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5 I am therefore of opinion that no good purpose would be served by the appointment of an Indian to the Council, and I recommend that the memorialists should be informed that you are unable to meet their wishes.
I have, &c.,
JOHN ANDERSON,
Governor, &c.
Enclosure in No. 10.
To the Right Honourable
Mr. Walter Long, P.C.,
His Majesty's Principal
Secretary of State for the Colonies,
Downing Street, London, W.
THE HUMBLE Memorial of the Indian ASSOCIATION in Ceylon,
MOST RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH,
Your memorialists represent nearly seven lakhs of Indians in Ceylon who possess immense labour, agricultural, mercantile, and other interests in the island, interests, they beg leave to state, as large and important as those of any other section of the island's population, whether permanent or domiciled. In the proposed scheme of reform of the Legislature of this Colony, submitted for the consideration of His Majesty's Government by various public bodies in this country, your memorialists find, to their great surprise and dismay, that they have been completely ignored; and they come before you in the earnest hope that it will please you graciously to consider their position, both by itself and in relation to local communities, in recommending any scheme of representation designed to embrace every large, important, and influential interest in this land.
2. Memorialists feel that no reconstitution of the Legislative Council will be effective until and unless the panel includes, at least, two Indian Members, one of whom should represent labour and the other the trading, mercantile, and banking interests of the community. Their reasons for this belief are shortly set forth hereunder, and memorialists beg leave to ask your sympathetic consideration of them.
3. By far the larger percentage of labour in this island, on estates, in the railways, in factories, workshops, and warehouses, on the roads, at the wharves, and in almost every other department of activity, is Indian; and any restriction in the supply is not only bound to set back the hand of progress, but also to induce at no distant date a widespread paralysis in every direction of industrial and commercial effort in this Colony. But such a restriction is almost inevitable, and, indeed, is being already enforced through the influence of organizations and individuals dissatisfied with the conditions under which labour is now recruited and compelled to work in this Colony. The appointment of a member to represent its interests. voice its grievances, and secure its satisfactory treatment, will at once remove the opposition to its flow into this country and ensure an ample supply for the development of trade, industry, and the general material progress of the land.
4. There are vast stretches of uninhabited land in the interior of this Colony -particularly the Wanni-which, in the ordinary course, must remain unoccu- pied by reason of the impossibility of persuading the indigenous peasant cultivatore in the fertile districts of the south to leave their prosperous holdings and settle upon the unopened tracts. The appointment of a Labour Member would auto- matically lead to the colonization of the Wanni and other barren districts of the island, which are now little more than malarious swamps unfit for human habita- tion. The surplus population of South Indian districts, memorialists feel sure, might be induced to recover worth from these wastes if a Labour Member could be found to formulate a scheme of land tenure and conserve the interests of the pioneers.
5. In the frequent conflicts between the interests of labour and capital a Labour Member would naturally be a mediator acceptable to both parties, for he might be depended upon to influence those whom he represents to a proper fulfil- ment of their obligations while he dutifully protected their rights. He would be an arbiter whose awards would be recognized by both workers and proprietors as based upon a sympathetic and considered estimate of their respective positions.
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All causes of friction between planters and coolies would thus be eliminated, and a new day of mutual trust and understanding would dawn for both communities.
ments.
6. Coming now to the question of mercantile representation, memorialists humbly beg leave to submit that almost the entire trade in the staple articles of diet is in the hands of Indians; that not only for food and drink, but also for wearing apparel, building materials, manures, and the like, and the usual con- veniences and comforts of life, this island is largely dependent on India, and even before the War drew from its neighbour the most substantial part of its require- As landholders on an extensive scale, and as shipowners, the Indians have a stake in the progress of the country which few communities can claim, and as bankers and financiers they have the casting vote in every sphere of local trade and industry. Memorialists would here ask leave to point out that almost the whole of the business with the Maldives, even to the point of the-mail service, is under Indian control, and that the new businesses shortly to be established in Ceylon, in the commercial and banking lines, will yet more swell the debt under which this Colony lies to India.
7. Your memorialists venture to submit that importers to this country of practically all the necessaries of life and the common not only are Indians the commodities of commerce, including manures, but that they are, also, the retailers and distributors of them throughout every part of the island, and their enterprise has in a great way contributed to the opening up of districts which, until the time of their arrival in this Colony, were mostly virgin forest, the undisturbed haunts of wild beasts. The settlement of Indians in large numbers in the important areas of Ceylon has principally contributed to the expansion of the coasting trade and the interdistrict trade. Your memorialists submit that interests so vast and so important as those which they reflect imperatively call for some measure of repre- sentation in the Legislative Council. the food and manure business, for example, and the revenue to this country from The enormous outlay of Indian capital in the duties levied on the imports from the neighbouring land, justify the demand. There is, also, the interest of the nearly three lakhs of the labouring population, whose presence in this Colony contributes to its prosperity, requiring to be pro- tected and freed from the hardships which now hamper and harass it. memorialists need not enlarge upon this latter aspect of their case, as the example The of Fiji, where a representative has been assigned to the Indian immigrant com- munity, is a precedent supporting their claim for a similar concession in this island.
8. Memorialists respectfully submit that, in none of the local self-governing bodies, save in the Municipal Council of Colombo, is there an Indian representa- tive, and even this single Indian, who has been nominated by His Excellency the Governor of Ceylon as a member of the metropolitan Council, is only by accident, and not by any formal admission, a representative of the Indian interests. Yet memorialists hold practically the whole of the trade of Ceylon in the hollow of their hands, and their position in other departments of life-in education, in the professions, and in the public service entitle them to equal rights and privileges as other communities.
10.
9. Memorialists seek this boon upon the ground more particularly of their being permanently resident in the Colony, with interests as widespread and vital and abiding as those which any other section of the population may claim, and they pray that it may please you graciously to recommend to His Majesty's Government the desirability and urgent necessity of appointing two Members from among them to represent the mercantile and labouring sections of the population, for whom there is now no representation in the Legislative Council, and whose claims to representation have been unfortunately disregarded by those who framed the new proposals of reform.
Memorialists humbly venture to state that, if the principle of representa- tion finally adopted be territorial. there would be no representation for them any more than there could be for the Burghers or the Mohammedans, or even for the Tamils. If the scheme of representation were proportional it would be impossible to ignore the presence of nearly seven hundred thousand Indians in the island, comprising nearly one-sixth of the total population. What is wanted is an electoral system by which it would be possible to guide the authorities in the selection of a suitable adviser. It may be said in this connexion that the Tamils of Ceylon cannot represent the Indian community because the problems of the latter are widely different from those of the indigenous section. But it is useful to record
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
CO. 882/10
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON:
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO.