153
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882/10
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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As a matter of fact there has been a movement afoot from time to time to boycott the Burghers.
The movement for unification was a widespread one. The Sinhalese Young Men's Association arranged that the 13th April, 1914, should be celebrated in Colombo as the national day. This year the celebration was not confined to Colombo, but was held in a number of other centres.
get.
The
The national day was, however, the rock on which the coalition split. Roman Catholic section objected to any participation to the selection of a heathen festival, the Hindu New Year, as the national day. The movement, however, went forward, and became essentially a Buddhist movement, dominated by a political With them nobody could be a Nationalist unless he was a Buddhist. A Christian was regarded as a renegade from the Sinhalese nation. In their eyes the island of Ceylon is not regarded as an integral part of the British Empire, but rather as the country of the Sinhalese. The central idea is that the British are only here on sufferance, as were the Portuguese and the Dutch, and that to-morrow they may be succeeded by the Germans or the Japanese.
There has been a revival of Buddhism. The Buddhists have realized the importance of establishing an influence over the young, and have adopted a policy of establishing schools wherever they can. In March last an amalgamation was effected between three Buddhist societies which had previously been at variance, namely, the Mahabodhi Society, the Theosophical Society, and the Educational Society, Limited, the main object being the education of Buddhists with a view to obtaining the franchise and securing the electorate.
The movement, in its later development, was nominally a religious movement; virtually it was a political movement dominated by a small set who were prepared to make use of Buddhism to attain its ends. The Buddhist Samagamas and tem- perance societies, with their numerous ramifications, supplied the framework for the publication of their propaganda. The president, at the general meeting this year of the Colombo Total Abstinence Central Union, foreshadowed that the Union would ultimately become the National Convention.
Use, too, was made of the vernacular Press, the native theatres, and street preaching The doctrines preached were unity of the Buddhists, Ceylon for the Sinhalese Buddhists, and the inculcation of the “Jati alaya," or "love of nation."
The ultimate aim and object, the chance of success, the ways and means for the attainment of success, were, no doubt, never clearly defined. The promoters were carried away with the idea of freedom and nationalism.
The chief organ in the Press campaign was the Sinhala Bauddhaya, which pub- lished the outpourings of the Anagarika Dharmapala, directed against constituted authority, the white man, and every foreigner. These articles are of an extremely seditious nature. The Anagarika Dharmapala even advocated the construction in each house of a dummy white man, which the children should be taught to strike, so as to acquire in their early years a contempt for the European.
Full advantage was taken of the dislike to the coast Moor, and a trade boycott was sedulously advocated. In the ordinary' course of events the coast Moor is unpopular in the villages. He is thrifty and prosperous. He is a moneylender and a land-grabber. His behaviour to the Sinhalese womenfolk is coarse. His religion is an exclusive one.
The ignorance of the villager and his natural antipathy provided good soil for sowing the seeds of discontent and animosity. Other factors which contributed towards the culminating crisis were the love of notoriety, the penchant for public meetings, and the delight in making and listening to speeches.
A climax was reached when the decision of the Supreme Court in appeal, in the Gampola perahera case, was given. Capital was made out of it. A direct appeal was made to the religious sentiments, personal antipathy, and ignorance of the mass of the Buddhists. The decision was interpreted to the ordinary man as meaning that no Buddhist procession could be held in the future, and the question was asked : "What is life worth when our religion is gone?'
"
I have had before me indirect evidence that meetings were held at the Asgiriya Temple at which a determination was reached to do something to arouse the atten- tion of the Government. There is evidence that the carol party for the Kandy Wesak was trained in Colombo. There can be little doubt that the disturbance in Kandy was due to a prearranged scheme. It may be that it was never intended that it should spread, but, having started, it passed beyond control. The trains had
been laid, they ignited spontaneously, and the mines were exploded. The result was a series of outbreaks.
Once started the mischief was augmented by the spreading of false rumours, by the joining in of the criminal classes, by the love of excitement and the chance of loot. The general outbreak passed completely beyond the control of the so-called leaders.
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The circumstances revealed present a serious political aspect. After a hundred years of British rule there exists a strong and growing spirit of discontent. There is in existence a spirit which has been described as a valid spirit of nationalism.” Its ultimate aim and object is undoubtedly to get rid of British control. The Sinba- lese flag is printed on the magazines, and replicas of it distributed at the Wesak festival. Men are exhorted to become martyrs for the cause. A leader such as Parnell is sought for, and a doctrine of no conciliation is preached.
The extracts which are appended are of interest, in that they express some of the ideas which have been made public in the Nationalist Press. The movement is one which requires very careful watching.
The Municipal Office,
Colombo, 26th August, 1915.
Return for the Colombo Division.
R. W. BYRDE, Special Commissioner.
1. Number of houses looted only
2. Number of houses wrecked and looted...
487 979
3. Number of persons killed
4. Number of persons wounded and sent to hospital
14 314
5. Number of houses burnt...
30
6. Number of persons arrested
1,944 13
7. Number of rioters shot
The Municipal Office,
Colombo, 26th August, 1915.
Search Light, July, 1914.
Lanka, are thou fallen?
"stood against the world."
Two hundred years ago Lanka
R. W. BYRDE,
Special Commissioner.
Hundred years ago her sons entrusted her to the fostering care of England, and to-day
"She lies none so poor to do her reverence.'
11
The natives have indeed to be thankful for surrendering their lands to those who have "usurped them and dispossessed the swain." They have to be thankful for stopping their paddy cultivation and depending on India and Burmah for rice to feed themselves upon. They have to be thankful for surrendering their ancestral lands and working in large tea estates belonging to a Mackwood & Company or a George Stewart & Company as coolies for a bare pittance to keep their body and soul together; and last, but not least, how greatly honoured must the whole Sinhalese nation be for the British Government creating two of the Kandyan chiefs one a policeman and the other a Crown counsel.
Alas! the hollow mockery of it all. You are called upon to rejoice over your fall, my countrymen. If in your veins the blood of the lion race does not run, if you are so wanting in patriotism and national self-respect, if the glorious past of our beloved Lanka does not appeal to you, if the grand historical plays that are being staged now do not rekindle in you the dying embers of patriotism, then by all means join the movement and be sycophants of Government and drag into the mire the fair name and fame of ancient Lanka.
"Lanka had a glorious past," say all. But is this the way we should maintain our greatness! Young men of Lanka, rise up and show what you can do. and make history.
The past is calling you, my brethren; instead of making preparations to witness an Ehalapola tragedy that day
the day beloved