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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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the hands of the Council, and the amendment will be carried or else the Bill must be withdrawn. If withdrawn it will not be easy to reintroduce it as of paramount importance.

Even the paramount importance Billa will have a poor chance, if opposed. If they go with Grand Committee that Committee must either contain nominated members on the Government side or else the Government side must be wholly official. In the first case the Bill can be wrecked in Committee by a combination of the elected and nominated members; in the second, where is the improvement on the present system?

Domestic" legislation introduced by the Government can be wrecked by the opposition of thirteen unofficials. This means that any opposed Bill will be wrecked, since thirteen men will always be ready to follow a strong lead in opposition to Government. What does this all amount to? I think the answer is that, under the proposed complicated system of checks and balances no legislation will be possible except by general consent unless the Government forces it through by establishing an official majority in Grand Committee. This being so, why adopt this very cumbrous method? Why not simply establish an unofficial majority with the necessary power to the Government to veto absolutely insane legislation and to push through absolutely necessary legislation?

Of course, life is much easier with an official majority, but, for myself, I am not afraid of an unofficial majority in most matters. In fact, for a long time I really ran the Council with an unofficial majority for all practical purposes, since I dealt with everything possible in the Finance Committee, which was composed of myself, two officials, and all the unofficials. I axtanded its functions far beyond ordinary financial matters, and dealt with all sorts of things, getting the Com- mittee to agree to them, which meant that they would go through Council without opposition.

Of course, the point of importance is that the Committee met in private, and therefore the members were not afraid to speak their minds, and this would not apply to an unofficial majority in Council, but, if care is taken and most things are thoroughly discussed in some Committee before going into Council, I believe that things would work fairly smoothly.

If, therefore, I had to reconstitute the Legislative Council, the course which I should take would be this. Constitute the Council as follows:-

General

President: The Governor.

Unofficials.

Provincial members Colombo

Officials.

9

Colonial Secretary

1

Agent-General

5 ex officio European Rural*

1

Treasurer

Collector of Revenue

European Urban* Burgher*

1

1

Nominated officials

11

Mohammedan (nominated)

1

Indian (nominated)

1

Two members nominated+

2

17

18

T

This would give the unofficials a majority of one if the Governor did not vote, and I think he should not vote except in special circumstances, when it was

a matter of "paramount importance" that the Government should win.

In that case he should use his ordinary vote and a casting vote.

I submit that this simple method accomplishes just the same as Sir W. Manning's cumbrous methods and effects a great saving of time. It might further be laid down that, except in certain specified classes of cases, e.g., financial matters and defence matters, a proposal thus carried by the Governor's vote will not be put in force till approved by Secretary of State.

*Elected as at present.

+ These posts should be Biled after the elections, so as to secure the representation of the communities which did not get a representative elected or had the smallest number of elected meu. Probably no Kandyan would be elected. Therefore one nominee would be Kandyan. The other would probably be Tamil, as the Provincial elections would almost certainly result in appointment of Low Country Sinhalese.

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These

Of course this suggestion imposes a heavy responsibility on the Governor, but so does Sir W. Manning's, and, as a matter of fact, I do not believe that the use of the Governor's vote would be necessary except on very rare occasions. occasions would be rarer if the precedent of the Finance Committee were followed. and standing committees established on the same lines to deal with various matters. eg., works, education, agriculture, legislation, etc., so that all projects of law, except those relating to taxation, were discussed first by a private committee before coming into Council.

As I have said, I do not believe that Sir W. Manning's sche ne is workable, but in case it is decided to try something of the sort, I should like to notice a few salient points of detail, which I think are open to objection.

*35477, section 13.-He proposes three elected Europeans, in addition to two Europeans, whom he proposes to nominate: i.e., five European unofficials in all. This would give rise to a storm of racial recrimination. Five members for a com- munity of about seven thousand! Three was admittedly too many in 1908, and one was suppressed. There may be something to be said for a Commercial member, though it is rather a mistake to give way to the Chamber of Commerce. They have been sulking for ten years, because, instead of allowing them to nominate their man, we introduced an urban electorate so as to give other people a chance of voting. The great men of the Fort could not endure the humiliation of asking for votes, and so stood aside and let the shop assistants and so forth elect a local lawyer time after time. They can put in the Chamber's nominee if they take the trouble, and I would make them do so.

In that case I would have two elected Europeans, rural and urban, as at present. When they see that they are not going to get their own man the Chamber of Commerce will turn to and get their man elected to the urban seat, as was our intention originally.

At the utmost I would only nominate a Commercial man to the Government side and keep two Europeans on the elected side, electing them as at present. This would keep the proportion of numbers correct and would reduce the proposed Council by two, which would be an advantage.

He also proposes to elect or nominate two Kandyans, as such. I think this is a mistake. A Kandyan might get in for a Kandyan Province, though for several reasons it is improbable. In any case. I think one nominee would be enough, especially as it is hard to find even one. Last time we had to get Meedeniya to resign a Government appointment in order to be nominated.

I see no reason to appoint a member of the Low Country Product Associa- tion as such. Their leading men are leading Low Country Sinhalese, and as such would probably get one or more of the provincial seats.

+85504, section 15.-I differ entirely on the subject of sessions of Council. After prolonged study, and changing my mind once or twice, I am convinced that the present method of sitting about once a week, occasionally twice, is much better than a solid session. It enables things to be dealt with more quickly, and it is infinitely easier from the administrative point of view, as on Council days office work is practically impossible

This does not much matter once a week, but is a serious thing if nothing can be done for four days in succession, especially as an increase in the size of the Council will necessitate taking more officials away from their work.

I should like to make it quite clear, in case I have written anything that may give a different impression, that I am in no way opposed to such genuine desire for self-government as exists. (At present, practically none of it is genuine.) I think that in time the Ceylonese will be fit to govern themselves, but it will not be for a long time, until education has taught them two or three things—of which the most important are, to get rid of caste prejudice, which is amazingly strong still, and a feeling of honesty in public matters, to realize that they are not so clever as they think, to take no notice of ill-informed criticism in the gutter Press, and to think before they talk.

• No. 80.

+ No. 81.