57
211
56
(a) Some reform of our Constitution, directed towards an increase of popular
control, is desirable.
(6) Europeans should be prepared to support such demands as are reason-
able, and should be ready with proposals of their own.
(c) The Colonial Office should be brought more closely into touch with the
Colony which it controls.
(4) There should be unofficial members of the Executive Council, the official members of which should be reduced in number, but not to the extent suggested by the Ceylon Reform League.
(e) The unofficial members of the Executive Council must be nominated and
not elected.
(/) The unofficial members of the Legislative Council should be elected.
except those required to represent particular interests.
The official majority in the Legislative Council must be maintained. The distribution of seats should be based on full territorial repre sentation.
(i) Special provision must be made for the representation of small com-
munities and important interests.
(j) The franchise should be wide enough to include all those who can reasonably be expected to appreciate the value of a vote and the responsibility involved in exercising it.
14. Suggested Reforms.-
(a) The Colonial Office.
We have already indicated the lines on which we think an improvement
in the efficiency in this Office should be effected.
(b) The Executive Council.
This should consist of the following members :-
His Excellency the Governor.
The Officer Commanding the Troops.
The Colonial Secretary.
The Attorney-General.
The Treasurer.
Two unofficial members, nominated by the Governor, of whom one
should be a European and the other a Ceylonese.
(c) The Legislative Council.
The size of the Council is necessarily dependent upon the number of officials who can be spared from their duties to attend its meetings. As it is improbable that Government will be able to spare twenty-two officials, the number of unofficials suggested by the Reform League must be reduced. We can see no necessity for the election of several members to represent the views of any one area. that there should be one member for each of the following provinces, namely, the We suggest Western Province, the Central Province, the Northern Province, the Southern Province, and the Eastern Province, while the North-Central and North-Western Provinces should together return one member, and Uva and Sabaragamuwa another. The following table shows the population, at the last census, of each of these electoral areas and the race which is in numerical preponderance:
Electoral Areas.
Western Province
Central Province
Northern Province
Southern Province
Eastern Province
Total Population.
Predominating Race. Low Country Sinhalese. Kandyan Sinhalese. Tamil.
1,106,321
672,258
369,851
828,817
183,698
Low Country Sinhalese. Tamil.
North-Central Province
520,302
North-Western Province
Kandyan Sinhalese.
Uva
625,213
Sabaragamuwa
included in the electorates. There is no means of foretelling to what race the Colombo member will belong. As it is highly improbable that a European, or Burgher, or Mohammedan will be returned for any of the provincial seats, we recommend that each of these communities should have one member, to be returned by its own electorate for the whole Island, or nominated, if any community so desires. There still remain the special claims of commerce and agriculture. We regard it as a serious defect in the present constitution of the Council, and one fraught with real danger to the prosperity of the Island, that there should be no commercial member and that agriculture should be dependent upon the return of a planter for the rural European seat. Interests of this nature should be represented by members selected by bodies which have acknowledged authority. We recommend, therefore, that there should be three extra members, to be nominated respectively by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, the Ceylon Planters' Association, and the Low Country Products Association. A Council so constituted will provide a substantial beginning for territorial representation, thereby leading to a diminution of racial distinctions which may in the distant future permit of the total disregard of race and the mutual acceptance of each other by all classes of persons as citizens, with the same political needs; in the meanwhile, and until that ideal' is realized, it will satisfactorily safe- guard the special views of the various races, each of which has at the present time strongly differentiated interests and prejudices, to ignore which would be mere folly. The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the Planters' Association will be certain to return Europeans. It need not for a moment be pretended that there is any proba- bility of their taking any other course. So long as the Europeans have invested in Ceylon agriculture and commerce the vast capital which they control at the present day, they are clearly entitled to representation in excess of their proportion as gauged by mere population. The reduction of the European members in 1910, without any reference to the community, has always been regarded as grievance and one which appears to have had no more valid cause than a weak a serious attempt to give an appearance of system to a reform which had in reality no logical system whatever. The scheme which we suggest is logical in this respect, for while we make no secret of the fact that three Europeans will be elected in all, yet the Planting member and the Commercial member will not be elected as Europeans but as men specially qualified to protect planting and commercial interests. Should the Europeans, at any future time, fail to maintain the lead which they now have in these spheres of activity, then the Chamber of Commerce and the Planters' Associa- tion will probably nominate Ceylonese. Nor is either of these bodies even now exclusively European. Each of them has some Ceylonese members who will be entitled to take part in the selection of the member to be nominated. We have, so far, made provision for the protection of communities and interests which obviously require special representation. It is impossible to foresee whether there may not, at some time, arise some community or separate body which is without a voice in the Council, yet is of sufficient importance to have a member to speak for it. We think it advisable to make provision for such an eventuality and accordingly recommend that two seats should be placed at the disposal of the Governor, to be filled by him, should occasion arise, with the sanction of the Secretary of State.
The Legislative Council which we propose will then be composed of the following members :---
Elected by the provincial areas
Colombo municipal area Europeans
津
27
"
21
Burghers
"
"
Mohammedans
Nominated by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce
7
1
1
1
1
1
1
Kandyan Sinhalese.
The
This division of the country gives a fairly even distribution of seats. Northern and Eastern Provinces have sufficiently distinct interests to warrant separate representation in spite of their smaller populations, and the under-repre- sentation of the Western Province will be corrected by providing a separate member for Colombo. If, as is highly probable, the predominating race in each electoral area secures the return of one of its own members, there will be two Tamil members, three Kandyan Sinhalese, and two Low Country Sinhalese, but all races will be
"
Ceylon Planters' Association
""
+
Low Country Products Association
13
Governor, with the sanction of the Secretary
of State, if occasion arises
Total of unofficial members Officials
Total of the whole Council..
2
16
17
33
11 the Governor has not exercised his power of nomination to either of the
extra seats, the numbers will be, unofficials 14, officials 15-total 29.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
I, I, I
Reference :--
C.O. 882/10
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NUT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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