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(2) Walgama and the surrounding villages. Another large Moorish com- munity is settled here, which in 1911 numbered 1,003 persons. The village was attacked by mobs drawn from all the surrounding villages, and although the Moors succeeded in defending the centre of the village, which lies on the top of a small hill and forms a natural stronghold, a large number of houses in the north and south- west of the village were looted and several houses and three mosques destroyed by fire. The Moors defended themselves vigorously in the centre of the village, and drove back the rioters, three of whom were killed. A fresh attack was threatened on the 3rd, but on the arrival of some Town Guards the mobs dispersed. The damage here amounted to some Rs.113,000.

On the same day all the Moorish houses in Yatihena were looted, as were a small coco-nut and rubber estate in Biyagama and a boutique in Kanduboda.

(3) The Hunupitiya area. The principal damage done here was to four small coco-nut estates in Iriyawetiya. Hunupitiya, and Endaramulla. All the woodwork was torn out of the buildings, the produce stolen, and all the movable property stolen.

That the Moors in this area were not attacked before is probably due to the fact that a number of the Sinhalese from this district went to take part in the distur- bances in Colombo on the 1st.

By the 3rd the attack on the Moors was almost over in this Korale. A fair- sized boutique at Kalatuwawa was looted and burnt to the ground, and some minor damage was done at Ogodapola. The coco-nut estate at Yakwala, 110 acres in extent, was looted, all the buildings completely gutted, and all the crop and movable property stolen. Except for these places and the few instances noted below, rioting took place on these two days in every village in the Korale in which Moormen were living, and on these two days every house and boutique occupied by Moormen was looted and every mosque damaged, except in the two large settlements at Walgama and Tihariya, where the Moors were in sufficient numbers to protect a part of their property. By the 3rd, over the greater part of the Korale, there was nothing left for the rioters to attack.

There are only three villages where Moors were living in which no attack was made on Moorish property. At Gonawala the one Moorish boutique, which is owned by the Vidane Arachchi of the Peruwa, was not touched, nor was the one amall boutique in Mudungoda; and in Borukgomuwa the only Moor boutique-keeper entrusted all his property to the owner of the boutique and went to India. On his return his goods were returned to him. Of five Moor boutiques in Galgomuwa only one was looted.

There are 115 police vidanes' divisions in the Korale. In thirty-four of these Moormen were living, and in thirty-one property belonging to Moors was looted.

In

Though the attack on Moorish property was so general very little bodily injury has been reported. In Tihariya one old man was killed by a blow with a club, thirteen received knife injuries, and one was shot, but not seriously injured. Walgama one man was injured by gunshot. In Belunmahara a case of rape occurred, the principal offender being the police vidane of the village, who has since been sentenced to ten years' rigorous imprisonment by a court martial. No other cases of any importance have been reported, though in the majority of cases consider- able hardship was suffered by the Moors, who were hiding in the jungle for two or three days without shelter and with little, and at times no, food.

Whether the inhabitants of any particular village took part in the rioting Wherever appears to have depended on their proximity to Moorish habitations.

there was a considerable Moorish or inmunity it was attacked by bands from all the neighbouring villages. Where there is no evidence that the people of any particular village joined in the riots it is found that no Moormen were living anywhere near that village.

At Heenkende one man was shot by the military, and one man from Dalugan- goda was shot at the Victoria Bridge. At Walgama three of the rioters were killed by the Moors in the fight that followed the attack on the village.

The total damage done in the Korale has been assessed at Rs.575,327.50.

2. Origin.

In the actual events of the period of active rioting three points are noticeable :— (1) In this Korale, and, indeed, throughout the Province, it was on the same day--the 1st of June--that the rioting commenced. At Veyangoda there is evidence that on the evening of 81st May a man who had come from Kandy earlier in the day

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addressed the people near the railway station, quoting what had happened in Kandy and Rambukkana, and urging the people to attack the Moors.

About 7 p.m. on the same evening stones were thrown at the Moors' boutiques, and about midday on the 1st the looting of the boutiques began. On the afternoon of the 1st rioting was general over the whole Korale.

(2) It was on the Moors as a community that the attack was made. Nowhere was there any animosity shown against individual Moormen, and it was only where, as at Walgama, the Moors offered resistance that any bodily injury was done to them. The immediate object of the rioters, as was at times announced by their leaders, was to drive the Moors from the country. But there were no special attacks made on particular individuals.

(3) The Buddhist Sinhalese rose as a whole. There are, of course, exceptions; but, as is pointed out above, it was by the people living in the neighbourhood that the several Moor houses were attacked. The Sinhalese seized whatever opportunity offered to attack Moorish property.

Of the occurrences before the riots broke out in this district the disturbances at Kandy on Wesak night is the most obvious; but there is evidence that for a con- siderable period there have been addresses delivered at Buddhist temples (e.g., at Kelaniya and Walgama) and at temperance samagamas (e.g., at Pattalagedera) in which the Sinhalese were urged to unite that they should get rid of the “foreigners,” and then all would be well. In other words, there has been an attempt to instil into the Sinhalese people a sense of nationality. The "National Day movement is another manifestation of this.

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That the rioting was organized would be sufficiently proved by the fact that it broke out simultaneously over so large an arca, and in every case with the same object. There was a general belief that little notice of the riots would be taken by Government. Undoubtedly the mass of the people believed this, and it is probable that even the more educated people thought that the rioting would be followed only by prosecutions in the ordinary Courts and by nothing else.

The evidence obtainable in the Korale does not show who were the persons at the back of the movement which resulted in the riots. A consideration of the ascer- tained facts seems to point to certain conclusions :—

(1) There has been in existence for some time a movement to arouse in the Sinhalese people a sense of their nationality. This movement has found expression in the "National Day" agitation and through addresses made in a number of centres, at temples, and at the various Samagamas whose avowed object is the advocacy of temperance. The originators of the movement appear to be certain ambitious persons who are dissatisfied with their position in life. A main point in their propaganda has been the desirability of maintaining genuine Buddhist customs and of getting rid of “foreign" influence.

(2) The attack on the Moors is the outcome of this. The Moors form a com- munity alien in race, religion, and mode of life to the Sinhalese. As a class they are not popular. In the villages their prosperity as traders and their position as the local moneylender make them unpopular. But, though their prosperity may arouse jealousy, there is, except in places of some size, no commercial rivalry. The Moor traders sell articles (e.g., cloth and hardware) in the supply of which the Sinhalese boutique-keepers do not compete.

(3) It was easy to convert the ornsade against foreign influence into a definite campaign against the Moors as representative of such influence; and this provided a definite object at which to aim

(4) Religious feeling was called in to aid the movement. The Christian Sinhalese, at any rate the more respectable among them, took little part. In the main the movement was confined to Buddhists.

(5) The mass of the people had in view only the immediate object of expelling the Moors; and the impulse did not spring from the people, but was imparted to them by those more educated persons who spread the propaganda.

T. G. WILLETT, Special Commissioner.

List of Villages Looted.

On 1st June.-Yakwala, Pahala Imbulgoda, Surinaluwa, Kendaliyaddepaluwa, Karagahamuna Pahala, Dalugangoda, Badalgoda, Kelaniya, Biyanwila Thala, Makola South, Heiyantuduwa, Bollegala. Naranwala, Weboda, Henegama, Wilim- bula, Amunukumbura, Uda Tuttiripitiya, Hiripitiya.