CO882-(8-9) — Page 675

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

9 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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justifiable from a point of official convenience.

But no scheme of excise reform which really aims at the promotion of sobriety can, I respectfully submit, ever attain this object, unless our people themselves are associated in its working. (Hear, hear.) With due Of course, official attitude is dead against any such proposal. They tell us over and over again that no such thing as local option is possible in Ceylon. deference, I venture to say that that opinion is entirely wrong, and can only be explained as the offspring of that prejudice, so habitual to the official mind in Eastern lands, which maintains the view that Orientals must be treated like little children to the end of all time. But, Sir, the people of Ceylon, both Cingalese and Tamils, are not just emerging from a state of barbarism into civilisation.They have behind them an historic past, great in achievement, of which any nation may well be proud. Centuries before the arrival of the Europeans, there was in the Island a regular and settled form of government, under which the people enjoyed some measure of local self- government. The village councils and tribunals, which exist even to-day, are It is scarcely reasonable to hold that those the survivals of that ancient system. who inherit such traditions are utterly incapable of exercising their judgment in a Besides, the official matter closely affecting their material and moral welfare. attitude in regard to this question affords a strange and unfair comment on the If after a century of British administration, results of the British rule in the Island.

our people are unfit to be entrusted with this much responsibility, the inevitable inference is that the Government has somehow failed in its duty towards its subjects. But no one who examines the actual facts with an unbiassed mind will venture to maintain that the British rule in Ceylon has been such a ghastly failure as the official attitude in this matter would make it out to be. On the contrary, our system of education, imperfect as it is in many respects, has provided excellent results. It has diffused knowledge, it has widened the outlook of the people, it has broadened their sympathies, and it has taught them to take an intelligent interest in the affairs of the country. As evidence of these facts I would only refer to the various activities carried on among the people by themselves for the promotion of the religious, moral, and intellectual welfare of the country. What should be the exact form of local option that should be adopted in Ceylon is a question which, like many other questions con- nected with this excise scheme, can be decided, I submit, only after a careful public enquiry. Here I would only plead most earnestly for the inclusion in the proposed law itself, before it comes into operation, of a definite and liberal measure of local option which shall associate the people directly in its working. We cannot be satisfied with a mere expression of a pious hope that the wishes of the community will be duly con- sulted. Such hopes have not been realised in the past, and there is no guarantee that they will be realised in the future. The adoption of a liberal measure of local option will undoubtedly result in the gradual reduction of the revenue from this source; but whatever loss may be incurred will be repaid to the Government tenfold by the decrease of crime and by the increase of the prosperity and happiness of the people.

We people of Ceylon have been very largely benefited by our contact with the West, and British rule has conferred on us many invaluable blessings. But it is no exag- geration to say that this curse of drink, which has come to us from outside, is threatening to counteract all these benefits and all these blessings. Still, it is not too late to stem the flood of intemperance that is spreading over the country. The demon of drink has not yet got hold of our people as a whole. There are still large areas free from the terrible influence. Our religion, our traditions, our habits and It can, therefore, be checked only by the customs are all opposed to this alien vice.

hearty co-operation of the people with the Government. But such co-operation is possible only if some responsibitly is thrown on the community, and the people are given some definite controlling influence over the liquor traffic. We appeal to you, therefore, to give our people the right to defend themselves against this curse, which, if not checked now, will, in the not distant future, reproduce in our country, perhaps in a more virulent form. very many of those evils which have become the despair of the social reformer in these Western lands. We sincerely hope and trust that our appeal will receive sympathetic consideration at your hands.

Sir HERBERT ROBERTS: I now introduce the Reverend W. H. Rigby, representing the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society.

Reverend W. H. RIGBY: I do not think there is any need, Sir, that I should say much, after what has been said by the previous speakers, with very much of which I cordially agree, but as one who has been connected with the Island for about thirty

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years, I should like to say that I do not remember so widespread and so strong a feel- ing against any action of the Government as there exists against their proposed licens- ing policy. I represent the Wesleyan Missionary Society, but I think I may claim to I believe every missionary there represent all the societies at work in the Island.

We may

is strongly opposed to this policy, and not only so, but I believe that the heads of the Buddhists and the Hindu bodies are as strongly opposed to it as we are. hold very different opinions upon some subjects, but Buddhist and Hindu and Christian alike are one on this: they believe the policy of the Government would be detrimental to the moral welfare of the people. It seems quite certain that the proposed Bill will lead to a large increase in the number of places where strong drink

may be obtained by the people, and, indeed, in anticipation of the Bill being passed and becoming law, the Government has already taken steps in that direction. Well, Sir, not only in this land, but in every other land, it has been proved conclu- sively that increased facilities to obtain intoxicating liquors mean increased drunken- ness among the people. Neither the Cingalese nor the Hindus want them, and they are all very anxious that the vice of intemperance should not grow amongst them. I do not think there is any need for me to labour that point.

Something has been said by a previous speaker about local option, but I am not quite sure that I should go so far as he has gone. I do not think that the Colony is yet prepared for any such step as that, but I think something might be done in that I do not think that the Revenue direction in the way of creating Licensing Boards.

Officer of the district ought to preside over any such Board. It might be said that he is more or less interested in increasing the number of licences in order to increase the revenue of his district, but a magistrate might preside, and there might be associated with him several gentlemen of probity and intelligence, who could advise and decide upon the number of licences there should be in the district. There are any amount of such gentlemen to be found in almost every district in Ceylon, and I believe that such Boards, if they were created, would have the confidence of the people; they would know the wishes of the people and the needs of the district, and would be able to meet those needs, and at the same time provide that there should not be such increased facilities for obtaining strong drink that intemperance should grow amongst the people.

I am quite certain, Sir, that the recommendation which has been made that this matter should be referred again to Ceylon, with the request that it should go before a Commission representative of all the peoples of the Island, is a very wise suggestion indeed. It would be welcomed by the people there, and I believe the result would be beneficial to the Colony.

Sir HERBERT ROBERTS: Our last speaker, Mr. Harcourt, is Mr. John Ferguson, C.M.G., ex-Member of the Legislative Council, and late editor of the "Čeylon Observer." I am sure it is not necessary for me to state, which you very well know. that Mr. Ferguson is one of the foremost of the public men who have worked in connection with the public life of Ceylon.

Mr. JOHN FERGUSON: Having been connected fifty years with Ceylon I ought to know a good deal about this matter, but I must confess, Sir, that on the question up to date, I am not so well up, because I left Ceylon early in March, and after travelling in Upper Egypt and across the Continent, I landed in England in the end of May and was put into the doctor's hands at once, and I have been in his hands ever since; so much so that in June I was forbidden to write or read or even speak, and it is with some difficulty that I have been able to be here present to show my sympathy with our friends.

I have heard something said here as to which I must say I would like to enquire further and learn more, because when I was a Member of the Legislative Council five years ago, there were certain recommendations made by a Committee which rather ran counter to what our friends have indicated on one or two points, but on the great main points I am entirely with our friends.

I will begin by pressing upon you and the Government how very careful they ought to be in countries which they govern containing a Buddhist population, such I do not mean for a as Ceylon and Burma. In Ceylon we have 2,400,000 or practically two and a half million Buddhists out of a total population of 4,100,000. moment to say that all of these Buddhists support or carry out the very wonderful and splendid temperance of some of them, because most of the supporters of the arrack and toddy shops are Buddhists; but there are many of them who must feel it very much, and I have had instances of it, because when I called the first public