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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

PILLICO. 882

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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hidder it is improbable that private capitalists will be prepared to erect distilleries of an approved type on a tenure so insecure. In no event, however, is it anticipated that Government will itself undertake distilling operations; nor is such action a part of the scheme of contract-supply.

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follow-

The fourth resolution passed by the public meeting in Colombo reads as

(4) This meeting appoints the following Committee (with power to add to their number) to forward a memorial to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, embodying the foregoing resolutions and praying that the matters referred to may have his fullest consideration before the Bill receives his sanction The Committee is further authorised to take any other steps neces- sary to further the object of this meeting.

33. The request of the Memorialists that sanction to the new Ordinance should not be given is, in the circumstances, difficult to understand. As their Memorial clearly shows, their objections are opposed, not to the provisions of the new Ordi- nance, but to the executive action which Government has already taken under the existing law. The contract-supply system and the renting system can be carried on with equal facility under the new Ordinance, which merely affords Government powers of stricter supervision and control than it at present possesses, and defines The duties and powers of a preventive staff, to the appointment of which, apparently, the Memorialists are not opposed.

34. In the concluding paragraph of the Memorial it is prayed that you will remove the objectionable features of the Government excise policy, and provide an excise system that will safeguard the physical and moral well-being of the people."

35. The Memorialists, you will note, do not attempt on their own account to offer any suggestions of a constructive nature; and all the objections raised to the changes in practice which are being adopted by the Government, with the sanction of the existing law, would, were these objections to be honoured, result in the indefinite perpetuation of the present admittedly pernicious renting system. On the other hand, the system which Government is introducing the first essential step towards which is the separation of arrack and toddy is adapted from that which, for many years, has worked well in the neighbouring Presidency of Madras, and which has been adopted, with slight modifications, in numerous parts of British India, where local conditions differ far more widely from those of Madras than do the conditions of Ceylon. This policy has been embarked upon by the Government after an inquiry which was begun nearly three years ago. It is the first coherent attempt ever made to deal with the evil of drink in this Colony; and, in the opinion of myself and my advisers, it is better calculated than any other system of which we have knowledge or experience to bring under close control and supervision the manufacture, distri- bution, and sale of locally-made intoxicants. Such control is an essential preliminary to the adoption of any really effective measures designed to regulate, check, or suppress the consumption of these liquors.

I have, &c.,

HENRY MCCALLUM,

Enclosure 1 in No. 3.

To the Right Hon. LEWIS VERNON Harcourt,

P.Č., M.P., His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Governor, &c.,

The Memorial of the Committee appointed at a Meeting of the Public of Ceylon, held at Colombo on June 15th, 1912, Respectfully showeth :

That in connection with the recent legislation and action of the Government of Ceylon on the question of the manufacture and distribution of arrack and toddy, the following resolutions were unanimously passed at the said meeting :-

(1) This meeting, while thanking Government for seeking to reform the methods of liquor traffic at present current in Ceylon, and to enforce a stricter control over the importation, manufacture, and distribution of intoxicants, views with grave apprehension the sanction of increased facilities for the consumption of alcohol by the establishment of separate toddy taverns.

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(2) This meeting, while holding that the financial position of the Island at the present time affords a valuable opportunity for introducing a well- considered reform of the system governing the liquor traffic, and, while heartily commending those proposals of Government which aim at stricter control and closer vigilance, records an emphatic protest against the establishment, without consulting local public opinion, of new licensed houses for the sale of intoxicants, and earnestly urges the pro- vision of effective legal machinery whereby the wishes of residents shall be allowed full weight whenever a licence for a new tavern is proposed or the transfer of an old tavern is intended.

(3) This meeting, being of opinion that the only connection which Government should have with the liquor traffic is that of supervision and regula- tion, deprecates the possible enlistment of Government among distillers, and the expenditure of public money upon the production of arrack.

(4) This meeting appoints the following Committee (with power to add to their number) to forward a memorial to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, embodying the foregoing resolutions, and praying that the matters referred to may have his fullest consideration before the Bill The Committee is receives the sanction of His Majesty the King. further authorised to take any other steps necessary to further the object of this meeting :-

James Peiris, A. Alvis, Francis Beven, S. Fernando, E. J. Samara- wickrama, T. Gracie, R. H. Ferguson, W. J. Noble.

2. A report of the proceedings of the meeting is hereto annexed.

3. Public meetings, at which the same or similar resolutions were passed, have heen held in many of the larger towns of Ceylon, including Galle, Nuwara Eliya, Matara, Chilaw, Hatton. Kalutara, and Tangalle, and the Secretary of the Colombo Committee has received from these meetings certified copies of their proceedings.

This

4. In support of these resolutions, the Memorialists beg respectfully to observe that no case has been made out for the separation of arrack from toddy. separation was carried out recently under the provisions of an old Ordinance (No. 10 of 1844), under which, though it had been in operation for nearly seventy years, separate toddy taverns had been established only in the Northern Province, and In other places where in the Province of Uva, where the number did not exceed ten. there has been a reasonable demand for toddy, as, for instance, Colombo, Negombo, Matara, and some other towns, it has been sold by renters in their taverns along with arrack; every renter possessing and exercising the right to sell both liquors.

There has been no complaint from any part of the country that toddy was not available in the taverns. If there had been a demand for toddy, and no correspond- ing supply, the remedy in the hands of Government was simple and easy, namely, to compel the renter to stock toddy under penalty for default; preferably in a bar separate from that in which arrack was sold.

The main reason which has been advanced against this suggestion is that the renter would push the sale of arrack in preference to that of toddy, since the profit from the former is alleged to be greater. The Government, in selling toddy taverns recently, have therefore endeavoured to exclude arrack renters from participation in the sale of toddy, by the provision in the conditions of sale that no purchaser of toddy taverns shall have any interest, direct or indirect, in the sale of arrack, a similar provision being made in the conditions for the sale of arrack rents. This provision Evasion of it by secret understanding or it is practically impossible to enforce. privately arranged partnership is perfectly easy; while satisfactory legal proof of such evasion, certain though the fact be, cannot, save in very rare instances, be secured. The Memorialists have reason to believe that, in the recent sales herein referred It to, the majority of the toddy taverns have been secured by renters interested in the arrack trade, by means of secret agents who have purchased in their own names. is significant that no murmur has been heard from the renters that any vested rights were being interfered with or that they were being prejudicially affected.

5. A new Excise Ordinance, repealing Ordinance No. 10 of 1844 and dealing with the importation, manufacture, and distribution of intoxicating liquor, includ- ing arrack and toddy, was introduced in the Legislative Council of Ceylon on the 15th of April last. After the Bill had passed its Second Reading, and while it was

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