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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882/10

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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and that co-operation with them in removing the grievances of which they complain will be for the benefit of all.

V. A. Julius,

Chairman.

W. H. FIGG.

J. GRAEME Sinclair, HERBERT Bois.

J. THOMSON BROOM. F. A. HAYLEY.

R. HUYSHE-ELIOT.

B. W. LEEFE.

A. J. MARTIN.

E. R. WILLIAMS.

A. DUNCUM.

Secretary.

The above report was duly adopted by the Council of the Association at a meeting held on the 23rd January, 1919.

V. A. JULIUS,

Colombo, 23rd January, 1919.

Chairman.

A. DUNCUM,

Secretary.

The above report was duly adopted by the Association at the annual general meeting, held on the 8th February, 1919, at which the following resolution was passed:-

That this Association approves of the principles stated, and the scheme of reform outlined, in the report of the Council, dated 23rd January, 1919, and authorizes the Council to take such steps as it may deem necessary for giving expression to the views of the Association, in accordance with that report, subject to such modification in matters of detail as may at any time seem desirable to the Council, but in so far as this report deals with the representation of the Sinhalese and Tamil communities in the Legislative Council, the question as to whether such representation should be on a territorial or communal basis be left to the decision of the Council, after consultation with the leading members of the other communities, who have more intimate knowledge of, and who are more vitally concerned in, this question than the European community."

Colombo, 8th February, 1919,

35477

No. 32.

W. H. FIGG,

Chairman.

A. DUNCUM,

Secretary.

MEMORANDUM BY SIR R. E. STUBBS.

At

I START with the assumption that some "reform" is necessary in view of what is being done in India (though, as a matter of fact, there is no genuine desire in Ceylon for any modification of the present Constitution). Let us take first the Executive Council, which is a simple matter. appointing two unofficials to this body, as their advice will be most useful.

I am strongly in favour of present, of course, advice is obtained from leading men, either by the Governor or by the Colonial Secretary, or both, but it would be an advantage that the Execu- tive Council as a whole should be able to hear this advice, and that the givers of it should feel a greater sense of responsibility than can attach to a private conversa- tion with the Governor or Colonial Secretary.

I agree generally with the Governor as to the composition of Executive Council (as I suppose it is hopeless to argue in favour of cutting out the General, who is, and must be, useless), except that I would not have two Government Agents as

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a general rule. It is better that all the members of the Council should be Colombo men, so that they may be readily available (this is of importance if the meetings of the Council are to be more frequent, as I think they should be), and if any Government Agent besides the Government Agent of the Western Province is appointed, it means taking him away from his work for two days at least.

I would not definitely fix the numbers of this Council, but would lay it down that it shall consist of the Governor, the Officer Commanding the Troops, the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney-General, the Treasurer, and the Collector of Revenue, with such other persons, whether official or unofficial, as the Governor may appoint. This would leave it open to the Governor to appoint one or two Government Agents as he thought best, and to appoint unofficials. the unofficials, I recommend very strongly that nothing should be laid down that As regards will make it necessary for the Governor to appoint members of the Legislative Council. There may be times when the best men to appoint will be in the Legis- tive Council, there will certainly be times when they won't, e.g., last year it would have been absolutely out of the question to appoint the Urban European Member, and the Planting Member would be impossible in any case, owing to his living hundreds of miles away. At this moment it would be possible to find two satis- factory men in the Council (Mr. Williams and Dr. Fernando), but they would not be the best men, in my opinion. If I had been able to appoint two unofficials when I was last Officer Administering the Government, I should have appointed Sir James Broom and Mr. H. L. de Mel, neither of whom is in the Legislative Council or is ever likely to be.

I would, therefore, leave the Governor entirely unfettered in the matter so far as formal instruments are concerned, though it will be understood that, as a rule, the members appointed, in addition to the ex officio members, will be one official (the Government Agent, Western Province, unless there is some special reason to the contrary) and two unofficials, one European and one Ceylonese. Of course, what- ever nationality the Ceylonese may belong to, there will be a howl of protest from the rest. If a Sinhalese is appointed, the Tamils will protest, and will be followed by the Burghers, Moslems, and Kandyans. But it will be necessary to take a firm stand and stick to one European and one non-European (for platform purposes, the reply to the protests is easy: "You are always talking about the 'Ceylonese' as a united body, we take you at your word"). If the Executive Council is con- stituted on this basis, it will be thoroughly satisfactory so far as constitution goes. But, in the case of this Council, everything depends on the way it is used, and I should hesitate to say that it is at present a satisfactory body.

For many years before I went to Ceylon the Executive Council had been little more than a farce. It never met except to deal with murder cases; all the rest of its business was done by the circulation of papers-a bad method, as the people who saw the papers first never had the chance of modifying their opinions in the light of what other people said, unless the papers were recirculated, which meant intolerable delay.

I did my best to wake up the Council by treating it less as a formal council and more as an advisory committee, asking people to bring forward anything they wanted to talk about without regard to its being on the agenda, and also by making it meet more frequently (an unpopular move!), but it usually relapsed into a murder tribunal. I do not think that it would be possible to lay down that it should meet at stated times, as the matter must be left to the Governor, but, if I were Governor, I should have weekly meetings, whether there was business on the agenda or not. just to talk over things in general, except when the Governor was away. when the regular sittings should not take place, but meetings should be summoned specially, as at present.

There is another point which must be considered if unofficial members are added to the Executive Council. At present the Executive Council deals with an enormous mass of papers, probably nearly fifty a week at times: licences of many kinds, trivial by-laws of local boards, land acquisition, Gavsathawa appeals, etc.. and every now and then a disciplinary case under the Colonial Regulations neces- sitating a Committee of three members of the Council. I think that the Council as a whole should be relieved of much of these routine matters. The approval of

• N.B.-In a large part of Ceylon if a Sinhalese calls another a Tamil the only possible repartes is a knife-thrust.