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

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

33162

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No. 20.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Paraphrase.)

(Received 1.12 p.m., 18th July, 1915.)

[Answered by No. 27.]

TELEGRAM.

19TH JULY-Your cipher telegram of 17th July:* substance of proposed provisions of Order in Council will be telegraphed in due course. My cipher tele gram 15th July; I request assurance that there is no objection to continuanos of trials in accordance with your cipher telegram of 12th June.‡ Pending assurance many cases are hung up.-Chalmers,

33162

SIR,

No. 21.、

COLONIAL OFFICE to WAR OFFICE.

[Answered by No. 28.]

Downing Street, 20th July, 1915. WITH reference to the letter from this Department of the 6th July,§ I am directed by Mr. Secretary Bonar Law to transmit to you, to be laid before the Army Council, a copy of telegraphic correspondence with regard to the trials in con- nexion with the disturbances in Ceylon

2. Mr. Bonar Law is advised that the case dealt with in these telegrams is covered by the principles of ex parte Marais (L.R. [1902] Appeal Cases, page 109) and that the action of the courts martial cannot therefore be questioned by the civil courts either by way of prohibition, certiorari, or habeas corpus proceedings. It appears to him, therefore, that, having regard to this and to the decision to issue a validating Order in Council, the trials can safely be allowed to proceed, and with the concurrence of the Army Council he proposes to inform the Governor accordingly.

3. With regard to the questions raised by the Governor in his telegram of the 14th July, the principles of ex parte Marais would appear to prevent any decision of the courts martial being questioned on these grounds, and Mr. Bonar Law is further advised that the suggestion contained in the second paragraph of the Governor's telegram is incorrect, for the following reasons:-

(a) Mr. Bonar Law understands that camp followers are only allowed to accompany His Majesty's troops by special permit of the Commanding Officer in each case. It would appear, therefore, that they become part of the force which they are permitted to accompany, and are, therefore, expressly within the terms of Section 189 of the Army Act when they accompany troops on active service.

(b) The first paragraph of Section 176, read with Sub-section (10), appears by implication to make camp followers on active service" when they accompany troops on active service. The word "soldiers" in the first part of the section must, Mr. Bonar Law is advised, bear a meaning different from that attributed to it by Section 190 (6), since to read the latter definition into Section 176 would make the opening paragraph of that section meaningless. The only reasonable inter- pretation which can be put upon the word in the opening words of Section 176 would be to read it as equivalent to "members of His Majesty's forces." If this is the meaning, the intention of Section 176 (10) must be to assimilate the position of camp followers to that of the troops whom they accompany in every respect, and to make them "on active service" whenever those troops are on active service.

4. Mr. Bonar Law will be glad to know as soon as possible whether the Army Council concur in these views. Should the Council desire to give the matter extended consideration I am to request that he may be favoured with a reply to the question raised in paragraph 2 of this letter at their earliest convenience.

• No. 19. † No. 18. ‡ No, 2.

I am, &c.,

H. J. READ,

for the Under-Secretary of State.

i L.F. transmitting copy of No. 8. Nos. 18, 18, 19, and 20.

No. 16.

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No. 22.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Received 22nd July, 1915.)

L.F.F.]

[Cɔpy to India Office and War Office, 29th July, 1915. Secret. [Published, except portions here printed, as No. 8 in [Cd. 8167], January, 1916.}

(Confidential.)

8.

The Queen's House, Colombo, Ceylon, 1st July, 1915.

*

*

*

Your telegram of the 28th June,* with reference to court martial sentences reached me on the following morning, and I at once communicated it to the Officer Commanding the Troops. conferred with him in the afternoon of the 28th June, in the presence of the Colonial Secretary and Attorney-General (as has been my daily practice since I came down to Colombo on the 4th June), with the result that (subject, of course, to his powers to carry out any capital sentence by a court martial which he may see fit to carry out after due confirmation by himself) the Officer Com- manding the Troops will, after confirmation or modification, remit to me, with all non-capital sentences, also all the capital sentences which he may not have decided to carry out under his martial law powers. Capital sentences so remitted will then come before me in Executive Council for final decision, and I shall be in a position thereafter to communicate to you with regard to the steps taken. I confine myself for the present to enclosing a newspaper copy of a notice issued by the Officer Com- manding the Troops on 30th June.

9. The draft of fifty Punjabi recruits required to maintain the establishment duly arrived from India on the 29th June; the double company of 200 Punjabis ordered to France left Colombo on the 30th June. I shall no doubt receive in due course a reply to my telegram of 24th June requesting that steps be taken to divert from Suez to Colombo a returning Australian transport, with a guard on board, for the purpose of transferring to Australia the German and Austrian subjects who are now interned at Diyatalawa.

I have, &c.,

ROBERT CHALMERS,

Enclosure 2 in No. 22.

Governor, &c.

[Ceylon Government Gazette Extraordinary, No. 6,724, Tuesday, 29th June, 1915.] PROCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOR.

In the name of His Majesty George the Fifth, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith.

PROCLAMATION.

By His Excellency Sir Robert Chalmers, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Island of Ceylon, with the Dependencies thereof.

ROBERT CHALMERS.

Whereas by a Proclamation dated the 17th day of June, 1915, we, the said Governor, did proclaim that the Province of Uva and the North-Central Province of the Island of Ceylon should be subject to martial law from the date thereof:

Know ye that we, the said Governor, do hereby proclaim that the said Proclama- tion is hereby revoked, and that martial law shall cease and be no longer in force within the said Provinces from the date of this Proclamation.

Given at Colombo, in the said Island of Ceylon, this twenty-ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifteen.

By His Excellency's command,

God save the King.

* No. 8.

R. E. STUBBS, Colonial Secretary.

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