'olarseter of blaga. Page 176.
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