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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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but we Orientals have always retained the religious sense and it is to that sense the British Constitution most appeals, for we know that right in the heart of that great Constitution lives a Divine Principle which makes for the protection of the weak by the strong. We have been led to your lordship as if by a star, and we ask your lordship to grant us the right to live in peace and contentment in the land which God gave to our fathers, always remembering our loyalty to His Majesty our King and the beneficent protection his Empire affords us.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: That is a very clear and full statement, and we are very much interested in it. There are one or two questions that I should like to ask you for my own information. You spoke about peasant proprietorship. Is the system prevailing in the Kandyan Provinces as a general rule one of peasant proprietorship?
MR. MOONEMALLE: It is.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: I suppose there are some large estates ?
MR. MOONEMALLE: There are, but in our village communities they are all more
or less homogeneous in themselves, and each man in that community will own at least half an acre of high land and an equivalent of low land, paddy land.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: Are the Kandyan villages self-supporting in the matter of food?
MR. MOONEMALLE: Oh, yes. It is the pride of Kandyans never to eat any rice but of their own production.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: What is the population, roughly speaking, of the district which you have enclosed by your line? The total population of Ceylon is about 4,000,000 ?
MB. MOONEMALLE: Yes.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: How many do you think there would be within the line which you say is the boundary of the Kandyan country?
MR. MOONEMALLE: You mean the total population?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes.
MR. MOONEMALLE: I should say about 1,500,000.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: Mostly agricultural ?
MR. MOONEMALLE: Mostly agricultural.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: Of those 1,500,000 how many would be Kandyans? MR. MOONIMALLE: 900,000.
MR. MADAWELA: Between 900,000 and 1,000,000.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: There would be a Kandyan majority in this area? MR. MOONEMALLE: There would be.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: Why are they less educated than the low-country people ! What is the cause of that?
MR. MOONEMALLE: I suppose the first cause would be conservatism. They were the last to come under British administration, and, of course, they would look upon the British with a certain amount of reserve; they would not freely take advantage of all the institutions which are available to them.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: They are in fact backward as compared with the low-country people?
MR. MOONEMALLE: They are.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: As regards knowledge of English, are there many English-speaking people among them?
MR. MOONEMALLE: I should say very few. Of course we have a High school
in Kandy itself where the children are educated, but it is generally the children of the richer classes who go there.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: Your own English is perfect. Did you learn it
in Ceylon or in this country!
MR. MOONEMALLE: Yes; all three belong to the school to which I have referred.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: It is a very good school.
MR. MOONEMALLE: And His Majesty's Government was gracious enough to give us one of the German machine guns in recognition of the services rendered by our boys who went to the front. We sent 73 and lost 13.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: This is a question which is rather material. Being in the majority in this area, I do not quite understand why you are afraid of the principle of territorial representation, because if you are a majority you ought to be able to return Kandyan members.
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MR. MOONEMALLE: Yes, but our people are not accustomed to these free institutions. I suppose the men with the most influence would be the men with the money behind them, and you can buy a vote for 6d. in a country like that, where a man does not know how to exercise his right. He would not understand. That is what really underlies the whole system of voting.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: That would depend, would it not, upon the nature of the franchise?
MR. MOONEMALLE: Yes.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: That would apply chiefly if there was something like manhood franchise ?
MR. MOONEMALLE: Yes.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: If there was a restricted franchise you would not have the same feeling, would you !
MR. MOONEMALLE: No. I would entrust a vote certainly to the educated man, and to the man with a stake in the country who realises what is his position. THE SECRETARY OF STATE: Do you think if there was a high franchise you would be adequately represented!
MR. MOONEMALLE: Yes, but there would be minorities. There would be thousands of people, decent people, who would not have the right to be represented and will be unrepresented, because the village communities would never come in
under that scheme.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: It would be better to be unrepresented than mis- represented.
MR. MOONEMALLE: I should say so, but then, I think, we come back to your proposition of nomination. The Government would certainly protect the minorities and think out what is best for them, and give them the right to a candidate who represents their views.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: I am coming to that in a minute. How do you define "
Kandyan." As I understand the race is the same as that of the rest of the country?
MR. MOONEMALLE: Yes.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: But there is a social historical distinction ? MR. MOONEMALLE: Yes.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: What is the test? Supposing for a moment one was to have a separate Kandyan electorate, who is to decide whether a man is a Kandyan or not? I daresay it would be easy in the case of the educated, but would it be easy in the case of the common people?
MR. MOONEMALLE: I see no difficulty, for this reason, that the Kandyans have their own customary law. I would say that everybody who is bound by that oustomary law is a Kandyan. In the low country they are under the subjection of the Roman Dutch law. There is no difficulty in ascertaining who is a Kandyan, not the slightest, by the law of inheritance or the law of succession. Our social laws are all the same. We are all subject to that, whatever our status may be.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: I suppose the Courts of Law in the country are common to Kandyans and to everybody else?
MR. MOONEMALLE: Yes, but the general Courts administer the Kandyan law
in the case of Kandyan people.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: In questions of personal status !
MR. MOONEMALLE: Yes.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: I suppose the Roman Dutch law would prevail, even where Kandyans are concerned ?
MR. MOONEMALLE: Yes, as regards common law rights, which are quite a different thing; but as regards property, Kandyan law would apply to Kandyans. THE SECRETARY OF STATE: That is your case, that everybody is a Kandyan who recognises the Kandyan customary law?
MR. MOONEMALLE: Yes. Of course it has been rather a difficult thing to define a Kandyan-I admit that--but I had the privilege of sending to His Excellency the Governor a Memorandum stating the current of thought which underlies the question and the progress that had been made until we reached this conception of it. There were several Ordinances and His Excellency would be able to put that Memorandum before you.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: You admit that it is rather puzzling to a person who does not know the country like myself. It is rather an exceptional state of things ?
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