CO885-24 — Page 44

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

THCO. 885

24 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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CHYLON.

authorities (who have been placed in charge of the camps) have provided suitable accommodation. Maternity cases, I may add, are placed in the Lady Havelock Hospital in Colombo.

(A) Your telegram of 3rd November, regarding the navigation of the Thames.

Due action will be taken to warn mariners accordingly.

2. I have further to acknowledge the receipt of your cipher telegram of 31st October, forwarding for publication, on receipt of instructions, a communiqué on the conduct of the Turkish Government.

The following morning I received a telegram from the Naval Commander-in- Chief, East Indies Station, stating that hostilities with Turkey had commenced. I learned a little later that the Viceroy of India had already published a communiqué similar to that received from you and accordingly (as there is close and speedy communication between India and Ceylon by letter as well as by telegram) I tele- graphed to you on the 1st November, asking if I was to publish the communiqué On receipt of your reply of 1st November, I caused the communiqué to be published forthwith, together with the additions contained in your telegram of 1st November.

here.

I acquainted you, by a cipher telegram of 2nd November, with the fact that the news of the outbreak of hostilities was said to have been published in India, and informed you that, in the absence of an official intimation from you, I was taking no action beyond publishing your telegrams of 31st October and 1st November. am still without definite information from you as to the outbreak of hostilities. Meanwhile, I am pleased to be able to report that there is no sign whatsoever of disloyalty among the considerable Mohammedan population of this Colony. I have caused your communiqué to be translated into the vernacular, and have ordered it to be published widely among the Mohammedans.

I enclose an extract from the Ceylon Independent, of 4th November, which will give some indication of the trend of local Mohammedan feeling. To-day there will be a public meeting of the community in Colombo "to give expression to the loyalty of His Majesty's Moslem subjects in Ceylon, and also to consider what steps should be taken to urge Turkish neutrality in the war.'

3

3. Adverting to paragraph 4 of my despatch of 27th October,* I have to "Worcestershire" on the inform you that the Ceylon contingent left by the 8.8. night of 27th October, as I informed you by my cipher telegram of 28th October, by which I replied to your telegram of 19th October.

I am awaiting your reply to my proposals that the War Office should accept a fixed monthly amount in discharge of all liabilities on account of the contingent, the exact figure being left for your decision.

4. With reference to paragraph 1 (c) of my despatch of 27th October,* I still await your reply to my telegram of 28th October, urging that I be allowed to offer the prize ship "Australia " for charter to assist local trade.

As regards the "Steinturm" and "Moltkefels," I invited your sanction to the proposals contained in my telegram of 29th October, in which I explained the position in which matters relating to these two vessels now stand. I have not yet received your reply.

" "Fürth (vide paragraph 2 (*) of my despatch of With reference to the 8.8. 27th October*), I telegraphed to you on 27th October informing you that the vessel was consigned to Messrs. Thomas and James Harrison, of Billiter Street, London, from whom information as to the progress of the vessel could be obtained.

5. Adverting to paragraph 7 of my despatch of 97th October,* I am address- ing you in a separate despatch on a proposed consolidation of the various Proclamations concerning trading with the enemy. Local trade is recovering to some extent from the first effects of the restrictions on exports to the United States of America and Holland. Prices for rubber and copra remain firm, and a large quantity of the latter product in particular is being shipped to London.

I replied to your telegram of 23rd October (aaking for the names of firms which have copra or coco-nut oil to dispose of) by my telegram of 3rd November, informing you that large stocks of copra and oil are not held in Colombo, copra

* No. 87.

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CEYLON.

being stored in small quantities on estates throughout the island. The largest oil mills are those owned by Freudenbergs, Vavasseurs, Framjee Bhikajee, and Lukmanjee, of which the first has now been taken over for the benefit of Ceylon, under the Trading with the Enemy Ordinance.

With regard to plumbago, I drew attention by my cipher telegram of 2nd November to the supplies of plumbago in Madagascar-a source of supply which even in ordinary times provides a serious rival to the Ceylon output.

6. As regards military matters, have to inform you that the Officer Com- manding the Troops has felt it possible to send home a draft of some 75 men of the Royal Garrison Artillery, their places being taken by members of the Ceylon Volunteer Artillery.

Adverting to paragraph 4 of my despatch of 22nd October,* I may indicate the progress made in the movement to send home a body of recruits for active service by enclosing for your information a letter from Mr. P. H. Milward, the organizer of the movement, which appeared in the Ceylon Independent of 3rd November.

I have, &c.,.

ROBERT CHALMERS,

SIB,

(No. 594/W.)

Enclosure 1 in No. 38.

Governor.

The Queen's House, Colombo,

28th October, 1914. WITH reference to your telegram dated the 24th October, 1914, I have the honour to forward herewith a copy of a telegram despatched to your address on the 25th idem.

2. Notices of the arrival and departure of merchant vessels have hitherto appeared in local newspapers, but the publication of names and movements of war vessels in Eastern waters has been prohibited since the commencement of the war. As far as I am aware this prohibition has been strictly complied with except in the case of the arrival of a Japanese vessel about a month ago and the inclusion of the name of a man-of-war in a daily list of departures.

I have, &c.,

His Excellency,

Rear-Admiral Sir Richard H. Peirse, K.C.B., M.V.O.,

Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station.

ROBERT CHALMERS,

TELEGRAM FROM THE ADMIRAL to the GOVERNOR.

Governor.

24TH OCTOBER, 1914.—I am informed that merchant vessels' probable date of departure to and from Colombo has been published in the principal papers Ceylon and also names of men-of-war at Colombo. I request that the latter should be absolutely prohibited, and also the former if you agree that security of trade route would be added to and that shipping interests would not suffer.

TELEGRAM FROM THE GOVERNOR to THE ADMIRAL.

25TH OCTOBER, 1914.-Your private telegram, dated 24th instant. I have issued instructions that no information of arrival and departure of any vessel, Also list of arrival merchant vessel or man-of-war, should appear in Ceylon Prees. and departure issued by Master Attendant will be stopped, and also publication of Post Office daily list.

* No. 86.