PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
ول
Reference :-
C.O. 885
24 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
| ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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CEYLON.
On receipt of this report I had given German community were unable to vouch. directions that no more German subjects should be permitted to land in the island and that all Germans who were not residents of Ceylon should be compelled to leave the island forthwith. In pursuance of my order, eight German subjects who were not residents of the island, together with one resident whose parole I was not pre- pared to accept, had left the island in a Dutch steamer bound for Batavia shortly before the receipt of the first of your telegrams referred to.
On the receipt of your telegrams, the American Consul, who had taken charge of the affairs of the German Consulate, was informed that all German officers and reservists would in future be treated as prisoners of war, but that those of them who were residents in Ceylon and whose parole had been accepted would, until further orders, be allowed to remain at their residences and pursue their ordinary avocations within such limits as the police authorities might assign to them, sub- ject to their reporting themselves at such intervals and at such places as might be directed. Instructions in this sense were at the same time issued to the Inspector- General of Police.
9. I also received your instructions to the effect that any German Consul who was a German subject should be required to leave the island forthwith. I assume it to have been the intention that this order should apply only to Consuls de carrière. But in any case, as the substantive German Consul, Mr. Reinhart Freudenberg, was absent from the island and the affairs of the Consulate had already been handed over to the American Consul, I did not consider it necessary to disturb the arrange- ments already made or to require Mr. Winfried Freudenberg, who had recently been acting as Consul, to leave the island, in which he had for long been a resident mer- chant, with very considerable mercantile interests and with large capital sunk in local production, employing some two thousand Singhalese.
10. Your telegraphic instructions of the 7th and 8th instant, regarding the per- manent detention of German merchant vessels in harbour, have been complied with: and steps are being taken to bring the question of the seizure of the vessels before the Prize Court for adjudication. Meantime, such of their officers and crews as The names of the vessels are German subjects continue to be detained on board.
under detention on the 9th instant have already been communicated to you.
11. By your telegram of the 9th instant you gave me further instructions as to the treatment of enemy reservists whose known character is above suspicion or As will be seen, the action who are personally vouched for to my satisfaction. already taken by me was in accord with your wishes.
12. You have already received my telegraphic reply to your telegram of the 8th instant with regard to the application of the Rubber Growers' Association for financial assistance to be given by Government to rubber-growing companies; and I received yesterday your telegram advising me of the action taken in this matter by the Governments of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States. In my view, the conditions in Ceylon are materially different from those of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States, and are, in fact, intermediate between them and the conditions obtaining in India, to which they more nearly approxi- mate. Should nothing untoward or unforeseen occur, I anticipate that it will not be long before the local rubber sales are resumed, and I see no immediate reason to fear that any large number of the companies concerned will find themselves in serious financial difficulties. At the same time, should the present restriction of trade continue for any appreciable period, I should be prepared to come to the In that event I should assistance of the estates where the necessity was proved. propose, if possible, to operate through the agency of the local banks, affording them such guarantees on behalf of the Government as might be found to be desirable.
13. I need hardly add that I am fully alive to the paramount importance of maintaining the estates in a condition of solvency and seeing that the estate popu- lation is adequately provided for. As indicated in my despatch* under reference, it is with a view to avoiding any unrest amongst the half million of Indian labourers on the estates that I have hitherto refrained from calling out for active service the two Planters' Corps, the Ceylon Mounted Rifles, and the Ceylon Planters' Rifle Corps. In this policy I have the full support of the Colombo Chamber of Com- merce, and, I believe, of a majority of the more influential members of the Planters'
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CEYLON.
Association. The enclosed extracts from the Times of Ceylon, of the 11th instant, and of the Ceylon Observer of yesterday's date, represent the view of the matter which I believe to be very generally held amongst the more responsible of the European residents.
14.
As indicated in my telegraphic reply of the 9th instant to your telegram of the 8th instant, so soon as the supremacy of His Majesty's arms has been estab- lished on the sea and the conditions of trade and food supply have returned more nearly to the normal I shall be glad to be able to relax the restraint with which I have felt myself obliged to curb the enthusiastic loyalty of the two European corps. When that time comes I have hopes that it may be possible to send forward a con- tingent representative of these corps to do service for the Mother Country. I shall not be assisted herein by efforts, doubtless well-meant, of associations or individuals connected in the past with Ceylon, but not familiar with or responsible for the island to-day.
15. I have to-day received your telegram informing me that war has broken out with Austria-Hungary. The necessary action is being taken.
I have, &c.,
ROBERT CHALMERS,
Governor.
P.S. Since writing the above I have received information of the meeting of The action of the Association the Ceylon Association held yesterday in London. has so far forced my hand that I have thought it well to issue at once the following communiqué to the Press :-
49/8
SIR,
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His Excellency the Governor has for some days been privately in com- munication with the leaders of the planting community with a view to organizing, as a contingent from Ceylon to help the Mother Country, such members of the Planting Corps as can be spared from the primary duty of superintending their estates and the half million of coolies under their charge. It is to be hoped that in a short time the necessary information will be available to perfect arrangements."
No. 27.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 21st September, 1914.)
(Confidential.)
The Queen's House, Colombo, Ceylon, 20th August, 1914. In continuation of my Confidential despatch of the 13th instant, reporting action taken locally in connexion with the war with Germany, I have the honour to inform you that I received on the 14th instant your telegram of the 13th, direct- ing me to issue a Proclamation as Vice-Admiral under the Prize Courts Act, 1894. I enclose a copy of the Government Gazette Extraordinary No. 6647 of the 18th instant,* from which you will see that the necessary action had already been taken. 2. On receipt of your instruction of the same date with regard to the keep- ing open of trade routes and the desirability of allowing British trade to continue with the least possible interruption, I caused an intimation in the sense desired to be conveyed to the local shipping agents and to the Press.
3. As I indicated in a postscript to my despatch of the 18th instant,† information was received locally on that date of the action taken by the Ceylon Association in London in regard to the formation of a contingent of Ceylon Volun- teers for service in connexion with the war, and I thought it desirable that the public should be informed without further delay that the question of sending a contingent from Ceylon was one which was already receiving my consideration. I therefore caused to be published the notification of which I have already sent you a copy,* showing that I was in full accord with the feeling of the Association,
↑ No. 26. * Not reprinted.
* No. 25.