CO885-24 — Page 43

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

EPER CO. 885

سلسلنا

24 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

To His Excellency

Sir Robert Chalmers, K.C.B.,

79

OBYLON.

Enclosure 5 in No. 97.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce,

Colombo, 24th October, 1914.

Governor and Commander-in-Chief in

and over the island of Ceylon, with the

Dependencies thereof.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,

A SPECIAL meeting of the Committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce was held to-day to consider the Proclamation contained in the Ceylon Government Gazette No. 6874, of the 22nd instant, relative to the prohibition of exports from Ceylon of the articles specified, and to the extent indicated in the Schedule attached to the Proclamation in question.

The Committee were unanimous in the opinion that the serious effect which the Proclamation will have on the trade of the Colony should be made known to the Imperial Government, and the Committee beg leave to ask Your Excellency to consider favourably the suggestion of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce that a tele- gram be sent to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in more or less the following

terms:---

"The Proclamation relative to the prohibition of certain articles to America will have a very serious effect on the trade of the Colony generally, Ask for any Approximately 40 per cent. of its exports will be affected. relaxation which may be permissible without detriment to Imperial interests. If present prohibition of exports continued for any length of time, large Again, numbers of native labourers will be thrown out of employment. valuable American connexions for the sale of rubber, plumbago, and ooco- immediate nut oil under normal conditions may be jeopardized. Is there likelihood growing demand for rubber, copra, cooo-nut oil, plumbago, with Great Britain, to compensate, to some extent, for serious check referred to island's trade?”

I have, &c.,

47665/8

SIA,

J. TROMBON BROOM,

No. 39.

any

Chairman, Chamber of Commerce.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 1st December, 1914.)

(Confidential.)

The Queen's House, Colombo, Ceylon, 5th November, 1914. In continuation of my Confidential despatch of 27th October,* I have the bonour to acknowledge receipt of the following telegraphic despatches:-

(a) Your cipher telegram of 27th October, directing that shipping intelligence should not be published in local newspapers.

You will be aware from paragraph @ of my despatch of 27th October* that I had already taken action to that effect.

I so informed you by my cipher telegram of 27th October, and for your fuller information I now enclose copies of my correspondence with the Naval Commander- in-Chief, East Indies Station, on this subject.

After consulting the leading shipping firms, who readily co-operated, I took the further step of prohibiting any reference to dates of sailings in the local shipping advertisements.

(b) Your cipher telegram of 27th October, containing sailing instructions for mariners.

I have communicated this to the officers concerned.

78.

CEYLON.

(6) Your cipher telegram of 30th October, inquiring what money this Government will require to borrow to meet expenditure for the next eighteen months, and recommending the strictest economy.

As you are aware from my Confidential despatch of the 15th ultimo,* financial considerations had not failed to engage my early and earnest attention. At the present time I am engaged in a detailed scrutiny of all expenditure, and am inclined to hope that, with the aid of the Colony's cash balances on deposit here and in London, I may possibly be able so far to supplement the shrinking revenues of the island as to cover to 30th September, 1915, our revised expenditure when this has been rigorously cut down. I have given orders on these lines, and will communicate with you further at a later date. My aim is to dispense with borrowing during 1914-15; but this I certainly shall not succeed in doing if unemployment-still happily negligible-should hereafter increase the financial burthens of this Government.

(d) Your cipher telegram of 31st October, regarding certain German Buddhist priests.

These priests, some ten in all, have for some years past been occupying the small island of Dodanduwa, within ten miles of Galle, where they have lived in seclusion. As I mentioned in my despatch of the 27th ultimo,† I had already con- stituted this Buddhist retreat a place of internment, under police control and surveillance: but as it appeared from your telegram that the continued existence of these German priests in their island might be thought to constitute a possible menace, I have since caused them all to be removed to the military camps of detention at Ragama and Diyatalawa.

I informed you of this action by my cipher telegram of 3rd November.

(*) Your telegram of 31st October, regarding the temporary prohibi- tion of the importation of sugar into Great Britain except under licence. The necessary steps were taken to make this known to the officers concerned.

(f) Your telegram of 31st October, regarding prisoner of war Adolf Hermann.

This prisoner is interned at Diyatalawa, as he failed to produce the Home Office permit referred to in your telegram.

I am making further inquiries, and will address you further at a later when the facts as to the fate of the permit are clearer than they now are.

date

(g) Your cipher telegram of 2nd November, asking whether the Admiralty can assume that all enemy subjects in Ceylon have now been placed under restraint. As regards male enemy subjects, the assumption of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty is correct with the four following exceptions :-

(1) There is one German (Oeffner) in charge of an upcountry estate, which is now in charge of the Controller appointed by the Court to administer Messrs. Freudenberg's affairs. This man is resident under surveil- lance in the centre of Ceylon, but will be removed as soon as a British substitute can be found by the Controller;

(2 and 3) Two Alsatian Roman Catholic priests, Fathers Jenn and Thomas,, one in the Northern Province and one near Colombo. Originally, I interned Father Thomas, with all other priests who are enemy subjects; but, at the instance of the military authorities here and of the French Consul (copies of correspondence enclosed), subsequently I allowed him to come out on the personal undertaking of the (French) Arch- bishop of Colombo. I am seeking similar assurances in the case of Father Jenn, as a condition of his not being interned like other male

enemy subjects.

Mr. Žanetti, of the Irrigation Department of Ceylon, the facts of whose case are fully set out in the accompanying copy of a letter, of 17th September last, from the Director of Irrigation.

I have not, however, at present been enabled to place all the German and "under restraint." Seven--for whom accommodation Austrian women entirely

was available—have already voluntarily joined their husbands in Diyatalawa, and the majority of the remainder desire to go to the same camp when the military

* No. 87.

* No. 85.

+ No. 87.