339
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882/10
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
18
venture to hope that the reform which Your Excellency will recommend will be of such a character as not to allow this Island to lag behind India in regard to the reforma already granted to the neighbouring Continent.
Wherefore the Tamil Mahajana Sabhai humbly prays that Your Excellency, taking into consideration all the facts and circumstances stated above, will be graciously pleased to restore Tamil representation in the Legislative Council to the proportion which had existed between Tamil and Singhalese representation till the old Council was dissolved in March, 1921, by granting reserved Seats to the Tamils in the city of Colombo and in the Central Province, and by so increasing the number of seats allotted to the Northern and Eastern Provinces as to secure to the Tamil community a number of Seats in the Legislative Council equal to two-thirds of the number of Seats which may likely accrue to the Singhalese community. The Memorialists further pray that Your Excellency will be graciously pleased to recom- mend such other constitutional reforms as are in keeping with progress in other countries, especially India.
Jaffna,
13th November, 1921.
14986
(No. 94.) SIR,
AND THE MEMORIALISTS, AS IN DUTY BOUND, SHALL EVER PRAY.
No. 4.
L. P. SPENCER,
S. R. RASARETVAM. Secretaries Tamil Mahajana Sabbai
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Received 29th March, 1922.)
[Answered by No. 5.]
Ceylon, 8th March, 1922. I HAVE the honour to enclose a Memorial in connexion with Political Reform in Ceylon forwarded to me with a request that it may be placed before you.
2. I should remark that since this Memorial was drawn up I have been informed that the question of the representation of the Mohammedan Community in the Legislative Council has been the subject of discussion in connexion with certain proposals for the general representation of minority communities in the Council, and that some agreement has been reached-and I understand it is proposed later on to ask me to forward a memorial to you embodying these proposals. I would suggest, therefore, that in acknowledging the receipt of this Memorial it may be only neces sary to state that these Resolutions will receive attention when the general question of representation in the Council is being dealt with.
SIR,
I have, &c.,
W. H. MANNING, '
Governor, &c.
Enclosure in No. 4.
No. 2, Silversmith Street, Colombo, 9th February, 1922.
Ar a Meeting of a large number of representative Moslems, held at Galle on the 28th day of January, 1922, under the auspices of the "Y.M.L.A.," Galle, with me as President, the following Resolutions were passed unanimously:-
RESOLUTION I.
"That the views of the National Congress cannot decide questions relating to Moslems because the Moslems as a body have always refused to participate in their Meetings. The Moslems therefore claim to retain their rights to return their own members."
17
RESOLUTION II.
"The Moslems should be assured that they will always have their right of returning their member on a Communal basis, and that if the right of plural voting is given to them with the object of inducing them to give up their rights of returning their member on the Communal basis after some time they will rather not have the rights of plural voting."
RESOLUTION III.
"That the Moslems should be granted two-thirds of the number of members allotted to the Tamils of Ceylon. The number in any case not being less than four.”
I have been deputed by this Meeting to forward these Resolutions to His Excellency for transmission to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies. I have the honour therefore to request you to be good enough to submit this letter to His Excellency.
I have, &c.,
A. C. M. A. CADER,
Proctor, &c.
P.S.-I take this opportunity to send a copy of a letter written by me, and which appeared in the Times of Ceylon dated the 9th February, 1922, showing the exact views of the majority of the Moslems of the Island, for the perusal of His Excellency and The Right Honourable the Secretary of State. To The Private Secretary
To His Excellency Sir William Henry Manning, G.C.M.G., K.B.E., C.B., Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Island of Ceylon
and the Dependencies thereof.
Extract from "Times of Ceylon" (9th February, 1922).
THE HON, MR. CADER, THE MOSLEMS AND Reform.
SIR-With reference to the report of the proceedings of a Meeting held by the Moslems at the Tower Hall, it seems to me that the time has come now for straight speaking, because when the issues are put clearly it will be seen that there is really no difference of opinion amongst the majority of the Moslems in the Island. To begin with, the Honourable Mr. N. H. M. Abdul Cader says as follows: "I am told a few people through malice and vindictiveness and without knowing misrepresented matters to the public-that special representation is only for a time, and that therefore we ought not to accept the privileges of going into the general electorate, and that we must be content with special representation only. All that I can say is, it is not so. We will never lose our special representation by accepting inclusion in the General Electorate." That's the point. I do not know whether the Hon. Mr. Abdul Cader followed the proceedings in the Legislative Council. he did not, I would invite him to read Hansard.
If
The Honourable Mr. James Peiris, the mover of the motion, distinctly stated that the communal representation of the minorities was only to be a temporary measure, and that was the reason why he gave the minorities the concession of participating in the General Electorate. If this is not going to be a temporary measure, there is no reason why the Hon. Mr. James Peiris should allow the minorities, in the words of the Honourable Dr. H. M. Fernando, "to have a finger in the pie of the Singhalese people." The Honourable Mr. Abdul Cader will
remember the words of the Honourable Dr. H. M. Fernando, when he said that if the minorities were to be given special representation "they should be segregated and should not be allowed to have a voice in other people's affairs."
Again I ask the Hon. Mr. Abdul Cader whether he was listening to the Hon. Mr. E. W. Perera's speech when he said that it was repugnant to the principles of National Congress that any special representation of communities should be allowed; but that as the Hon. Mr. Peiris assured the House that this special representation of the minorities was only a temporary measure, he had no objection to agreeing to it for the present.
Again, has the Hon. Mr. Cader studied the Hon. Mr. James Peiris' scheme? In that scheme does not the Hon. Mr James Peiris want a majority to be returned on the territorial basis! And was not that the reason why he at the last moment
C
18