Cartern No TX
CONFIDENTIAL.
{
Ceylon Committee.
[The letter a after the number of any answer denotes that the number is to be found in the Confidential Evidence.]
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TELEC.O. 882
1
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Evidence, 1849. Wodehouse.
4499, 4678.
4208, 4212, 5690.
4195, 4208.
Evidence, 1850. Tennent. 4136, 4209, 2637,
4223, 4224, 8983.
TWO questions are raised with respect to the conduct of Mr. Wodehouse as a witness before the Ceylon Committee in 1849 and 1850.
On his examination in 1849, Mr. Wodehouse represented-
That he had dissented from some of Lord Tor- rington's financial measures;
That he considered martial law had been unne- cessarily resorted to for the suppression of the Rebellion, as the military, under the direction of the civil authorities, would have been sufficient for the
purpose;
and
That the first proclamation of martial law for the district of Kandy, having been resolved in
upon his absence from the Executive Council, he con- curred in the second proclamation for the district of Kornegalle, because, the Government having "it would entered upon a certain line of policy, have been most inexpedient, when another town had been attacked by a mob, to have halted in that policy."
Sir J. E. Tennent, who was examined in 1850, directly impeached the evidence of Mr. Wodehouse on these specific matters; and added, that he was authorized by Lord Torrington to state, that he was in the habit of consulting Mr. Wodehouse privately, as well as officially, on all questions of policy; that Mr. Wodehouse never expressed any dissent from his general commercial measures, or from the policy adopted for the suppression of the Rebellion; and that, up to the period of Mr. Wode. house's departure, "Lord Torrington laboured under the full impression, from his communications with
[248]
B