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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

158

We are the descendants of the Tharain Caste (Royal) in that part of the country, descended from the late Sardar Skan Khan, who was held in great respect during the British period, and number about 600 in Ceylon, where the majority of us do business as cloth merchants and some as money-lenders. We are individually worth, the lowest Rs. 10,000 and the highest Rs. 60,000 and over, and are law-abiding and peaceful not only in our own country but wherever we go. The records of the Criminal Courts here will bear out what Your Lordship's humble memorialists assert.

We humbly beg to submit to Your Lordship that although we have been resident here all these long years and have identified ourselves with the interests of the country, we have had nobody to represent us or to obtain redress for our many and varied grievances, as a consequence of which we are deprived of many elementary rights and labour under many disadvantages. Even in the reformed Council that is now in its last gasp we have been entirely unrepresented as was revealed in the evidence given before the special (Donoughmore) Commission in 1928 by the Indian and Muslim Members in Council. This is due to the fact that we are not eligible for the franchise because only a few of us are educated in English or any of the vernaculars of the country, although all of us are able to speak these languages with fluency. This is a great drawback to us, as we are not able to get in touch with Members of Council who We plead before can afford to treat us as worthless beings owing to lack of a vote. Your Lordship without fear of contradiction that we are the most persecuted people in thus Island. Even the Muslims have nothing in common with us although we are of the same faith, because our language, inanners, and customs are different from theirs, and also because they assume that the Indian members will look after our interests. The result is that we fall between two stools, for both the Indian members come from South India and are as much foreigners to us as Irishmen.

The result of this lack of representation will be patent to a Minister of Your Lordship's keen perception and liberal sympathies. The records of the Civil Courts will show how we are harrassed by the Police, tricked by designing clients, and not even afforded a patient hearing by the lawyer-judges of the present day in contrast to the treatment meted to all without distinction by the Civil Servant Judges who have been superseded.

I beg Your Lordship's leave to explain that ill-feeling and prejudice against us persist in some quarters which think that we are of the same race as the Punjabi Regi- ment which in 1915 put down the Ceylon Riots with a heavy hand. In other quarters animosity is bred out of pure jealousy of our success in business and careful, regular, and sober habits which enable us to make good. For all these reasons our position here

is not a secure one.

In the Constitution about to be set up, however, provision is made for the Governor to nominate six members to represent those sections of the people, who as a result of the great predominance of the majority communities, would otherwise have no voice in the State Council. It is quite possible the special Commission had our own case, among others, in mind, for when the Earl of Donoughmore and his colleagues were in this country I was at some pains to place all the facts fully before them, and they expressed great sympathy with us, and the papers submitted to them are most probably in the Colonial Office to-day. What we pray of Your Lordship is that, lest our important case go by default, the Governor be advised to see that we, a faithful community from British Baluchistan, should be given a voice in the country's affairs by way of a nominated Seat in the State Council. To the deliberations of that important body, the Afghan Member, besides safeguarding Afghan rights, would bring financial acumen of a high order, balanced judgment, and a trained perspective, and I assure Your Lord- shin that such a step as I have set forth would be of mutual benefit to the Government and to this country. My countrymen join me in beseeching Your Lordship to ensure the execution of this statesmanlike step and we faithfully hope that Your Lordship will. respond to our prayer with that far-seeing beneficence which is your standout charac- teristic as one of his Majesty's most respected Ministers of State.

For which gracious act of consideration and British justice, the undersigned,

The Right Honourable,

The Secretary of State for the Colonies,

Lord Passfield of Passfield Corner,

Whitehall, S.W.1.

12th August, 1930.

As in Duty Bound,

Will ever Pray,

M. H. KHAN

159

(4) Appointment of Committees to consider the Position of Female and Illiterate Voters.

C. 73276/30 (No. 3].

No. 112.

THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 16th June, 1930.)

(No. 421.) MY LORD,

Queen's Cottage, Nuwara Eliya, 22nd May, 1930. WITH reference to paragraph 2 of Sir Hugh Clifford's despatch No. 667 of the 28th October, 1926, I have the honour to inform Your Lordship that I have appointed a Committee to consider what special arrangements should be made for female voters at the forthcoming General Election.

2. The following is the personnel of the Committee :-

The Honourable Mr. T. Reid (Chairman),

The Honourable Mr. H. M. Macan Markar.

The Honourable Mr. A. Mahadeva, The Honourable Mr. A. F. Molamure

C. 73276/30 [No. 4].

I have, &c.,

B. H. BOURDILLON,

Officer Administering the Government.

No. 113.

THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT to THE

(No. 448.)

MY LORD,

SECRETARY OF STATE

(Received 23rd June, 1930.)

Queen's Cottage, Nuwara Eliya, 29th May, 1930. WITH reference to paragraph 2 of Sir Hugh Clifford's despatch No. 677 of the 28th October, 1926,* I have the honour to inform Your Lordship that I have appointed a Committee to advise on the method of hallot to be adopted under the new Constitution in view of the fact that a large number of the voters will be illiterate.

The following is the personnel of the Committee :—

2.

The Honourable Mr. E. St. J. Jackson, K.C., O.B.E. (Chairman),

The Honourable Mr. H. M. Macan Markar,

The Honourable Mr. A. Mahadeva,

The Honourable Mr. D. S. Senanayake,

The Honourable Mr. G. A. Wille,

The Honourable Mr. T. Reid,

Mr. A. G. Baynham, Chairman, Planters' Association of Ceylon,

Mr. A. E. Goonesinha.

I have, &c.,

F. G. TYRRELL,

Acting Colonial Secretary

for B. H. Bourdillon

(Officer Administering the Government).

* C. 21182/26: not printed.