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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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Committee was pilloried for its unjustifiable interference in matters outside its function, which it had no business to touch. Sir Hugh Clifford and I were accused of deliberately exploiting the situation, with the intention of throwing the country into confusion, for the purpose of demonstrating the people's inaptitude for self-government.

12. While this controversy was at its height, there was introduced in the Council Sir Hugh Clifford decided to a resolution for prohibition in the Jaffna Peninsula.. leave this matter also to the free vote of the Council, while informing them at the same time that in his opinion enhancement of price of liquor and control of supply was the preferable method of promoting temperance. He left the Colony before the matter came on for debate, and I accordingly took the occasion of my opening address to the Council, when administering the Government, to define the Government's policy in accordance with Sir Hugh Clifford's wishes.

12. It was obvious that in so doing the Government was placing in the hands of its detractors yet another stick with which to beat it, and the opportunity was cagerly seized. No time was lost in proclaining abroad that the Government, while actually admitting its disbelief in prohibition, was yet to anxious to conciliate the Finance Committee that it dared not make a stand, and this plausible argument gained further credence through the adherence of other disappointed politicians, whose schemes had not received the Government's anticipated support.

The

13. I have stated that dependence upon the Government is a marked charac- teristic of the Ceylonese. Abuse it as they may, they look to it for help and guidance in every direction, with the unfortunate result that Government intervention has to a large extent taken the place of private enterprise and individual effort. The people do not realise that the Government is deliberately removing its props, in order to compel them to stand on their own feet, and they not unnaturally contrast with some bewilderment the dictatorial methods of yesterday with the apparently negative process of to-day. The seed sown by interested politicians has fallen upon receptive ground. 14. But Sir Hugh Clifford's policy is beginning to bear its intended fruit. manifest inability of the unofficial members to arrive at any agreement, on such a question, for example, as prohibition in Jaffna, is giving the people occasion to think. They are becoming aware of the fact that there is some motive behind the Govern- ment's actions. and they are beginning to see that the "surrender of control" and utmost limits of conciliation" theory is not after all so true an explanation as themselves Those politicians are certain politicians would have them believe. beginning to shift their ground, and they are substituting for the charge of weakness an accusation that the Government is purposely designing its policy in order to show The various parties and factions, who that the country is not fit to govern itself.

"

formerly fraternised upon the common ground of opposition to the Government, are finding that agreement upon a positive line of action is not so easy a matter as agree- ment in negative opposition, and they are realizing that government of the people by the It is beginning people is not after all quite the simple thing that they thought it was. to dawn upon them that control by a strong central authority is still a very necessary factor in the well-being of the community. It is most significant in this connection that Sir James Peiris, who was once at the head and forefront of the reform movement and led the unofficial members out of the House on the budget debate of 1922, has now expressed his alarm at the latter-day trend of affairs, and he has had the courage to state publicly his conviction that Ceylon is not after all yet ripe for self-government. 15. The withdrawal of the Government target is achieving the result also that In- hostility against the Government has become appreciably less pronounced. dividually the Ceylonese have no feeling of ill-will against the Government. They are by nature a friendly and courteous people, racial animosity is in no way innate in them, and they are ordinarily ready to meet a sympathetic advance more than half-

way.

16. A large part of the community has failed to grasp the significance of these occurrences. People have not understood why the powers of certification and veto. which remain with the Governor, should not enable him to govern in accordance with time-honoured methods. The Europeans in particular have believed that the changes in the Constitution have been due to weakness rather than to deliberate policy, and it is inconceivable to them that the handing over of power from the European to the Ceylonese can admit of any interpretation other than that of feeble conciliation. I have been at considerable pains to get concrete examples of alleged undue con- cessions, and I have obtained only three: Jaffna prohibition, to which I have referred; The two last cost of dieting at Mandapam Camp, and the Planters' medical service. matters were the outcome of a genuine misunderstanding, which has now, I think, been satisfactorily cleared up In any event the Government was satisfied that the

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There are otherwise vague assertions that course which it took was the right one. votes are improperly cut down or refused by the Finance Committee, and one definite instance with regard to a reduction in the estimate for the new Customs building has been quoted. That reduction was proposed by the Government, not by the Committee. It is only on the rarest occasion that the Committee interferes with a vote, and, when it does, there is a reason which provides a sufficient justification in Ceylonese eyes. is true that the Government does on occasion accept a decision of the unofficial members which has been contrary to its own view, and it is also true that on occasion the unofficial members have been right and they have proved to the Government that it had been

wrong.

17. There is another aspect of the matter which is apt to be lost sight of. Every European who comes to Ceyon, Civil Servant, Technical Expert, Merchant, Planter, is a picked man. Supported by the Crown Colony system of Government the European has taken charge everywhere: public administration, commerce, agriculture, engineer- ing, he has guided and directed all the activities of the country in many ways to its great and lasting benefit. But there are disadvantages. The people have been hustled along at a pare beyond their capacity, and at the same time they have been thrust into the background and have not had opportunity to think out their own problems or manage their own affairs in their own way. Everything must conform to an imported standard which makes no allowance for mediocrity. The transference of Government control from European into Ceylonese hands has given the Ceylonesc opportunity to throw off European domination, and they are determined to learn, as soon as they possibly can, how to run the country with their own men on their own lines. That they are being encouraged to do so gives further material for blaming the Government. The European forgets that the administration of his own country is far from perfect, he sees that the Ceylonese are making mistakes in Ceylon, he sees that the Government is condoning those mistakes, and again he draws the conclusion of ** surrender of control

We have the paradox that the Commissioners “utmost limits of conciliation." pronounce the country to be ready for a big forward stride towards self-government, and at the same time find that the administration has been wrong in encouraging the people to cut the old leading strings.

and

18. In their criticism of the Finance Committee, on pages 22 and 23, the Com- missioners have accepted opinions which were expressed to the Government by the Head of one of the Small Departments in a letter from which they have taken passages almost verbatim, as the following extract from it shows:- Until two or three years ago the relations between this Committee and the Heads of Departments were pleasant and all business was carried through in a friendly and courteous manner.

Unhappily this state of affairs no longer exists and when a Head of Department appears before the Finance Committee he is frequently treated very much as a lawyer would treat a hostile witness and, morcover. is subjected on occasion to grave dis- courtesy. To most men such treatinent is painful and humiliating and there appears to he no redress.

"It is a fact that most Heads of Departments have come to regard their visits to the Finance Committee as the most distasteful part of their official work. They are obliged to listen to criticisms which are sometimes couched in discourteous and offensive language and it speaks well for these officers that they have met the situation with a considerable degree of forbearance.

"My own impression, which may be wrong, is that they do not receive adequate protection from the Chair on these occasions and it may be urged that Heads of Departments are well able to take care of themselves when faced with concrete charges. This may be true enough, but the discourteous methods which some members of Couneil are pleased to use cannot be condoned, nor can anything he said in defence of the manner in which the information, upon which these attacks are based, is frequently acquired."

19. The writer of that letter informs me that his reference was to an incident which occurred prior to Sir Hugh Clifford's arrival in the Colony. He states that he has been before the Committee yearly since 1910 in connection with his annual estimates, and that he had two had years, mainly owing to one unofficial member, whose personal animosity is notorious. Otherwise from his point of view-the proceedings have been pleasant. The Chairman, who presided over the meeting at which the incident "has proved that he is particularly well occurred, reported on the letter that the writer

able to take care of himself in Finance Committee. The Chair does its best to protect Heads of Departments, but it cannot stop heckling entirely." I endorse that view.

Printed in full in Enclosure 1 in No. 3.