299
2. I should be glad if you would be so good as to take the necessary steps to bring the facts to the notice of the Privy Council.
I have, &c.,
ROBERT CHALMERS,
Governor, &c.
Enclosure in No. 68.
158
47709
SIR,
No. 66.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR. (Confidential.)
Downing Street, 9th November, 1915. WITH reference to your Confidential despatch of the 17th September, I have the honour to transmit to you a copy of a lettert from the Native Races and the Liquor Traffic United Committee, with regard to the arrest of certain temperance leaders in Ceylon in connexion with the riots.
2. Unless you see any objection, I consider that it would be desirable that you should issue a statement such as is suggested in the enclosed letter from Mr. Noble.
47709
No. 67.
I have, &c.,
A. BONAR LAW.
COLONIAL OFFICE to THE NATIVE RACES AND THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC UNITED COMMITTEE.
Downing Street, 9th November, 1915.
SIR,
I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Bonar Law to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 15th October, with regard to the arrest of certain temperance leaders in Ceylon in connexion with the riots, and to inform you that a copy has been forwarded to the Governor for such action as he may think desirable.
2. I am to take this opportunity to inform you that the Governor has recently reported that there are no grounds for the suggestion that these gentlemen have been arrested because of their close connexion with the opposition to the excise policy of the Government. It appears, however, that the so-called temperance societies in Ceylon have been largely used for the propagation of other than tem- perance ideals, and it is therefore not surprising that many of the persons who have been proved or suspected to be instigators of the riots should be persons who are known to the Committee only as members of temperance societies.
62190
SIR,
No. 68.
I am, &c.,
H. J. READ,
for the Under-Secretary of State.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 11th November, 1915.)
(Confidential (C).)
The Queen's House, Colombo, Ceylon, 20th October, 1915. WITH reference to my Confidential despatch of the 22nd July last,§ relative to an application for leave to appeal to the Privy Council in the case of Edmund Hewawitarne, I have the honour to forward herewith a copy of a Confidential letter, dated the 16th instant, received from the Attorney-General, together with the documents referred to in paragraph 3 and the statement of the case referred to in paragraph 4.
* 46588, not printed.
↑ No. 69.
‡ No. 59.
87092, not printed.
SIR,
(Confidential.)
Attorney-General's Chambers, Colombo, 16th October, 1915.
Re Edmund Hewawitarne.
I HAVE received information from the Censor that, by letter, dated 14th October, from Mr. Gerard Cooray, prootor for the above-named convict, to Mr. Osbert A. Cayley, solicitor, 30, Bedford Row, London, W.C., instructions have been given to the latter to apply to the Privy Council for special leave to appeal against an order of Mr. Justice Ennis, made 8th September, but drawn up on 9th September, 1915, refusing an application, under Section 49 of the Courts Ordinance, 1889, for a mandate in the nature of a writ of habeas corpus, to bring up the convict before the Court on the ground that his detention, in pursuance of his conviction by court martial, was illegal.
2. The application to the Privy Council, in pursuance of these instructions, will be made ex parte. I think, nevertheless, that the Secretary of State should be advised of the intended action, so that steps may be taken to bring to the notice of the Privy Council (by the appearance of an amicus curia or otherwise) a fact, which is not mentioned in the instructions conveyed to Mr. Cayley, viz., that the sentence on Edmund Hewawitarne, under which he is now detained, was one of the sentences of the military courts which were confirmed by "The Ceylon Indemnity Order in Council, 1915," Section 4.
3. Copies of the following documents have been bespoken, and will be for- warded as soon as they are obtained
The judgment of Mr. Justice Ennis above referred to.
The judgment of the Supreme Court, dated the 15th July, 1915, dis- allowing an application for a writ of prohibition in the course of the trial, on the ground that the Court had no jurisdiction to grant a writ of prohibition against a court martial.
(c) The proceedings in the court martial itself.
4. I will, in the meantime, prepare a short statement of the material facts in
the history of the case, as this may prove necessary in the event of the Privy Council desiring to be informed on the subject.
5. The matter should, I think, go through the Secretary of State, and not direct to the Crown Agents, as this Government has acted throughout in the matter with the knowledge and advice of the Secretary of State.
6. As the instructions to Mr. Cayley will leave by the next mail the matter should be treated as urgent.
The Honourable the Colonial Secretary.
I am, &c.,
ANTON BERTRAM,
Attorney-General.
MEMORANDUM ON THE APPLICATION TO BE MADE TO THE PRIVY COUNCIL FOR Special LEAVE TO APPEAL IN THE Case of EDMUND HEWAWITARNE,
1. EDMUND HEWAWITARNE was tried by court martial, by direction of the Governor, under the Order of the Queen in Council of 26th October, 1896. This Order in Council applied to certain Colonies (including Ceylon) in which the Crown retains the power of legislating in this form.
The
2. The charges on which he was tried were treason and shopbreaking. treason charged was constructive treason, i.e., levying war against the King, not directly, but indirectly, against a section of the King's subjects, as in the case of Lord George Gordon in 1781. The incident in respect of which he was charged was part of a general movement in which the Sinhalese population of the greater part of the island rose and attacked the Mohammedan community, looting, destroy- ing, or burning between 4,000 and 5,000 shops and houses and destroying or damaging over a hundred mosques. The substance of the charges against Edmund Hewawitarne was that he incited the mob to attack and loot one of the principal shops in the city of Colombo.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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