CO882-(8-9) — Page 685

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

9 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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Iocal Committees should be appointed in each District, provided that the powers vested in them be, as in India, of an advisory character. I do not, however, consider–– and in this view the members of my Executive Council unanimously agree that existing conditions in Ceylon render it possible safely to delegate the power of final decision as to whether a tavern is to be closed, maintained, or established in any given locality to any person or persons not directly under the control of Government. some later date such a step may possibly be found to be feasible and expedient; but I and my advisers are convinced that to adopt it at the present time would he to expose the reforms to imminent risk of being completely wrecked.

At

In this connection it mùst not be forgotten that there is in Ceylon a strong and wealthy body of individuals who personally, or indirectly through their relatives, have for many years obtained considerable incomes from the manufacture and sale of arrack and toddy. The very existence of these people has, throughout the whole of the present controversy, been studiously kept in the background, and as sedulously ignored by the agitators; but no one who has come into personal contact with them since the reforms were mooted, or who has carefully watched the course of events on the spot, can harbour a doubt that they have been a motive power of great force behind the perfectly sincere, though, as I am convinced, mistaken, opposition which the efforts of Government to control more effectively the manufacture and consumption of country liquor have locally aroused. These people, who have made a tool of the sincerity of bona fide temperance advocates, and have successfully captured a large mass of uninstructed public opinion in this Colony, during the recent agitation, would probably experience little difficulty in exercising a similar influence over Licensing Committees, were absolute, instead of merely advisory, powers to be con- fided to them by Government, and this, in my opinion, would be calculated to lead ere long to an even worse state of things than that which has caused the Colonial Government to devise treasures of reform.

១. As a study of the various representations made to you upon the subject will have shown you, it is an ingrained belief in the minds of certain sections of the community in Ceylon that the number of licensed taverns indicates and regulates the actual consumption. In defiance of reason, an analogy is constantly traced between conditions here and in the United Kingdom in this respect; and it is gravely main- tained that, because the closing of public houses in England has had an effect upon the consumption of intoxicants in that country, the diminution of the number of The basic licensed taverns in Ceylon would here be productive of a similar result. fact which vitiates the analogy-the fact that in England all liquor is excised at the still or brewery, and that there is practically no illicit manufacture or consumption— is utterly ignored, and it is contended that the reduction of the number of licensed taverns in Ceylon, where Government at present has no efficient control over the manufacture and distribution of arrack and toddy, would be attended by the success which in England is due to the completeness of that control.

10 There can be little doubt, I fear, that local Licensing Committees would, at any rate in numerous cases, be deluded by this erroneous opinion; and there can be no doubt at all that persons interested in arrack-renting would do their utmost to foster the popular fallacy. The latter are also, to a man, opposed to the estab- lishment of toddy taverns.

11. It may, at first sight, seem improbable that a renter would second a move- ment which would lead to the closing of any taverns in his rented area; but in this connection it must be remembered that all the arrack sold and consumed within the If there be a demand, he will see area of his rent is invariably provided by him. that it is satisfied, whether a licence be granted or withheld; and he will watch the process whereby his place of sale will be released from the disadvantages of publicity, and from harassing supervision and restrictions, with no little complacency. The area of Ceylon is considerable, and many parts of the Island are densely populated. For some years the operations of a preventive staff will necessarily be attended with much difficulty; and until time has strengthened and experience perfected it, it cannot be hoped that illicit sales, in localities where a legitimate demand is not met by a legalised supply, will be efficiently checked or suppressed.

12. In illustration of what I have written I may mention the following facts :- In the year 1898 the licensed taverns in the North Western Province (Kurunegala District) were reduced from 96 to 49. This action was adopted under the mistaken

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belief that the reduction of the number of taverns would bring about a reduction of the amount of intoxicants consumed. The sum paid by the arrack renter for the right to sell arrack and toddy in this area was, for the year immediately preceding the date from which the reduction in the number of taverns was made, Rs. 143,250. For the following years, however, it rose steadily, though the number of taverns was not materially increased. The figures are as follows:-

Rs.

1894

1895

1596

1897

1898

1899

1900

1901

1902

1903

102,700

101,400

110,080

133,280

143,250

140,000

140,000

166,650

181,770

181,770

The only interence to be drawn from this is that the reduction in the number of licensed taverns, far from leading to reduced consumption, resulted in a notable stimulation of illicit sales, to an actual increase of consumption, and to large quanti- ties of liquor being bought and sold in circumstances which released them from all regulation and control.

13. In the present state of public ignorance, or inability, or unwillingness to grasp the real principles underlying the question at issue, I and my advisers see grave reasons to apprehend that the vesting of licensing powers in local Committees would lead to the multiplication of experiments of this kind, which would inevitably be attended by equally deplorable results.

14. As I have explained at some length in my despatch, No. 414, of the 29th July, the separation of arrack from toddy is the fundamental measure without which the reforms now contemplated cannot be successfully pursued. As you are also aware, the action taken in this direction has been strenuously opposed, and very persistently misrepresented. It has aroused the opposition of all those interested in the existing traffic in country liquor; it has awakened the prejudices of many who apparently find it difficult to understand that the establishment of a legalised place of sale for toddy, in a locality where toddy is already consumed, but where hitherto it has only been legally obtainable at an arrack tavern, is not equivalent to the estab- lishment of a new tavern, and that reiteration cannot alter this fact. The relative potency of toddy and arrack is, at the same time, persistently ignored. The peasant, too, who has hitherto possessed his liquor barrel in his back garden-in the shape of his tapped palm tree--and has been subjected only to fitful harassment at the hands of the nearest renter views with dislike a system which threatens a privilege which he has so long enjoyed. I am not concerned to deny, therefore, that the separation of arrack from toddy is almost universally unpopular throughout Ceylon; but I am none the less convinced that it is an essential measure unless all idea of reforming the admittedly pernicious system now in force is to be definitely abandoned.

15. So long, however, as the separation of arrack from toddy continues to be opposed, on the grounds alike of interest and of prejudice, by a considerable section of the community, the vesting of licensing powers in any bodies released from the ultimate control of Government, would be, I fear-at any rate in a number of cases--- to invite those who dislike it to wreck the contemplated scheme of reform to which, for the sake of the inhabitants of this Island, and the moral and physical welfare of the present generation and of those who will come after them, I attach the utmost importance.

16. I would, therefore, earnestly urge upon your consideration the advisability of granting to the proposed District Committees powers of a purely advisory character only, at ary rate in the first instance; and I should be glad to receive your instructions to prepare a scheme, on these lines, to be instituted by rules framed under the new Ordinance.

17. I need hardly add that I am most anxious to consult local opinion in these matters, and to be guided by it when and where such action can be adopted without

• No. 3.