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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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established in order to secure such reforms as will give the people an effective share in the administration and government of the island. The names of the gentlemen who form the committee of the League appear in annexure A hereto.
2. The defects in the administration of the island which the League seeks to have remedied, and the measures suggested to this end, are outlined in an address delivered by the President, Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam, before the Ceylon National Association, which the League commends to your favourable consideration. Six copies of the address* are herewith forwarded.
3. The Royal Commissioners, on whose recommendation our political and judicial system was reorganized in 1833, said: "The peculiar circumstances of Ceylon, both physical and moral, seem to point it out to the British Government as the fittest spot in our Eastern dominions in which to plant the germ of European civilization, whence we may not unreasonably hope that it will hereafter spread over the whole of those vast territories."†
4. The League deeply regrets that this hope has not been realized, though over three-quarters of a century have elapsed. India, to whom Ceylon was to be the model, and even Java (under the Netherlands Government), have outstripped her in political advancement. The Philippine Islands, taken from Spain by the United States of America in 1908, have in less than two decades been by the United States Government fitted for, and granted, complete autonomy. But no serious and sustained attempt has been made here to foster the growth of political life and to fit Ceylon to be a self-reliant, self-respecting unit of the British Empire. 5. The Legislative Council has, in respect of popular representation, power, and responsibility, undergone little improvement since its institution in 1833. The only changes have been the concession of two elected members, and the addition of four nominated members to represent the permanent population, who (including 27,000 burghers) number over four millions, and the substitution of two elected for three nominated representatives of European British subjects, a small community of 7,500 already indirectly represented by ten officials exclusive of the Governor. These changes have made no appreciable difference in the representation of the Ceylonese population or in the powers of the unofficial members. They can exercise little or no control over the administration, owing to the existence of a permanent official majority in the Legislative Council and to the unofficials being wholly unrepresented in the Executive Council. Fourteen years ago the Governor, Sir West Ridgeway, strongly pressed on your predecessor, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, the appointment of two unofficials to the Executive Council. That recommenda- tion remains unfulfilled. But a wholly unnecessary addition of two officials has been made, increasing their strength to eight. In India there are Indian members in every Executive Council and in the Council of the Secretary of State, and every Legislative Council, except the Viceroy's, has an unofficial majority. For want of similar opportunities no Ceylonese has a voice in the inception or shaping of measures in the Executive Council, nor can opposition avail against the official majority in the Legislative Council. The unfortunate events of 1915 have shown how little British officials in Ceylon are in touch with the people, and how urgent is the need for safeguards against disastrous official blunders.
6. Municipalities and local boards, first established in 1865 and 1876. have made no progress, and are practically Government departments. The small begin- nings of rural self-government in 1871. when the ancient system of village councils was revived in order to restore to the people the administration of village affairs, have come to naught. In the towns, as in the villages, local self-government has The been arrested and strangled in its growth by paralysing official control. League attaches the highest importance to the full development of local self- government. Aa de Tocqueville has well said: "Local assemblies of citizens con- stitute the strength of free nations. Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science. They bring it within the people's reach, they teach inen how to use and enjoy it. A nation may establish a system of free government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions (institutions communales) it cannot have the spirit of liberty." Is this not the great lesson taught to the world by the history and the example of Great Britain?
7. The claims of the Ceylonese to high appointments in the public service have been most inadequately recognized, leaving a galling sense of disappointment
• Not printed.
↑ Report of Royal Commissioners, 81st January, 1888, page 274 of Ramana-
than's Law Reports, 1820-1888.
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and humiliation. The League will not take up your time with detailed facts, figures, and suggestions, but would refer you under this head, as under the heads touched on in the two previous paragraphs, to Sir P. Arunachalam's address.
8. The League desires to invite your special attention to the vital question of education. In all civilized countries this is regarded as the root of national life and progress, but in Ceylon in the eye of Government it occupies a subordinate place and receives scanty attention. The responsibility of Government for the public education has been largely shifted to private bodies and individuals, "too often ill-equipped for the discharge of their important duties, whose diversity of aim and practice, moreover, introduces an atmosphere of competition by no means favourable to the interests of education. The expenditure on education is scarcely five per cent. of the public revenue, against thirty-two per cent. spent in the Philip- pines by the United States Government. This niggardliness is responsible for the unsatisfactory state of education in the island. Elementary education advances but slowly and languidly. Higher education is non-existent. A few secondary schools, miscalled colleges, represent the acme of educational effort; and in them instruction in science and manual arts is generally crude and feeble and vocational training wholly absent. Manufactures and industries, latent wealth for the country and an Imperial asset, remain undeveloped. Neglected and wasted. too, is that industrial and artistic skill which is conspicuous in the few arts and crafts that have survived, and which, in the centuries that preceded the advent of the British, extorted the admiration of European nations by the production of "the best and handsomest artillery in the world" and "the finest firelocks."* The lack of a university, deplored but not remedied by successive Governors, stunts the education of the youth of the country and impedes the growth of culture. Who can estimate the loss we have suffered for lack of such a fountain of intellectual and moral life!
9. The League is strongly of opinion that the measures indicated below are immediately necessary for the remedying of the evils under which the people of Ceylon labour :-
(1) The principle of local representation on an elective basis should be introduced into the Legislative Council, with adequate representation of all parts of the island and of all interests therein, with safeguards for the rights of minorities, with an elected majority in the Council, and a president elected by and from the Council.
(2) Two Ceylonese unofficials should have seats in the Executive Council, and the number of official members should be reduced to three, including the presiding Governor.
(3) Municipalities and local boards should have elected majorities and elected chairmen and be established in all towns, and have representa- tives in the Legislative Council.
(4) District and village councils on an elective basis should deal with rural administration throughout the island, and have representatives in the Legislative Council.
(5) All appointments below that of the Governor should be open to the Ceylonese. The Chief Justice and the Attorney-General should, as a rule, be selected from the leaders of the Ceylon Bar. In the Civil Service the judicial branch should be recruited from the members of the legal profession by a Board including the Judges of the Supreme Court. Greatly increased facilities should be given for the admission and advancement of the Ceylonese in the administrative branch of the Civil Service and in other departments. In the scientific departments every facility of training (if necessary, abroad) should be given to Ceylonese to qualify for the highest appointments.
(6) Education should be recognized as the primary and direct duty of the State. At least twenty-five per cent. of the revenue should be allotted to it for the full development of education on modern lines-education, primary and secondary, vernacular and English, scientific, industrial, and professional--and the immediate establishment of a well-equipped university.
(7) Cevlon should be represented by a Ceylonese in the Imperial Council
when it is formed.
* De Couto (1597), V. i. 5; also Faria Y, Soura (1866) II. v. 19; Pyrard de Lava! (1679); Lunschoten (1805).
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