243
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.882/11
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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that it will help to throw additional light upon this question, and so aid the Com- mission in its deliberations, that this Memorandum has been prepared by me.
HUGH CLIFFORD, M.C.S.
Colonial Secretary of Ceylon from May, 1907, to December, 1912
and
Governor of Ceylon from November. 1925. to May, 1927
Enclosure 3 in No. 5.
THE HONOURABLE THE COLONIAL SECRETARY,
It must be remem-
It is difficult not to feel sympathy with the Kandyans in their present position ris-à-vis the more progressive and industrious Low Country Sinhalese, and especially in their treatment by the "National Congress," even though this last is partly due to the ineptitude of their representatives on the last Council. bered that the supersession of the Kandyans in their own country and in particular in Kandy District is due in no little degree to the inability of the Kandyan Chiefs to sink their mutual differences and to stand together.
2. It is a matter for regret that the representation of Kandyan grievances. which undoubtedly are felt by most educated Kandyans, has not fallen to the lot of some person or persons other than the so-called "Kandyan National Assembly." Among the members of the Executive Committee, apart from two from Uva. I find no representative of any Kandyan district save Kandy. Even the rest of the Central Province is absent, let alone the North-Western, the North-Central, and the Sabara gamuwa Provinces. Of the six members from Kandy District two are chiefly known to fame as members, past or present, of the notorious Buddhist Temporalities Committee of Kandy, and of them one is the well-known Secretary of that body. P. B. Kolugala, otherwise an unknown person, apparently is the Basnayaka Nilame of some small dewale and almost certainly stands well with, if he is not the creature of the Secretary. When I find the President to be the Diwa Nilame, at present working in close co-operation with that Secretary. I am unable to place any great confidence in the National Assembly," the more so as not long ago the Nugawela- Disanayaka combination, under the name of the "Kandyan Buddhist Assembly," proposed to Government an amendment of the Temporalities Ordinance, by which the existing abuses were to be perpetuated and reform made as difficult as possible. The object of that proposal was to secure the power of the existing people who are exploiting the temples.. I much fear that the object of the present petition is not much more unselfish.
3. I do not propose to deal with every statement made in the petition: many are inaccurate. The whole of the document is based on the assumption that the "Convention" of 1815 is still in force. The preamble to the "Proclamation,” as it was called at the time, is quoted on page 2 of the petition, which, however, does not continue the text; it runs thus: "The ruler of the interior provinces have fallen into their hands, and the government remains at the disposal of His Majesty's repre-
Granted, however, for the sake of argument, that the "Convention sentative." was a treaty, the petitioners seem to forget that a treaty binds both parties. They In that rebellion. are discreetly silent about the Kandyan Rebellion of 1817-18.
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the only districts remaining loyal to the British Government were the lower part of Ratnapura District, the present Kegalla District, and two small divisions near Kandy every Chief of note, with the exception of Molligeda Adigar, was in rebellion or in prison. The Kandyan politicians of the present day hold that the Kandyan nation was not in rebellion; the facts are against them. On the suppres- sion of the rising, Governor Brownrigg, while not repudiating the "Convention of 1815, took the opportunity of remodelling the whole government of the interior. abolished the old tenure of land by service, imposed a tax payable in a share of the paddy crop, and placed the administration in the hands of British officers: Govern- ment also reserved to itself the right to make such further alterations as might It is perfectly clear to the unbiassed onlooker that the Kandyans appear necessary. broke the "Convention" by an almost general rebellion, and that at the time this fact was recognised and acted upon by the British Government. Indeed. I believe I Convention was to all intents lost to view until am right in saying that the unearthed by an industrious Civil Servant. The Kandyan politicians are entitled to make use of the document: but the suppression of all mention of the rebellion, save obliquely in a quotation from Davy on page 3. is disingenuous.
4.
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The disingenuousness of the drawers of the petition also may be gauged by the small statement as to the currency at the beginning of the last paragraph on page 3. Some years ago Mr. Halangoda, one of the signatories, made the statement that the British in 1815 or thereabouts had suddenly changed the currency and thereby had brought ruin (if I remember right) to multitudes of Kandyans. I then was seeing my Ceylon Coins and Currency through the press, and wrote to Mr. Halangoda asking for his authority for the statement and inviting his attention to a certain proclamation putting into circulation the Dutch duits taken as prize in He received the letter, but I never got the Kandy as well as the Kandyan ridi.
authority asked for. As a matter of fact the Kandyans, with the exception of a few larins (ridi) had no currency medium save that of the Maritime Provinces, in particular the Dutch duits. The British Government, so far from suddenly chang- the currency of the interior, actually put into circulation the duits taken as prize, Yet the accusation in a modified form the very money used by the Kandyans. reappears in the present petition.
ing
5. In writing the above it is not to be understood that I am out of sympathy with Kandyan aspirations, but it is useless to bolster up a good cause with bad history and falsehood.
6. I make the following comments on the Memorandum sent with the petition : Page 4, paragraph 7, line 12. What is meant by the "Kandyan Provinces"? We now mean by the expression the provinces forming the Kandyan Kingdom in 1815. If the author used it in the same sense, he is in error as the Portuguese The effectively held the present North-Western and Sabaragamuwa Provinces. Kingdom of Kandy was then above the hills.
Page 7, paragraph 10, line 1. Among the subscribers I find five who by some stretch of the imagination can be said to belong to the Kandyan aristocracy.
H. W. CODRINGTON.
11th August, 1927.
Enclosure 4 in No. 5.
I MET the Executive Committee of the Kandyan National Assembly at the King's Pavilion on the 16th August, the Government Agent being present. Mr. Nugawela and another member unknown to me set out the case, arguing, though somewhat half-heartedly, that the Kandyan Provinces should be dealt with on the lines of Ulster. I stated that I saw no prospect of His Majesty's Government listen- ing to any such suggestion. It seemed to me, however, that it was open to the Kandyans to consider means whereby local self-government might be further extended, and also to go into the question of reform of the franchise in the Kandyan l'rovinces. It would be as well to prepare a detailed case with constructive proposals for submission to the Commission. I emphasized the point that I was not well acquainted with the history of the matter, and that I was not prepared to make any personal suggestion or to give any undertaking of any nature whatever.
It was agreed that the Memorial should not go forward, but that the matter should be represented by the Kandyans to the Commission.
It was explained that Sir Hugh Clifford asked for the Memorial very urgently, and there was not time to get further signatures. These will be forthcoming.
18th August, 1927.
C. 32020/27 [No. 55]
No. 6.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 11th October, 1927.)
(Confidential.)
SIR,
A. G. M. F.
Queen's House, Colombo, 20th September, 1927. WITH reference to your Confidential telegram of the 27th August, 1927,* in which you authorized the publication of a Press communiqué inviting Associations and individuals to forward representations in writing for transmission to the Special Commission on the Constitution of Ceylon, I have the honour to forward
a
* C. 82020/27 [No. 34]: not printed.