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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O. 882/10

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON |

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH--NUT TO

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years of their conquest we see the Americans grant them a Constitution, we see them giving them a Legislative Assembly with eighty odd elected members, and the Phillipinoes being even admitted into the Executive Council, and the right of election given to the people to choose their own Governors, the Governors of Pro- vinces, as well as of districts, and we see, after another ten years, in 1915 I believe, absolute self-government being granted to the Phillipinoes. What is more, they are promised even their complete independence soon. We do not want independence, my lord.

I can assure your lordship that the Ceylonese are a thoroughly loyal people. But, of course, you cannot expect the same degree of loyalty from a subject race that you expect from a native-born Britisher. They are loyal to this extent that they do not want to be subject to any other Government but the British Govern- ment. They realize the benefits of British rule, they realize the safety to them- selves which that rule implies; it may be as a matter of self-interest, perhaps, that they are so loyal, but they realize the safety of being under the British Govern- ment and do not for a moment desire to sever their connexion with the British Government, or to be independent of it. We wish to be part and parcel of the British Government, but we wish to be part and parcel, not as a subject race under autocratic rule. We wish to be members of the great democracy of the British Empire, and we seek to realize our wishes by the memorials presented to your lordship to enable us to have a fairly satisfactory system of self-government which would not be giving us more than we really deserve.

•

Now, my lord, to come to the point. We have got now a Council in which we are allowed only four elected representatives, and of those two are granted to the Europeans, one to the Burghers, and one to the vast population that remains of the Sinhalese and Tamils.

VISCOUNT MILNER: Is that your proposal?

MR. PEREIRA: No, my lord, that is what was granted to us in 1910

I may mention that it was the result of a deputation of which I was a member, in fact I led that deputation myself to Lord Crewe. The demands were very much greater, but that was all that was given to us. We were promised much more, but I believe there was strong opposition from the Ceylon Government, and the result vas this compromise which was made at the time.

A limited franchise was given to the people, and it has worked very well so far. Certainly the Government will not suggest that the franchise was misused by the people, or that any but good men have been sent by the electorate to the Council. But that has not improved our status, the Council is still a Council with a fixed special majority, is still autocratic, in spite of an increase in the number of unofficial members. I may say at once, my lord, that, so far as we are con- cerned, it matters not to us whether there is an increase of two, four, ten, or one hundred in the unofficial element so long as the unofficial element is in a minority in our Council; it is absolutely useless to us, and, if your lordship, after perusing all these papers and obtaining such other information as your lordship may desire, is of opinion that that is all that should be given to us—additional representation ---we do not want it, may tell you at once, and we would rather go on as we are.

VISCOUNT MILNER: I see.

MR. PEREIRA: What we want is a fair majority of unofficial representation in that Council, so that it may be a governing Council. It is, at present, so far as we are concerned, merely a debating society and nothing more. It is humiliating to us; it is humiliating to our manhood to take part in an assembly such as that when we know that whatever we may say, whatever efforts we may make, are absolutely of no effect-they are valueless.

Now, my lord, if India is to be given a certain measure of self-government- it is only a certain measure that is to be given-and it is bronght home to your lord- ship that we are in a far better position for the grant of self-government, why should we be refused what India is granted? No doubt there are numerous restric- tions placed with regard to self-government in India, and those restrictions need not occur in our case, because we are a more homogeneous people. We have not got that cleavage which exists, or is supposed to exist, in India. between the different No doubt caste exists to a certain extent among the Sinhalese and Tamils, but it is fast dying out-even the gentlemen now before you belong to different castes they move freely together in society; you can go to a Sinhalese wedding or a Tamil wedding and find people of all castes there, and in all their social functions

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they make no difference so far as caste is concerned. It is utterly unlike India. Brahmins are unknown in Ceylon, we have no such caste; it is a country which is p far free from those ancient Eastern trammels. If India is going to get what we all suppose and hope she will get, a fair measure of self-government, I do submit to your lordship that we are entitled to something more, something better than India gets. We have qualified ourselves for it in the school of instruction which the British Government has, in its generosity, given to its subjects, and we have passed our examinations, and we have now come to receive the prize, and I hope that prize will not be refused to us. I know there are difficulties in the way of giving us this unofficial majority; that I fully admit. There is one in particular, and that is this. I might be asked, and rightly asked, "if we grant an official majority to the people in the Legislative Council, what is there to prevent their refusing, in a fit of anger, or at a moment of excitement caused by local troubles or otherwise, to pass all Government measures or refusing to vote supplies and thereby-—_—___”

VISCOUNT MILNER: Bringing about a deadlock.

MR. PEREIRA: Bringing about a deadlock. My lord, that is a right question to put, and the question deserves a straight answer. I admit that difficulty does arise, but it is a difficulty which is not insurmountable, it can be got over, and got over fairly easily; and so far as I am concerned personally, my lord, and I think I nay speak for the bulk of the people of the country whom I know too well, I may say that we are not asking for anything unworkable or unreasonable. I admit that if one jumps over the barriers of autocratic rule into the free plains of democracy, some sort of safeguard, or, rather, some limit will have to be put to the activities of the new-born freedom of the nation which reaches its destination, so that any- thing might not be done hastily and in an intemperate way which would destroy the freedom it has obtained.

Now, with regard to this, I would suggest to your lordship that one way out of the difficulty is the way which has been suggested in the Government of India Bill, and that is that in case of Government measures, or, rather, measures which are considered by the Government to be essential to the good government of the country, and in regard to financial Bills, if there be any such opposition, it would be competent for the Governor to certify that those Bills are necessary for the good government of the country, or that, as is suggested in the case of India, a Grand Committee should be formed of the members of the Council in which the nominated members, or the official members, would be in a majority, and such Bills might be passed by each Committee, if rejected by the Legislative Council, and where so passed by them they would become law as if passed by the Legislative Council itself. That would certainly get over the difficulty, and we shall be satisfied for this reason that the members of the Council, if there be good sense and reason in their opposi- tion, would, in their remarks in the Council, submit their arguments and facts, and all these proceedings will ultimately come to your lordship's office, and your lord- ship will be able to decide who is in the right; and this legislation, if it has been wrongly passed by the Governor, or the Grand Committee, might still be amended. At all events, we shall be satisfied in the knowledge that we opposed and that our voice was heard, and heard with some effect.

As regards other measures which are passed, which the Governor may think would be disastrous to the country, or would not be in the interests of the country, or of the State generally, we do not object to those measures being subjected to the veto of the Governor provided that that veto is not to be an absolutely final veto. Let there be an appeal to your lordship as the ultimate arbiter of our fate.

I am only just suggesting certain facts to your lordship, not that I say that those are the only remedies which can be suggested or adopted; all I say is this, that the difficulty is not insurmountable--the difficulty of ill-advised legislation by a Legislative Council composed of an unoticial majority. It can be so formed as to prevent any mischief being done. Therefore, my lord, I would submit that if I am right in my facts and in my views that the danger could be overcome, what then would be the excuse for refusing to us what we are asking, and that is an nnofficial majority of the Council! I submit, my lord, that our request is a fair, just, and reasonable one.

Then, my lord, as regards the franchise, we ask for one electorate, and I think that is fair and reasonable. I go further even than the memorialists, and I will show that that electorate should be sufficient for not only the Sinhalese and the