254
PUBLIC
RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
CO. 882/10
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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are severely handicapped by the lack of a mercantile member, a fact which was particularly evident during the War, when the Government availed itself largely of the assistance and advice of the Committee of this Chamber, who on the outbreak of war met almost daily to render assistance in matters of difficulty,
4. It is no exaggeration to state that the prosperity of this Colony must stand or fall by the success of its agriculture and trade. That the large amount of capital invested in the island should be without any direct representation on the Legislative Council is an anomaly and a state of affairs not found in Calcutta. Bombay, Madras, Rangoon. Singapore, Hong Kong, or other large trade centres.
5. Apart from the giving of advice when asked, this Chamber and the interests which it represents have no means of taking an effective part in the guidance and bandling of the Colony's finances.
6. The Chamber of Commerce feels and respectfully but seriously urges that it must be a matter of prejudice to the Colony that it should be a voiceless spectator while questions affecting shipping, the port of Colombo, railways and communica- tions, import and export trade, Customs duties and tariffs, and projects like the Ceylon Waf Loan are being considered by the Legislature.
7. Such a state of affairs has been the subject of comment outside the island, and the business community of Ceylon has been charged with indifference to its own interests and lack of energy in failing to obtain a remedy.
8. The enclosed copies show that the charge is unfounded, and now that the War is over this community desires to make every effort to obtain the recognition which it most earnestly and respectfully urges is due to it.
9. It has been suggested that inasmuch as this Chamber represents mainly the interests of European business men and European capital, a Member of Counc should also be nominated by the Low Country Products Association, which chiefly represents those departments of trade and agriculture in which Ceylonese are interested. Although immediately concerned only with its own request to your Lordship, the Chamber of Commerce would support that suggestion.
10. This Chamber feels confident that no class or community in the island can raise any valid objection to the representation of the interests of trade and finance by nominated experts, and believes that the necessity for such representa- tion is so urgent that, should the general reconstruction of the constitution be in any way delayed, it would seriously beg of your Lordship to make the necessary tem- porary alterations in order to enable the immediate nomination of a member of this Chamber to a seat on the Council.
And your Lordship's memorialists will ever pray, etc.,
The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Colombo, 4th March, 1920.
21774
SIR.
B. W. LEEFE, Chairman.
STEUART O'HAYLEY, Vice-Chairman.
F. A. FRENCH.
W. SMILAND, JNR.
C. A. HUTSON.
M. I. CARY.
M. YEATS.
A. D. SKRINE.
R. S. PINGUETT.
J. J. WALL.
No. 2.
SIR W. H. MANNING to COLONIAL OFFICE. (Received 30th April, 1920.)
37, St. James's Place, S.W.1, 30th April, 1920. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated the 29th instant, with reference to a telegram* received from the Officer Administering the Government of Ceylon in connection with a mass meeting held in Kandy Town Hall, at which the Kandyans are stated to have appointed Dr. Kobbe Kaduwa
* 20945: not printed.
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Tikiri Banda to be joint delegate with Advocate A. F. Molamure already in England to deal with questions regarding political reforms, and denying the authority of Messrs. Moonemalle, Madawela, and Halangoda to represent Kandyan people on questions of reforms.
It would, perhaps, be advisable that I should briefly relate the history of events in regard to the Kandyans and the reform proposals.
Early in the year 1919 I was approached by the influential section of the Kandyan community with reference to the representation of that community in the Legislative Council. They stated that it was their desire that they should be repre sented by Kandyans elected by Kandyans on a franchise of Kandyans only, and that for this purpose certain provinces should be recognized as purely Kandyan pro- vinces for the purposes of such elections.
At a dinner given to me by the Chiefs of the Kandyan-provinces in Kandy, in a speech I stated that I was in sympathy with their desires that the Kandyan provinces should be represented by Kandyans in the Legislative Council, and should be elected on a purely Kandyan register, and I am still of that opinion. The Ceylon Reform Association League, of which the President is Sir Ponnambulam Arunachalam, have, however, different views. Their programme is, as you are aware, that the franchise shall be purely territorial, and not racial, and they have attracted to their banner certain Kandyans whom they profess to represent the feelings of the large mass of the Kandyans; whereas the higher castes of the Kandyans, who are the people of real influence and standing in that community, deny these allegations and describe those who have joined the Reform Associations as renegades from the Kandyan cause.
The object of the Reform Associations is to have a general franchise in the Kandyan provinces whereby the Associations will hope, by means of the vote of those who are not Kandyans, to elect for the Kandyan provinces creatures of their own choice who will support extremist views.
Before leaving Ceylon, Messrs. Moonemalle. Madawela, and Halangoda came to interview me as representatives of the influential Kandyan section and the Kandyan Association.
They reiterated what I have stated above, and told me that it was the feeling of the Kandyans of standing that since the Reform Associations had nominated delegates to proceed to England as representatives of the Kandyan community who were not acknowledged by the influential classes of Kandyans, they considered it desirable that delegates should proceed also from the Kandyan Association to repre- sent its views. I concurred in their proposals, and I am of opinion that it is most desirable that the Secretary of State should hear the views of Messrs. Moonemalle, Madawela, and Halangoda, and that whatever may be decided in regard to the representation of the Kandyan provinces, there should be upon the Legislative Council Kandyan members elected on a Kandyan franchise.
To refer again to the question of racial as opposed to territorial representation on the Council: however much it may be argued that territorial representation is the more desirable of the two proposals, it must not be lost sight of that the pro- posals now before the Secretary of State that the Provinces in Ceylon should return a member to Council are in effect nothing less than racial representation, since it is highly improbable that the Northern Province, for instance, which is almost purely Tamil, would elect a representative other than a Tamil; likewise that the Southern Province, composed of a population almost purely Low-Country Sinha- lese, would elect any other than a Sinhalese representative. I therefore cannot conceive that beyond a desire for the preponderating voice in the election of a Kandyan representative, which the Ceylon Reform Association, whose delegates are proceeding to England, and who for the greater part are Tamils and Sinhalese of no great standing in the country, are now pressing for, any valid objection could be raised by them to the election of a Kandyan for a Kandyan province on a Kandyan franchise.
This point was discussed with me by the Ceylon Reform Association, and though I gave no definite opinions upon their representations, I gathered that it was their desire to press that in addition to a Kandyan elected on a Kandyan franchise for the Kandyan provinces, there should also be a member likewise elected for the Kandyan provinces on a general franchise-probably a creature of their own selection or that for the Kandyan provinces there should be two members elected on a general franchise, one of whom must be a Kandyan, which would enable the Reform Association to ensure the return of a Kandyan, probably also a creature of their own selection.