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venture to suggest to Your Excellency that it would he hetter if the English law on this point were established in Ceylon.

11. Other points. There are certain other points, which also seem to me to require attention:-

(a) The Rules in Schedule 2 of the Order in Council do not contain any express provision authorizing an Election Court to open a ballot box, and inspect See the Ballot Act, 1872. Schedule 1. voting papers and counterfoils. Part 1. Rules 40-41.

(b) In Article XI. there is a verbal departure from the English model (Ballot Act, 1872, Section 13). "Or" has presumably by an oversight been substituted for "and." This might have serious consequences, and requires correction.

12. For the purposes of any revision that may be undertaken, I would venture to submit the following suggestions :—

(a) Under English law a candidate, who is guilty of an act of bribery, is per- See Act of manently disqualified from parliamentary candidature. 1883, Section 4. It may occasionally happen that an act of what is, in Ser law, bribery may be committed by inadvertence or indiscretion.

Should the English rule be Cooper v. Slade (1856; 27 LJ.Q.B.449). introduced, it might be well to give the Court in such cases a diseretion to impose a lesser disqualification.

13.

(b) Speaking generally. I think it would be well that, when a candidate is unseated through the act of an agent, any disqualification imposed upon him should not be such as to prevent him from standing at a general election held in due course after the lapse of five years from the previous election. The number of persons in Ceylon, whose circumstances and If the present tastes qualify them for public life, is at present limited.

period is kept, the indiscretion of an agent might exclude a useful man from public life for ten years.

(c) In Articles XLI and XLII, the Court in appropriate cases should have the option to impose a fine. These sections reproduce, with modifications. Sections 3 and 4 of the Ballot Act, 1872. In England the Court has such an option under Section 3 by virtue of the fact that the offence is declared a misdemeanour, and under Section 4 by virtue of the Summary Jurisdic- tion Act, 1879. Section 4.

(d) It seems to me undesirable that offences under Articles XLIII, XLIV. XLVI should be treated summarily by a Police Magistrate. A Police Magistrate (who is also a District Judge) might he given a discretion, if the case is simple, to try it summarily, but ordinarily, it would be better that this offence should be tried on indictment by a District Court. I would draw Your Excellency's attention to the fact that matters referred to in paragraph 11 (a) could be dealt with by Rules made under the Order in Council by the Governor in Executive Council, but that matters referred to in para- graphs 4. 9. 8 and 11 (b) would require the amendment of the Order in Council itself. The matter referred to in paragraph 10 could be dealt with by local legislative action, but it would probably be found convenient, if the Order in Council is amended, to include it in the amending measure.

I have. &c..

2+

Clause iii of the Order in Council, 1923. This definition is vague and the word The use of the term "native" has long been "native" is extremely ambiguous. discontinued all over India, as it was considered an objectionable term.

The accepted definition of the term "Indian among the Indian community in Ceylon is "a person whose father or paternal grandfather was born in India and who speaks an Indian language as his mother tongue." The Indian Club at Colombo, a spcial body with a representative membership of Indians of all sections of the com- munity, has adopted this definition, and the Indian Rice Merchants' Association defines the term "Indian" in the same way.

In this connexion I might invite your attention to the principle adopted by Mr. Turner, C.C.S., for the purposes of the Ceylon Census in 1921, and the statistical distinction he makes. The report of the Census says "The distinction of the Tamils into Ceylon and Indian which was first made at the Census of 1911 was continued on this occasion, the Ceylon Tamils being those who trace their origin to a Tamil District in Ceylon, and the Indian Tamils, in general, those who do not do So. In most cases the distinction was clearly appreciated by the enumerators, but the case of Indian Tamils horn in Ceylon appears to have presented some difficulty, and a number of instances came to notice in which these persons were returned as Ceylon Tamils. Some marginal cases would appear at first sight, for example, that of an Indian Coolie born in Cevlon, whose parents had been domiciled there for sixty years. But as stock and not birthplace determines the race, and as "Ceylon Tamil would mean a Tamil who traced his descent to a Tamil District in Ceylon, it seems clear that "Indian Tamil" would be the correct entry in the case mentioned (ride— Turner's report Vol. 1, part i, page 202).

It is also significant that the Ceylon Civil Service Regulations, on the same principle, exclude Ceylon-born sons of Indian parents from admission to the Ceylon Civil Service and classes them Indians.

An Indian resides here during the period he carries on business in Ceylon, and when he retires from business he gets back to his home in India. During the period of his residence children are born to him, and there are thousands of such Ceylon- horn children, and they were never commonly known as Ceylonese. We therefore take it that the same principle followed in the case of the Census and the Ceylon Civil Service Regulations were introduced in the Order in Council in defining the term "Indian" and that the intention was to define the term so as to exclude Ceylonese and Europeans born in India and residing in Ceylon and to include Ceylon-born sons of Indian parents. Any other interpretation would be an anomaly: and a Ceylon-horn son would be considered an Indian, and the son at the same time becomes a non-Indian and is disentitled to exercise the franchise in the electorate to which his father belongs, e.g., if an Englishman has a son born in Italy. the son is an Englishman and not an Italian, and it has to be so in the case of an Indian.

My Association therefore trusts that the interpretation for the purposes of the Order in Council will be one that is commonly understood and accepted by the Indians. It is submitted that in a matter of this nature the sentiments and opinions of Indians, apart from the facts above stated, should have your best consideration.

I am, &c..

Honorary Secretary.

ANTON BERTRAM,

Chief Justice.

The Honourable

The Colonial Secretary,

Colombo.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

C.O.882/11

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

His Excellency

The Governor.

Colombo.

Enclosure 4 in No. 3.

Indian Electorate.

The Ceylon Indian Association, 14. Baillie Street, Colombo,

7th March, 1924.

SIR,

IN continuation of my conversation with Mr. Hobday, the Second Assistant Colonial Secretary, on the 6th instant, I beg to submit that my Association and the as given in Indian community in general object to the definition of "Indian"

The Indian Association of Ceylon,

4th March, 1924. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,

THE Indian Association of Ceylon begs leave respectfully to invite the attention of Government to the definition of the term "Indian" in the new Order in Council by which Indians domiciled in Ceylon are deprived of the franchise in respect of the Indian Electorate, and to the definition of the expression " Ceylon Tamil," by which Indians of the Tamil community whether domiciled in Ceylon or not are excluded from the special communal electorate. These definitions, the Association ventures humbly to submit, are, doubtless, expedient from one point of view, but they are manifestly defective from another; and it is the purpose of this Memorial briefly to