455
132
urged by the deputation will be considered when the next Commission is appointed in terms of Article 5 (2) of the Ceylon (State Council Elections) Order in Council, 1931, to submit recommendations as to revision in this respect.
2. I shall be glad if a reply may be returned to the deputation regretting that owing to other pressing engagements I was not able personally to receive them, and informing them in the terms of paragraph 5 of my Confidential despatch of the 18th of December, 1931.* You may also, if you think fit, inform them as in the first para- graph of your despatch under reference as regards the readjustment of electoral boundaries.
I have, &c.,
P. CUNLIFFE-LISTER.
133
six months within which the action suggested by him would have been possible has elapsed, the only alternatives are either to amend the Order in Council or to leave the Jaffna Constituencies unrepresented for the whole of the life of the present State Council.
5. I feel constrained to add, however, that the attitude in the State Council of any members elected will in all probability be hostile to the new Constitution and likely to increase the difficulties of working it, but this is not in my opinion a sufficient ground for not fixing a nomination day.
6. I regard it as most desirable that a decision one way or the other should be made at the earliest possible date and I shall be glad to learn by telegraph whether in the circumstances you are disposed to agree to the necessary amendment of the Order in Council and if so whether, at my discretion, I may inform the memorialists that steps are being taken to that end.
PUBLIC
PECORD OFLICE
Reference -
C.O.882/12
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE | BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOI TO
„PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDONI
C. 92986/32 [No. 3].
(3) Representation of Jaffna.
No. 55.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Confidential.)
SIR,
(Received 2nd May, 1932.) [Answered by Nos, 56 and 57.]
Ceylon, 12th April, 1932.
I HAVE the honour to transmit a copy of a memorial addressed to me and signed by over 4,500 inhabitants of the Jaffna Peninsula requesting that a nomination day be fixed for the election of representatives of the four Jaffna Constituencies to the State Council. I also enclose a copy of the letter from the Government Agent, Northern Province, under cover of which the memorial was forwarded.
2. In this connexion I would invite reference to telegraphic correspondence ending with your predecessor's Confidential telegram No. 105 of the 27th May, 1931.† I might also quote the remarks made by me on the subject in the course of my address at the opening of the State Council in July last, which were as follows:-
"I greatly regret that four Constituencies in the Northern Peninsula of Jaffna are at present unrepresented in your Council.
I fear that this is mainly due to hot-headed misrepresentations of the scope and spirit of the new Constitution by those who should have known better, but were believed by many of the people whom they addressed.
It is a loss to the Council that this important section of the Island should remain entirely without representation and I need hardly say that as soon as I am fully convinced that there is a genuine desire on the part of the majority of the people in any or all of the Constituencies of the Peninsula for representation in the Council I shall be only too glad to fix a nomination day."
3. After full discussion of the matter with the Government Agent who is in close touch with the electorate and on whose advice I feel able to rely I have come to the conclusion that a fresh nomination day should be fixed. Refusal to do so would be construed as a victory for the boycotting element which is still considerable and as a rebuff to a large and responsible section of the electorate who appear to be genuinely desirous of participating in the new Constitution. It is of course most undesirable to fix a fresh nomination day if the only result is to be a repetition of the boycott but the Government Agent is confident that nomination papers will in fact be handed in and elections held.
4. I am advised, however, that as the period of six months referred to in Article 85 of the Ceylon (State Council) Election Order in Council, 1931, has elapsed there can be no question that the Order in Council must be amended before a fresh nomination day can be fixed. Your predecessor in the telegram which I have quoted above deprecated any permanent amendment of the Order in Council since it appeared to him that such a course would seem to attach undue importance to the boycott, but as the
* No. 175 in Eastern No. 154.
No. 166 in Eastern No. 154.
I have, &c.,
GRAEME THOMSON,
Governor.
Enclosure 1 in No. 55.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIR GRAEME THOMSON, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., GOVERNOR AND COM- MANDER-IN-CHIEF IN AND OVER THE ISLAND OF CEYLON AND ITS DEPENDENCIES
THEREOF.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,
WE the undersigned residents of the Jaffna District beg to approach you with the request that you will be pleased to consider sympathetically your views on the situation that arose, whereby the Jaffna District was deprived of any representation in the State Council of Ceylon.
2.
We most respectfully submit that a very large majority of the electorate was in no wise responsible for the disastrous boycott of Council elections. The decision to do so was brought about by a very small section of the body of voters, who were members of an association of youthful persons styled the Youth Congress, who vainly thought that the lead given by Jaffna would be followed by the rest of Ceylon. They brought their influence to bear upon the candidates the day previous to the nomination day and prevailed upon the candidates, with threat that they will put forward rival candidates not to submit papers for nomination. The large body of electors, which through the canvassing activities of the candidates, was looking forward for the election day, was sadly disappointed to find that this precipitate step was taken without consulting its wishes. It deprived them of their right to elect their representatives, and the sudden- ness with which it happened made it impossible to put forward other candidates at that time.
3. The excitement created by the boycott of the Council elections had subsided; the unwisdom of the step taken is daily revealed to the people, and there is a growing desire to take part in an election if another opportunity is given to them.
4. We are grateful to Your Excellency for the sympathetic reference made by you at the opening of the State Council to the absence of representatives from the Jaffna District.
5. We therefore most humbly pray that Your Excellency will be pleased, in view of the facts stated by us, to fix another nomination day for the election of representatives for the Jaffna District in the State Council.
Jaffna, 14th January, 1932,
We beg, &c.,
SIGNED BY OVER 4,500 RESIDENTS OF
JAFFNA DISTRICT.