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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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though rioting took place close by. The police duraya of Pohonnoruwa was stabbed while trying to arrest a rioter. Boutiques were also saved in other villages, being protected by the Sinhalese proprietors.

Possibly the lack of evidence against the headmen is due to the fact that inquiries into this Korale were only begun at a later date. I would say, however, that the headmen as a whole have not been implicated. Only two have been con- The police victed and sent to jail, the police vidanes of Bolane and Haloluwa. vidane of Indiparape, with his brother and two relatives, were charged with rioting, but were discharged on instructions from the Attorney-General. The police vidane of Weweldeniya Thalagama was convicted in the Itinerating Police Court, but acquitted when the case was retried after appeal.

The result of the action taken by the Sub-Inspector of Police cannot be con sidered satisfactory He states that he protected the boutiques at Ambepusse railway station. Possibly, however, his presence there was not needed, as these boutiques belonged to the Senayakes, who were the ringleaders of this district. It was unfortunate that he and four out of five men should have been away from Miri- The constable who was left at the gama while the boutiques there were looted. police station received a knife wound while trying to arrest a rioter.

I have assessed the total damage done in this Korale at Rs.75,238.

N. IZAT,

Special Commissioner, Western Province.

Enclosure 7 in No. 57.

From the Ceylon Independent of 22nd September, 1915.

ANOTHER COMMISSION.

OUR contemporary, the Catholic Messenger, discusses the suggestion as to the need of a Commission to inquire into the causes of the recent riots in an interesting editorial note, published in its latest issue:-

"Another Commission? Why? We have had experience of several; we burned our fingers over one; and to ask for another we have no inclination. Particularly does it appear to us futile no, not futile, but unwholesome-to rake up again before a Commission all the noisome rubbish that the riote have left. No Commission can get over the fact of the riots, of the damage done, of the atrocities perpetrated, of the lives lost, of the punishments inflicted. That there was preparation of a kind sufficient to excite inflammatory feeling is palpable enough. The Gam pola case and its consequences, the articles in some of the vernacular papers of which the Chief Justice has spoken in terms that under regimes other than ours would have been placarded all over the country by order of the Government-the frothings of street preachers, the use made of this and that association to glorify Buddhism, to make Buddhist and Binhalese quasi-convertible expressions, these are occurrences which need no elucidation and on whose import we want no report to throw enlightenment. No Commission can minimize the extent of the riote, overlook the want of loyalty implied in their incidence, find other provocation than the insistence on what they considered their legal rights by the Mohammedans of Kandy and Gampola, show other beginning of the outbreak than the Buddhist Wesak procession of May last, deny the right to compensation of those who have suffered damage or revise sentences, however severe, that have been passed by Courts duly authorized. Then what can a Commission do? We see one thing; justify in the eyes of the world men who were arrested under martial law and later released without trial. We see no need for any such justification; nemo malus nisi probatur in a principle older than yesterday or to-day, and in a true in Ceylon as in any other part of the universe. Besides, the public estimate of the riots reste, not on these arreste, but on the public knowledge of how they began, the damage which they did, and the difficulty which the Government experi- enced in suppressing them. As to the suggestion, which we have seen more than hinted at, that the Government itself should be put on its trial, we dismiss it as unsupported, mischievous, and unworthy of consideration. Therefore we want no Commission; the authorities have all the knowledge needed in regard to the cause of the riots; and in those under rule what we want to Bee at this juncture is not a disposition manifesting itself by a clamour for inquiry, but a genuine and salutary display of compunction."

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(No. 624.)

No. 58.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 18th October, 1915.)

The Queen's House, Colombo, Ceylon, 23rd September, 1915. [Published as No. 19 in [Cd. 8187], January, 1916.]

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No. 59.

THE NATIVE RACES AND THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC UNITED COMMITTEE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received 15th October, 1915.)

[Answered by No. 67.]

177-8, Palace Chambers, Bridge Street, Westminster, S.W.,

15th October, 1915.

SIR,

In continuation of my letters of 30th July and 7th September," regarding the recent arrests of Buddhist temperance leaders in Ceylon, I beg to ask your attention to a copy of a letter, which I enclose herewith, from the Rev. W. J. Noble.

Mr. Noble has been at work in Ceylon as a Wesleyan missionary for fifteen years. He is chairman of the Ceylon Excise Reform Association, which represents all sections, and be enjoys to a remarkable degree the confidence of those Ceylonese who take part in public affairs, whether they are Protestants, Roman Catholics, or Buddhists.

His opinions, therefore, are worthy of careful consideration.

DEAR MR. Newton,

I have, &c.,

J. NEWTON,

Secretary.

Enclosure in No. 59.

Britannia Cottage, Redcar, Yorks, 4th October, 1915. WITH reference to our conversation of the 30th ultimo, I should like to put on record my views on the present situation in Ceylon, so far as it relates to the alleged complicity of certain members of the Ceylonese community in the recent riots. I use the words "alleged complicity' advisedly, since the gentlemen referred to were either subjected to a search of their houses or were arrested under martial law, and unless they were suspected of such complicity it is impossible to explain the action of the authorities.

I have for several years had the pleasure of the most intimate association with Dr. W. Arthur de Silva, Mr. D. B. Jayatilaka, Messrs. F. R., D. C., and D. S. Also, Senanayake, Mr. D. R. Wijewardine, and Mr. C. A. Hewavitarne.

And I

to a rather less extent, with Mr. L. W. A. de Soysa, Mr. Charles Batuvantudawe, Mr. E. T. de Silva, and Mr. Arthur Diac. That association has more particularly existed through our common interest in the temperance and social reform move- ments in Ceylon. But it has come to be of a most friendly nature, and has led to the exchange of views upon all questions affecting the welfare of Ceylon. wish to state most emphatically that I have for long been entirely convinced of the loyalty of these gentlemen to the British rule. Even on occasions as during the progress of the Government's excise scheme--when that loyalty was most severely tried, by an attitude on the part of the Government which they deemed inimical to the best interests of the people, it was not shaken, though, indeed, I have more than once expressed my surprise that it survived. I am profoundly convinced that the Government have no truer supporters in Ceylon than those Ceylonese who were com- pelled gravely to criticize the official attitude on the matter of temperance reform.

The Government of Ceylon have, unhappily, laid themselves under the gravest suspicion more than once in regard to their scheme of excise reform-notably over the hurried introduction of the new toddy taverns, and especially their order that no headman was to join a temperance society, an order which was rapidly found to be as unwise as it was unjust and was withdrawn. But I am now informed that a considerable number of the Ceylonese in high positions arrested under martial law during the recent riots are prominent temperance workers, and this association, The people whether justified or not, can have only one result in the public mind.

of Ceylon have, during recent years, obtained an impression, for which there has been no little justification, that to work on the side of temperance, and especially actively to criticize the Government on the matter, was to occupy a position of some

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