41
273
40
MR. HAYLEY: We do not object to them having some influence, or even influence to that extent What we look to is the possibility that when you do get. these converging lines and you come to the actual cross roads, where one or the other must give way and give way strongly, then you will have an outcry and explosion very much worse than if the procedure had never been adopted. We do not oppose the native point of view having an influence as a whole on the Government. That is not our policy at all. They must have an influence on legislation, but we think that any general influence that they can bring to bear on the Government should be exercised with care.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, there it is. on both sides. Is there any other point?
MR. HAYLEY: I do not think there is, my Lord.
I admit there is a lot to be said
SIR JAMES THOMSON BROOM: We are unanimous on the points that have been put.
MR. HAYLEY: I have only to thank your Lordship for having received us and listened to us so patiently.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: I am very anxious to get your views on the matter. It is always difficult when one does not know a place and is not familiar with the atmosphere to form a sound judgment. I do the best I can to hear all opinions, and I will go through again this document of yours very carefully before I come to any conclusion on the matter.
MR. HAYLEY: We know how valuable your Lordship's time is, and that your Lordship cannot be continually receiving representations or deputations, but sup- posing any method does occur to us by which that difficulty can be overcome and give them, as your Lordship says, something substantial without giving them the unofficial majority, would your Lordship be willing that we should send in a note of the suggestion?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE: Quite. I think it is like squaring a circle, but still if you can square a circle I certainly shall be very pleased to see how you do it.
MR. HAYLEY: We have not tried that difficult problem yet.
31803
(The Deputation withdrew.)
No. 10.
MR. T. B. L. MOONEMALLE (Kandyan Deputation) to COLONIAL OFFICE. (Received 29th June, 1920.)
SIR,
[Answered by No. 12.]
2, Sinclair Road, Kensington, W. 14, London, 28th June, 1920.
I HAVE the honour to forward herewith a memorandum signed on behalf of the Kandyan deputation by Mr. J. A. Halangode and myself. Mr. G. E. Madawela left London on the day following our interview at the Colonial Office on urgent private business. He has, however, expressed himself as being in agreement with the views stated in the memorandum, and authorized us to forward the same for consideration by his Lordship the Secretary of State.
I am also forwarding, under separate cover, two pamphlets relating to the Kandyan question, embodying a series of letters which appeared in the Ceylon Independent." I do so with the object of throwing more light on the sentiments of the Kandyan people relating to this important subject.
I beg that you will be pleased to place these before his Lordship.
I am, etc.,
T. B. L. MOONEMALLE.
***Kandyan Rights and Present Politics
': not printed.
Enclosure in No. 10.
His Lordship Viscount Milner, G.C.B.,
His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies. YOUR LORDSHIP,
London, 28th June, 1920. WE, the members of the Kandyan deputation, in pursuance of the wish expressed by your Lordship that we should place before you any further facts that may occur to us, beg to submit the following memorandum supplementary of the views discussed before your Lordship on the 22nd instant* :--
(1) Although in point of numbers the Kandyans form the majority in the Kandyan provinces, yet in point of literacy they will not be able to maintain that majority owing to the causes hereinafter enumerated.
(a) During the Kandyan régime a high standard of literacy was maintained by the system of education imparted in the monasteries. The King was the patron of the Temple Schools, and largely contributed towards their maintenance. Every village possessed its school, which was managed and supervised by the incumbent of every Temple. Since the administration of the Kandyan country was taken over by the British, owing to lack of encouragement from the State, these schools ceased to serve the purposes for which they were intended, and consequently disappeared in course of time.
This system was not replaced till a very late stage of the British administration of the Kandyan Provinces, and even so, the system adopted was not of so compre- liensive a character as to, or adequate to, train the masses even on the most elemen- tary lines.
The sons of the chiefs-few in number-received some semblance of education, at great expense, in the Maritime Provinces, but in no case was it sufficiently high to enable them effectually to contend with the forces which opposed the general progress of the community.
(b) The Kandyans, taken as a whole, were an agricultural race, and no facili- ties were afforded them in their respective villages of educating themselves in their own language. Schools were in towns. The Maritime Provinces, on the contrary, were already provided with schools both by Government as well as by the Christian missions.
(c) The economic changes which arose under British rule greatly militated against the acquisition of wealth and rendered it impossible for the Kandyans to seek knowledge outside their homes. Even at the present time the number of schools, and the quality of education imparted in them, are inadequate to help the Kandyans in meeting the crisis they will have to face sooner or later, if indeed they have not reached it at the present time.
Anything less than manhood suffrage would create, in a general electorate in these very provinces, a minority among the Kandyans under the conditions that exist to-day.
(2) (a) Although in theory the old self-governing institutions are maintained, yet in reality they are administered according to modern methods. Consequently they do not now serve the purposes they were originally intended for, and the people have no real voice in their actual working.
(b) The modern self-governing institutions have completely shut out the Kandyan element in the provinces in which Kandyans overwhelmingly preponderate. In Kandy alone, which has a municipality of its own, several villages have lately been included within the municipal limits. The holdings being small, and thus fall- ing short of the required property qualification, the peasant proprietors within the community in those areas are denied the right of voting at the elections, and conse- quently their interests are neither adequately represented nor are they properly safe- guarded. In terms of the Memorial presented to His Excellency the Governor-a copy of which was handed to your Lordship at the interview on the 22nd instant- we expressly desire that one Kandyan member at least be nominated to every Local Board and Municipal Council within the Kandyan Provinces.
A mixed electorate will, we need hardly say in view of the facts already stated, extinguish beyond recall the rights, privileges, customs, and manners which were preserved to us by the Convention.
Our urgent needs are as follows:-
(1) The villager should be afforded every facility for developing agriculture, not so much by the establishment of agricultural schools, though these are needed, as
* No. 7.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882/10
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH--NOT TO