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523

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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even to the present electorate would have resulted in a decisively affirmative verdict, and that the affirmation would have been still more decisive if the views and wishes of all the people of the country could have been ascertained. I see no reason, there- fore, to advise you to defer the preparation of the Order in Council and the inception of the other preliminary action.

10. The memorandum which Mr. E. W. Perera. Mr. W. Duraiswamy and Mr. Jayah intimated their intention to submit has not yet reached me.

EXTRACT FROM

Enclosure in No. 66.

I have, &c..

H. J. STANLEY,

Governor.

** CEYLON DAILY NEWS" OF 19TH DECEMBER. 1929.

Mr. Wikramanayaka's Mandate.

SIR,-l'ermit me to contradict your correspondent A Voter," in your issue of the 16th instant, who does not wish to disclose his identity and I do so merely because my silence may create a wrong impression in the minds of some of your readers. Beliatta and Hambantota, it is true, voted for the rejection of the Scheme, but the attendance at both these places put together was about one-third of the attendance at Walasmulla, which solidly voted for acceptance. Further some of the leading men of Beliatta had subsequently changed their minds and had informed me of it, one of whom being the Chairman of the Village Committee, who is not a Government Servant. In fact, another of them who works more for the public good than any one at Hambantota, of whom your correspondent is one, attended the meeting at Walas- mulla, made a speech and thus publicly announced it. Most of the educated and leading men not bound by General Orders regarding public meetings, live in Tangalla, and the meeting at this place voted for acceptance, only one voting for rejection. The meeting at Hambantota consisted chiefly of gentlemen of a minority community and your correspondent, "A Voter," is evidently one of these. The Gramarakshaka Sabha at Kudalella sent me a mandate for acceptance and many of the residents of Wiraketiya, whose views I had ascertained, were for acceptance. Besides the man- dates openly given at these meetings I have spoken to many in the district and have thus ascertained their views owing to the difficulty of getting up public meetings and except for a few they were all for acceptance. I may also mention that the two highest officials in the district, both Tamil gentlemen, were for acceptance.

The conclusion your correspondent has come to is wrong owing to his premises being wrong. He quotes from a newspaper which evidently has inaccuracies and which having given a short account of my speech-as they necessarily must-does not convey accurately what I said. I indicated in my speech that I was strongly opposed to the Donoughmore Scheme, but that I had considerably changed my mind owing to the Scheme having been altered by the Governor and by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and I even enumerated about ten important and substantial alterations to the original Scheme. This part of my speech was not. I believe, reported in the newspapers, and if your correspondent would disclose his identity I could send him the proof of my speech as taken down by the official reporters. As regards his state- ment, that I voted with the "Big Three," I will refer him to the Hansard where he will find that I have often not only voted differently from them, but that I have at times even criticised them. I felt that I should act according to my mandate and I had even told my constituents at the meetings that I would vote according to their Inandate and I therefore voted accordingly.

Tangalla, 17th December.

To the Editor, Ceylon Daily News.

Yours, &c.,

V. S. DE S. WIKRAMANAYAKA.

[Mr. Wikramanayaka is wrong in thinking that community. He is a Sinhalese.-Ed., C.D.N.]

A Voter "

belongs to a minority

+

C. 73230/2/30 (No. 5].

(No. 1063.)

No. 67.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 20th January, 1930.) [Answered by No. 69.]

Queen's Cottage, Nuwara Eliya, MY LORD,

24th December, 1929. SINCE writing my despatch No. 1062 of the 23rd December,* on the subject of the decision of the Legislative Council to accept the Constitutional Reform offered by Your Lordship, I have received this morning for transmission to you the enclosed letter signed by Mr. E. W. Perera, Mr. W. Duraiswamy, and Mr. T. B. Jayah. This is the document referred to in the last paragraph of my above-mentioned despatch as not yet having reached me. The previous communication from these three Unofficial Members was conveyed to. Your Lordship in my telegram of the 16th December.†

2. The observations submitted in my despatch of the 23rd December seem to me to cover sufficiently the points raised in the enclosed letter.

MY LORD,

Enclosure in No. 67.

I have, &c.,

H. J. STANLEY,

Governor.

Colombo, 21st December, 1929. IN continuation of the cablegram forwarded to your Lordship through His Excellency the Governor on the 16th December, 1929, we have the honour to submit the following for your Lordship's careful consideration :-

After the publication of your Lordship's despatch of the 10th October, 1929, on the Reforms of the Ceylon Constitution, the Colonial Secretary formally proposed the following motion in the Legislative Council on the 5th December, 1929, leaving it to the Unofficial Members alone to debate the question

"That in the opinion of this Council it is desirable in the interests of Ceylon that the Constitutional changes recommended by the Special Commission on the Constitution with the modifications indicated in the Secretary of State's despatch of 10th October, 1929, should be brought into operation.'

The Legislative Council accepted the motion by 19 votes to 17 on the 12th December, 1929. Of these the Honourable Mr. C. E. V. Corea declared in Council that he was personally strongly against the motion, but he was voting for it virtually under compulsion. He stated:-

His deluded countrymen, said Mr. Corea, would have them admitted into the citadel of their constitution that wooden horse of the Donoughmore Scheme, little dreaming that it was teeming with expedients calculated to destroy the few privileges they had.

It had been said that they were crying out before they were hurt, and that the Governor's powers have by no means been enlarged. He was sorry he could not agree. The powers (Governor's) proposed, he felt would be most dangerous to the welfare of the people.

The most objectionable feature of the whole scheme in his eyes, Mr. Corea went on, was the question of the Public Services Commission. Cabinet Ministers in England, he believed, could even create peers of the realm practically, but the Ministers under the Donoughmore Scheme would not be able even to make an appointment of a peon. They had to go to the Public Services Commission, and it would be really an act of grace that any man that was recommended by a Minister was appointed by that Commission.

I only mention these matters to show why I am opposed to these Reforms -(applause)--but having stated my objections in this manner, I regret to say that I find myself in a deeply embarrassing position. I personally would reject the scheme, but my constituents have been sending me some letters and messages reminding me particularly that those who were chiefly instrumental in sending me here, while they were canvassing votes for me, used the slogan: Vote for Mr. Corea-He will never let you down!' And they assure me that I shall be

+ C. 63230/7/29 [No. 4]: not printed.

* No. 66.

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