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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
C.O. 882/10
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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their views should prevail. He does not appear to have realized the fact that Ceylon does not contain a homogeneous population as in Englaud, and that in one and the same province in Ceylon many communities, vastly different from each other in race, religion and social structure, live together, and cannot justly be shoved into a general electorate. He did not see the significance of communal representation in Ceylon, though, even in the House of Commons itself, there are representations of general and special interests, such as counties, cities, boroughs and universities, which admit of being classified under the heads territorial and communal. made it known here that the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies had informed him that proposals for a reform of the constitution of the Legislative Council should come from the Council itself, and that such recommendations should be embodied in a resolution. His own advice was that, "even if the Council turns them down, the fact that an elected non-communal majority supports them should be sufficient," that is, for him to carry the proposal through in Parliament.
He
The Ceylon National Congress unthinkingly followed his guidance, and incisively distinguished between members territorially elected and members com- munally élected, as if election was the function of land areas and not of living men. At its first and second sessions, the Singhalese and Tamils sent the greatest number of delegates to it, and were able to carry the resolution that the electorates should be mostly territorial, and that communities numerically smaller should in due time be put into the general electorate. When it came to the working out of this principle of territorial representation in detail, the Tamil delegates discovered that their Singhalese colleagues, with certain exceptions, were striving to create elec- rorates numerous enough in the Singhalese districts to efface any opposition that may be offered on behalf of other interests. Consequently, the Tamil delegates and all the Tamil associations which had been affiliated to the Congress retired from it, and refused their co-operation.
Thenceforth the Congress ceased to represent the joint views of the Singhalese and Tamils, and at its last session represented only the views of the Singhalese, and even of them the views of those Singhalese only who had consented to be nolitically organized. The Kandyan Singhalese, represented by such men as the Honourable Mr. Meedeniya, and an influential section of the Low Country Singhalese, at the head of which stand Sir Christopher Obeyesekere and Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranayake, stood aloof even as the Tamils, Mohammedans and Indians did.. In these circum- stances, the continued use of the words "Cevlon National Congress" by a section of the Singhalese to denote themselves is wholly unjustifiable and misleading. Sir P. Arunachalam, who was mainly responsible for the organization of the new Reform movement since 1916, and was the President of the Ceylon National Congress from its inception in 1919 until the latter part of 1920, and was a member of its Executive Committee in 1921, has withdrawn from the Congress. In an interview granted to the Times of Ceylon on the 14th of December last (four days after the divisions in Council), he said :-"The National Congress has now been reduced to one repre- senting merely a section of the Singhalese, and the feeling of mutual confidence and co-operation between the various communities has been destroyed, and the power and prestige of the Congress wrecked."
What remains now of the Ceylon National Congress is the Singhalese section of it, and neither this section, nor the Singhalese Members of the Legislative Council who voted together on the 10th of December last, have any claim to speak for any- body but themselves. There are five other communities standing apart who have the right to speak respectively for the Europeans, Burghers. Tamils, Mohammedans and Indians, and they all earnestly desire to co-operate with each other.
We, the undersigned members of the Legislative Council, finding it would be dangerous to the welfare of the Island to accept the demands of the Singhalese members, sought an interview with His Excellency the Governor in November last, to discuss with him the impasse condition of affairs that had arisen. He explained to us his views, and what he proposed to do in the circumstances, as follows :—
"It is proposed that the Council shall consist of 50 members, and that the 50 seats shall be divided up amongst the various communities. But that is not the correct principle that should be adopted. What we should aim at is to see that each community shall be so represented in the Legislative Council that it shall be able to make its voice heard. The various communities must themselves decide what that adequate representation shall be. What we want is that all the com- munities shall say, 'we have carefully thought out what would be adequate repre- sentation for our community, and we place before Government our views.' I have
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not got that yet. Each community will naturally look at the demands of the other communities and see that they are not getting more than they should. It is there that the difficulty will come in, and then will be the time for us to see how we stand. To-day (4th November) I do not know definitely what the proposals are as regards each community.
"In talking over this matter with Sir Ramanathan, I told him—If you can put up a scheme to which you all, without exception, agree, and you say that the scheme is one which the present members of the Legislative Council have authorized you to put before me as a scheme which has been accepted by all. I must forward it to the Secretary of State and say it is the unanimous opinion of the Members of the Legislative Council that the further reforms in regard to the Council should proceed on these lines. I may criticize them, but in these circumstances I must accept them.
"I have always said that, if you do not agree with the views of the Congress, you must take steps to bring your own views to the notice of the Secretary of State." Acting upon this advice of His Excellency the Governor, we have done our best to adjust differences with our Singhalese colleagues in Council, but they have not recognized the impropriety of allowing any two communities to have a majority in Council by the strength of their own members.
Mr. James Peiris was willing to modify his original proposal, by reducing 50 members to 45, but he insisted on having 28 territorial seats, 11 non-territorial or communal seats, and only six seats for officials. The territorial seats proposed by him include 3 seats for Colombo town, 1 for Galle town, 1 for Kandy town. 1 for Jaffna town, and 1 for Batticaloa town, making in all 7 seats for towns and 21 seats for districts.
There is no necessity for town representation in the Legislature. For there are in the present Council as many as 10 Colombo residents; in Jaffna town lives the member for the Northern Province; in Batticaloa town the member for the Eastern Province, who lives also in Colombo; in the town of Kandy the member for the Central Province; and as to the town of Galle, its interests are well guarded by the member for the Southern Province, who lives in Matara, which is in direct communication with Galle by rail.
The desire of Mr. Peiris' party for the representation of towns (though they are the seats of Government Agents and Municipalities or Local Boards), and of every district in each Province, rests on their full expectation that Singhalese candidates only will be returned. Out of the 28 territorial seats proposed by Mr. Peiris it was expected that 19 would be occupied by Singhalese gentlemen, and 9 by Tamils. In addition to the 19 Singhalese territorial seats, Mr. Peiris' scheme pro- vided for 2 Singhalese Kandyan members to be elected or nominated on a communal basis. making in all 21 Singhalese members who, with 9 Tamil members, would completely dominate over all the other communities and the Government, if these two sets of members join their forces together. In view of these dangers we were unable to accept Mr. Peiris' scheme.
After it was resolved in Council "that a scheme for the allocation and dis- tribution of seats in the territorial electorate should be made on the recommenda- tions of a Committee of this House appointed for the purpose," and after His Excellency the Governor announced in Council that he would consult the members about the selection of the Committee, the undersigned members waited to see whether Mr. Peiris and his party would act in consonance with what he stated as follows, in Council:-
"I am glad that the nominated Tamil member (Sir Ramanathan) does not want a commission, but is content to leave it to a committee of this House. I accept that proposal. Just now proposals have been made to me to come to an understanding. That can be done after the present discussion, and after the votes have been taken on my motion. Government would then be in a position to understand what the opinion of the different members would be on the points raised in the motion. During the holidays, to which we are looking forward, it may be possible to see whether we could in any way lessen the burden of the Committee, or dispense with it altogether."
As Mr. Peiris did nothing for many weeks to give effect to his idea of dispens- ing with the Committee of the Legislative Council and arriving at a mutual settle- ment. we proceeded to consider every phase of this question by ourselves.
We think that out of the 45 seats which Mr. Peiris' party agreed to, the Western Province will be adequately represented by 4 seats, the Southern Province
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