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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TUTIT

C.O. 882/10

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

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

58147

(No. 887.) SIR,

No. 2.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.

Downing Street, 30th November, 1921.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 723, of the 1st November, transmitting a copy of a resolution passed by the Muslim Literary Club, of Galle, on the subject of constitutional reform.

2. I shall be glad if you will cause the Club to be informed that their views will receive consideration with those of any other bodies interested in the question. 3. You will, no doubt, inform me in due course how far the views expressed in this Resolution are shared by the general Muslim population of Ceylon.

18223

SIR,

No. 3.

I have. &c.,

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Confidential.)

(Received 20th March, 1922.)

[Answered by No. 7 and No. 3 in Cmd, 1809.]

Queen's House, Colombo, Ceylon, 1st March, 1922. I HAVE the honour to inform you that in the Legislative Council of Ceylon a debate upon suggestions for the further reform of the Political Constitution took place upon the 1st, 2nd, 8th, 9th and 10th December, 1921, upon a motion moved by the Member for Colombo Town (the Hon. Mr. James Peiris).

2. The resolution as it originally appeared on the Order of the Day was in the following terms:--

That His Excellency the Governor may be pleased to forward to His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies the following suggestions for the reform of the Constitution of Ceylon, and the amendment of the Order in Council, 1920:-

(1) That the Legislative Council should be re-constituted, so that, with due safeguards for minorities, it should consist of forty-five members, of whom six should be officials and twenty-eight elected on a territorial basis.

(2) That the non-territorial electorates and the representation of minorities provided for in the present Constitution be retained; but the Burgher and Mohammedan communities be represented by two members each, (3) That the Legislative Council should be presided over by a speaker elected

by itself.

(4) That the Legislative Council should continue to have control over the

Budget as hitherto.

(5) That residence in an electoral area should not be a necessary qualification

for a candidate for election.

(6) That disqualification for election by reason of dismissal from Government service be limited to cases where the dismissal has taken place in conse- quence of an offence involving moral turpitude; and as regards disqualifi- cation by reason of imprisonment, the same provisions do apply as in England for Members of Parliament.

(7) As regards the qualification of voters, that (a) imprisonment be not a disqualification after the period of imprisonment (b) the qualifying resi- dence in an electoral area be reduced from one year to six months; (c) the franchise be widened by the reduction of the property and the income qualifications.

* No. 1.

(8) That the distribution of seats in the territorial electorates should be as

follows:-

Colombo Town

3 seats

Nuwara Eliya District

1 seat

Colombo District

1 seat

Province of Uva

1 seat

Negombo District

1 seat

Ratnapura District

1 seat

Kalutara District

1 seat

Kegalla District

1 seat

Galle Town

1 seat

North-Central Province

1 seat

Galle District

1 seat

Jaffna Town

1 seat

Matara and Ham-

Jaffna District

3 seats

...

bantota Districts

1 seat

Mullaittivu and Vavuniya

Chilaw District

1 seat

Districts

1 seat

Puttalam District

1 seat

Mannar District

1 beat

Kandy Town

Kurunogala District

1 seat

Batticaloa Town

1 seat

1 seat

1 soat

Kandy and Matale

1 seat

1 seat

Districts

Batticaloa District

Trincomalee District

(9) That all persons, irrespective of race, resident in any electorate, otherwise qualified, be entitled to vote for the election of a member or members to represent such electorate.

(10) That the Executive Council should consist of the Governor as President and three members, with whom should be associated three ministers entrusted with portfolios chosen from members of the Legislative Council elected on a territorial basis. (11) That sub-section (1) of section 5 of the Order in Council making pro- vision for the appointment of Nominated Unofficial Members be repealed. (12) That clause 51 of the Order in Council be repealed. (18) That a proviso be added to clause 52 of the Order in Council as follows: "Provided, however, any member or members dissenting from the certification of the Governor may put in a written statement of his or their reasons for such dissent, and such statement be appended to the report required in the succeeding section."

3. The suggestions above referred to, if effect is given to them, will produce a fundamental change in the constitution of the Legislative Council created by the Ceylon (Legislative Council) Order in Council, 1920, and I propose in the first place to call your attention to the salient feature of that Constitution, namely, the recog- nition of the fact that the population of Ceylon is not homogeneous, and that the social structure is founded on a communal basis.

4. The figures for the Census of 1921 are available and show that the popu lation of Ceylon numbers 4,494,000 persons, and is composed of Low Country Singhalese, Kandyan Singhalese, Ceylon Tamils, Indian Tamils, Ceylon Moors, Indian Moors, Europeans, Burghers, and Malays. The annexed Table, marked A,* will show in round numbers the distribution of these communities, and will prove that :

(2) In the Western Province (including Colombo Town) and in the Southern Province, the Low Country Singhalese are in an overwhelming majority; (b) In the Central, North Central. Uva and Sabaragamuwa Provinces, the

same thing may be said of the Kandyan Singhalese:

(c) In the Northern Province other communities are negligible as compared with Ceylon Tamils, and in the Eastern Province the latter form more than half the resident population;

(d) In the North-Western Province the Kandyan Singhalese number 254,000, and the Low Country Singhalese 164,000 or 418,000 combined, all the other communities accounting for 53,000 persons;

(e) With the exception of the Ceylon Moors in the Eastern Province and of the Indian Tamila in the Central Province, Uva, and Sabaragamuwa, the Ceylon Moors, Indian Tamils, Europeans, Burghers, and Malays are so spread over the country as to form but a small proportion of the population among which they reside. however, to be remembered that a very large proportion of them is a As regards Indian Tamils it has, floating population of agricultural labourers.

5. From a consideration of the figures mentioned in the last preceding para- graph it will be seen that there is much to justify the Communal basis on which representation was given in the existing constitution of the Legislative Council,

* Enclosure 1.

B2