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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

ICO. 88210

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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the present day it is four millions odd. to-day they are twenty millions.

The exports were then £145,000, and

VISCOUNT MILNER: That is a very creditable record.

MR. PEREIRA: Yes. The imports were £372,000, and at the present day they are over £12,000,000. The tonnage of shipping entered and cleared was 153,510 in 1834, and six millions odd at the present time. The schools, and that is an important factor here, were 1,105 in 1834, and are now 4,213; the scholars were 13,891, and they have increased to 395,810.

VISCOUNT MILNER: That is all excellent.

MR. PEREIRA: Your lordship will see that much good has undoubtedly been done by the British Government-we freely admit that-much good done to educate the people of the country and to improve their condition so far as possible in the circumstances. But, my lord, our plea is this, that a good deal more might have been done; many things might have been done in this country which could not be done on account of the unfortunate form of Government under which we *placed.

were

Your lordship will pardon me for referring back to ancient history when I tell your lordship that so far back as the sixteenth century we have it on the authority of a well-known historian that the manufactures of the Sinhalese, especially firearms, not that that is a very worthy object of manufacture▬▬▬▬

VISCOUNT MILNER: They have their uses at any rate.

**

MR. PEREIRA: In the manufacture of firearms they excelled European nations, and, to quote the words of the historian, the shine on the barrels was equal to the shine of silver, and superior to the shine on any Western material of the same kind." Now men who were able to do all that, men who could produce a shine on steel equal to the lustre of silver and gold—that their industries should not have progressed as they should have done in the progress of the world, that they should have rather been retarded and thrown back, is, I think, a matter which is worthy of your lordship's consideration. It is certainly a matter which the people of the country feel as a grievance. The metal is there, the art is there, but the shine has gone. We have got the men, who are capable of doing anything. They are men of fine intellectual capacity, but yet the means of utilizing them all this mass of intellectual wealth-is not within our power. The initiative always comes from the Government, and it is difficult for us, as a people, to press upon the Govern- ment our own particular wishes and measures with anything like effect.

I was speaking about ancient history. Now let me refer your lordship to more recent history a pamphlet issued by the Bureau of Education of India, pamphlet No. 5. Notes on Vernacular Education in Ceylon by Mr. Sharp, C.S.I., C.I.E., who was sent out with a Commission from India only last year to study the question of education in Ceylon, so that India might benefit by what Cevlon has done. May I just refer to one or two passages from this report which are of great use to us in our contention that we are a nation qualified and fitted for self-government. Mr. Sharp says in this report, which he made to the Indian Government, on page 4: "Generally speaking. Ceylon, if its size be con- sidered, is far more adequately equipped than most parts of India. The quality and tone of the schools is good. They are under better control than in India, and there is a genuine keenness for good education. The numerical result is a school population of 400,933 out of a total population of 4,110,000, or 976 per cent. of the population at school as against 3-2 in India. Of these, 125,779 are in Govern- ment, 253,241 in aided, and 21,913 in unaided, schools; 32,642 are in English, and 346,378 in vernacular, Government, and aided, schools, the remainder in schools of other kinds; and 126,871 are girls." Further down there are these very important passages, which I, with your lordship's permission, will read: "The percentage of literacy for males is 404, and for females 10-6, against 10-6 and 10 respectively in India." Your Lordship, therefore, sees how far ahead we are of India-in point of education. The percentage of our literates is 40-4. Mr. Sharp further says

The visitor who is acquainted with Indian village conditions will be impressed in Ceylon by the wholesale way in which things are done, and also by the excellence of the education imparted. He will be thinking of the small, dark building, stuffy in summer, and sunless in winter, with its fifty pupils, mainly crowded together in the infant classes, which so often represents the educational centre of an Indian village; and he will contrast it with these open school-rooms, spacious and airy, with anything from one hundred to one thousand pupils, divided into well pro- portioned classes, each with its teacher and monitor. The school in Ceylon is alive

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and things go with a businesslike energy, which is too frequently lacking among the stagnant lower classes which overload Indian institutions. There are reasons for this contrast; and, when we consider them, it is only fair to bear in mind that India, too, can show many admirable elementary schools-indeed, whole tracts where such schools abound. The contrast is between the average institutions found in the two countries. The natural wealth of the island is a potent factor among these It permits of a reasonable expenditure upon education and of the reten- tion of the children at school beyond the age when they become useful for agricul- tural or other work. The ancient stories of this 'land of the ruby and the hyacinth' are no myth, and are as true now as in the days of the Greek writers. Tea, rubber, plumbago, cocoa, the areca nut, cinnamon, and, above all, the coco-nut and its products, to say nothing of its precious stones, constitute an unfailing mine of riches. Here the cultivator is, indeed, blessed: the earth pours out for him an easy livelihood, and a few acres of coco-nut palms bring him a solid monthly income. There is no income tax" (it is a happy land, my lord), "no land revenue. Indeed, the only form of direct taxation is a poll tax of Rs.1-50 a year on all males between 18 and 55 years of age. The revenue is derived from customs, the railway, and other such sources. The annual value of exports is £36 per head of the population against £0.53 in India. The revenue is £11 per head, against £0-37 in India." Further down he says:

The wealth of the island and the advanced state of civil- ization to which most of its inhabitants have arrived render education popular. Caste and purda are of minor importance. Sinhalese girls come readily to school. This fact radically affects the attitude of the people towards education; the literate mother regards literacy as the rightful heritage of her offspring. The only extensive area in India which can compare in the matter of education with Ceylon is Burma, which also is mainly a Buddhist country. In Burma 37.6 per cent. of the male population, and 61 of the female are literate."

One passage more, my lord: "Westernizing influences have been strong in the island, and, without breaking down the national characteristics, have left their marks in many ways upon the life of the people. The missionary element is potent and adds considerably to the educational assets of the island. The European element in the population is substantial and (including Burghers and Eurasians) amounts to nine per cent. No less than 08 per cent. of the popu- lation are enrolled in English schools. The number of males literate in English in 1911 was three-and-a-half times the corresponding figure in India, and the number of females are twelve times. In some of its aspects Ceylon appears to have parted from the habits of the immemorial East and to have adopted European ways and requirements." So that your lordship sees we are far ahead of India in the opinion of one of India's own Commissioners sent out specially to investigate our educational system in Ceylon and our conditions.

Then, my lord, when these facts are taken into consideration-our ancient history, our ancient civilization, which extends over a period of over two thousand years--when

we take into consideration the recommendations made by Sir Alexander Johnstone and the Commissioners in 1833, and now when we consider the advanced state of the country, is it to be said that we to whom a Parliament similar to the English Parliament was practically offered so far back as a hundred years ago, are to be denied a fair measure and a substantial measure of self-govern- ment now? We have improved. If we have not it is a serious slur on the British administration.

I am not going to libel the British administration by saying that we have not improved. We have improved, and decidedly improved, as the facts and figures I have quoted will show your lordship; and if we have, my lord, surely we have arrived now at man's estate, and are we not justified, are we not making a reasonable request to your lordship when we say we are entitled to have a voice in the administration of our country?

No doubt the political unrest caused by the War has had its effect in Ceylon, too. We, too, have seen nations whose very existence was unknown to the modern student suddenly arising from their graves and getting free institutions and self-government in different parts of the world. I need not refer to them; your lordship knows the nations I refer to. We see within almost a few miles of us, in the Phillipires, an Eastern nation which only a few years ago comparatively, about twenty-five or twenty-six years ago, was in a state of civilization far below that of Ceylon. They never had a real civilization of their own which they could call civilization as the Sinhalese could. We see that country educated by the Americans, and within ten