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Secretary of State's opinion compliance with the request which had been made would form a most undesirable precedent.
His Excellency added that should the deputation desire to make further repre- sentations in writing to the Secretary of State he would gladly forward those repre- sentations but the deputation should not infer from this that His Excellency held out much hope of reconsideration of a matter involving an important question of principle.
Mr. Selvadurai informed His Excellency that further representations would be made at an early date.
14233/38 [No. 6).
No. 59.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.
(Confidential.)
SIR,
Downing Street, 21st August, 1933.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Confidential despatch of the 30th April* with which you forwarded a further petition from a number of the leading residents in the four Jaffna constituencies, asking that a fresh nomination day might be fixed for the election of representatives of these constituencies to the State Council.
2. The earlier petition from the Jaffna inhabitants was forwarded to me in April, 1932,† less than a year after the boycott of the elections in Jaffna in July, 1931. As I informed you in my Confidential despatch of the 9th June‡ I did not feel justified, at the time, in advising His Majesty to issue an Order amending the Ceylon (State Council) Election Order in Council in order to give effect to the petitioners' wishes, for the reasons set out in that despatch.
3. I have now, however, given the matter further consideration. I still regard the question as an important one of principle; and I am anxious that the impression should not be formed that an election can be safely boycotted in the secure knowledge that a new election will inevitably be arranged at a later date. I see no objection, however, to your being given general discretion, under an amendment to the Order in Council, to arrange for a new election if for any reason an election has not been held in a particular district on the date originally appointed. The question whether the necessary arrangements should be made would then be one for you to consider, having regard to the circumstances which prevented the holding of the election at the appointed time and the subsequent course of events: In the case of the Jaffna constituencies you stated in July, 1981, that, as soon as you were fully convinced that there was a genuine desire on the part of the majority of the people in any or all of the four constituencies concerned for representation on the Council, you would be prepared to fix a nomination day, and you definitely recommended such a step in your Confidential despatch of the 12th April, 1932.† On the assumption that you still adhere to the recommendations made in your despatch of the 12th April, 1932, I should now have no objection to your fixing a new nomination day for the Jaffna constituencies as soon as the necessary amendment has been made to the Order In Council.
4. As regards the wording of the amending clause, I suggest that it will be possible to adopt a form of words somewhat simpler than that proposed in your telegram No. 110 of the 16th May, 1931,§ and it appears to me that the case would be met by the addition of a new sub-clause 4 to Article 23 of the (State Council Elections) Order in Council (the existing sub-clause 4 being renumbered sub-clause 5). This new sub-clause would read as follows:-
"If it is shown to the satisfaction of the Governor at any time after he has ordered a General Election, or an election to fill a vacancy in the seat of any elected member, that, owing to the failure to nominate any candidate in any electoral district, or from any other cause, no election has in fact been held in any district on the date appointed, the Governor may, at his discretion, at any time, by notice in the Government Gazette, order that an election shall be held to fill the vacancy so existing."
* No. 58.
+ No. 55.
§ No. 165 in Eastern No. 154.
↑ No. 57.
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Under this wording the existing sub-clause 4 (to be renumbered 5) will provide for the date when candidates are to be nominated.
5. I should be glad to learn whether you have any observations on the above form of wording. If this is agreed to, I will submit to His Majesty an amendment of the Order in Council on those lines. I should be glad to learn also whether in your view any difficulty is likely to arise in the appointment of any persons elected under such an arrangement to the appropriate Executive Committees. Article 34 (3) of the State Council Order in Council provides for "the filling of subsequent vacancies in any
such committee, and for the transfer of members from one committee to another " by a procedure to be prescribed by the Standing Orders. It is not clear to me whether this would cover the provision in the Standing Orders of the necessary rules for allotting to appropriate Executive Committees members who had not previously sat in the State Council and were not replacing members who had so sat. could be met by suitable Standing Orders, but, as I have said, I should be glad to I assume that the difficulty receive your views on this point.
6.
On the asssumption that you recommend the fixing in the near future (after the passing of the necessary amending Order in Council) of a new nomination day for the Jaffna constituencies, there will be no objection to your making an appropriate public announcement conveying my decision, and the reasons which have led to it, to the electors of Jaffna.
I have, &c.,
P. CUNLIFFE-LISTER.
Printed under the authority of His Majesty's Stationery Office
By MITCHIM & SON, LTD., 8, Princes Street, Westminster, S.W.1. Ceylon Constitution.-Op. 6. 33463/3404. 30. 12/35. (10229)
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