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| PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
CO.
Reference :-
882/10
COPYRIGHT PHOT
GRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
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rigorously excluded. In certain places threats were made against the Moors imme- diately after these meetings. Again, one way of starting a riot was by collecting men for a pinkama.
4. At several places false rumours seem to have been deliberately circulated, evidently originating from a band of mischief-makers, and such rumours helped to bring into the mob even those who had no previous animosity against the Moors. Ever officials were, I believe, in a few instances, misled by bogus messages from outside.
5. The total amount of the damage to trade and personal property ought to run into eight figures. I fear that, owing to the present system of estimating it, by employing as assessors many who are prejudiced in favour of the Sinhalese, a fair estimate would be extremely difficult to secure, and thus the object Government has in view, namely, to re-establish the status quo ante throughout the country, would be to an extent defeated, except, of course, in cases where the Commissioner is an official of considerable experience in the country. In my opinion it is essential that at least no Sinhalese should be associated with a Commissioner.
6. I regret to observe that justice is being delayed and denied in many instances just now by the corruption of a section of police officers and minor headmen, to The disturbances themselves whom the disturbances must be a golden harvest. reached the proportions they did because of the sympathy and participation of the headmen in the movement. It is to the interest of the chief headmen now to mini- mize the damage done. As the Moors are still living in fear of an attack, and daily hearing threats of further violence directly the troops are removed, and the Commissioner often learns little of the truth owing to the presence of the Mudaliyar and other headmen, I would beg of Your Excellency to order exemplary punishment on all guilty headmen and on the chief ringleaders in each district.
7. In spite of all that my community has suffered I cannot help feeling deeply for the poor ignorant Sinhalese villager, who, in most cases, has been merely the dupe and catspaw of designing knaves, and been made to believe a number of false- hoods, which have now brought him into conflict with authority, and his family next door to starvation. It has struck me that everywhere low-country boutique keepers, Buddhist schoolmasters, and village headmen have been directing the mob. 8. In the course of my visit I thought it best to advise all sufferers to refrain from filing plaints in the courts, thus leaving the prosecution of rioters and the recovery of damages entirely in the hands of the Government, and merely placing a statement of what actually occurred in the hands of the officials in charge of the district.
9. With regard to mosques, I would ask Your Excellency to order that all such buildings as are badly damaged be rebuilt at the expense of the rioters, and those slightly damaged, say with doors and windows broken, be repaired with the addition of a new cement floor, as a set-off to the pollution of the building, and all the walls replastered to a height of seven feet. Your Excellency may already be aware that the sacred edifices have been polluted in several ways, some of which I can hardly mention. Ordinarily an attack on a mosque is among Mohammedans deemed suffi cient cause for effective retaliation, and my duty should have been to appeal to the Mohammedan world for assistance. In the present trouble, as Your Excellency has taken the whole matter into your hands, and, in spite of the war in Europe, every possible step is being taken for the vindication of the Mohammedan cause here, have advised my community and they are content to leave their grievance with Your Excellency. Justice, however, demands that for the insult hurled at Islam some visible and abiding mark must be put upon Buddhist temples, if for no other reason, at least to preserve the prestige of the British Raj.
10. On the subject of compensation I would urge that it be full, and extended to all sufferers, both those who have sustained loss of property and those who have been injured, including the wives and children of those who have been killed.
11. In appending, for your Excellency's information, copy of a Proclamation of 1818, I feel that my community have, in this generation, paid the penalty for the fidelity of their ancestors a hundred years ago.
12. In view of the inquiry now going on I do not wish to place before Your Excellency any theories of my own as to the underlying meaning and purpose of this strange outbreak of lawlessness. I should be glad to have grounds to convince myself that it was the outcome of only religious, commercial, or racial animosity. and that it was not political in intention. I fear that, however, as we Moors, who
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have been in this Island now for the last eight hundred and fifty-five years, have done nothing to merit such cruel and merciless treatment from our Sinhalese brethren, and I am sorry to add Tamils too, there is, perhaps, more in these riots than would at first sight appear on the surface.
I remain, &c.,
To His Excellency the Governor,
Sir Robert Chalmers, K.C.B.,
Colombo.
PROCLAMATION.
W. M. ABDUL RAHIMAN.
WHEREAS the British Government has on various occasions experienced the fidelity of the Moormen resident in these Provinces; we, taking the same into our serious consideration, and being desirous to mark to them that we duly estimate their attachment, do hereby declare and enact that, from and after the publication of this our Proclamation in the several districts of the Kandyan Provinces, it shall not be lawful for any Kandyan chief to exercise any jurisdiction whatever over the Moormen of this country; and that civil and criminal justice shall in future in all cases where a Moorman is a party be impartially administered to them by British officers only, in manner that shall be hereafter arranged, and that the Mohandirams over the several Madige Departments shall in future receive their appointment direct from the principal accredited Agent of the British Government in Kandy.
And we do hereby further promise that any Moorman who may suffer in his person and property by his adherence to the British Government, shall receive the fullest compensation the nature of the injury will admit of.
We trust that the Moormen will duly appreciate the benefits herein granted and held out to them; and that they will earnestly and zealously aid and assist in putting down the present daring rebellion; and we order them on their allegiance, and at their peril, to refrain from joining the persons now treacherously in arms against His Majesty the King of Great Britain, and to oppose them by all means in their power.
Given at Kandy, in the said Island of Ceylon, this second day of March, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen.
By His Excellency's command.
SIR,
(Confidential.)
Enclosure 2 in No. 29.
GEORGE LUSIGNAN, Secretary, Kandy Province.
Office of the Special Commissioner, Pelmadulla,
30th June, 1915.
WгTH reference to paragraph 3 of your letter, of 28th June, forwarding a copy of the memorandum by the Honourable Mr. J. G. Fraser, C.M.G., I have the honour to report as follows:-
2. I came to Ratnapura on the 15th instant.
3. At the request of the Government Agent (Mr. Thaine) I took charge of the following Korales of the Ratnapura District, viz., Nawadun, Meda, and Atakalan Korales.
4. From the 15th to the 19th June I inspected all the premises, etc., looted, and made an estimate of the total damage done.
5. Only a certain number of the villages in this district took an active part
in the disturbances, and the villages which took such part are clearly defined.
6. In consultation with the Government Agent it was decided that only those wasamas in which villagers reside who are known to have taken part in the looting should be called upon to pay compensation.
7. The total to be recovered as compensation works out at, approximately. Rs 15 per head of the poll-tax payers in such wasamas, and I have taken this as a basis in assessing the compensation to be recovered from each wasama.
8. On the 21st instant I began the visiting of each wasama individually to recover compensation, etc.
D