HC Deb 13 August 1889 vol 339 cc1121-2
SIR EDWARD WATKIN (Hythe)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies of whom is the Commission, stated to have been appointed by the Governor of Ceylon, to inquire into the alleged evictions and consequent deaths, in parts of Ceylon, composed; and has the attention of the Colonial Office been drawn to a letter, which appeared in the Ceylon Mail of the 29th June, 1889, from Mr. George Wall, in answer to inquiries from the Government agent as to the authority on which the statement had been made that 1,048 villagers, evicted by the Government from their lands for nonpayment of Grain Tax, had died of starvation in the vicinity of Nuwara Eliya, in which Mr. Wall says:— I find it stated in the Administration Report on the Nuwara Eliya district for 1887, that, 'between 1882 and 1885, 2,889 paddy fields were sold for default of payment of the Paddy Tax,' and, 'that, in the case of the fields so sold, 1,048 of the late owners had died.' That fact is not disputed. The only question is as to the cause of death. This seems to me to be sufficiently obvious, but is plainly suggested in the opening paragraph of an appeal on behalf of the Bodi-Ela scheme, of which the author of the foregoing statement is the prime mover, as follows: 'During the years from 1882 to 1885 large numbers of Kandyan villagers in the Nuwara Eliya district were ejected from their ancestral holdings, by the sale of their paddy lands for default in the payment of Paddy Tax, to lead a vagabond life and eke out a miserable existence by pilfering in the villages, migrate to towns and swell the criminal population of the country, or, as was often the case, to die of sheer starvation in the jungle.' I wish to add that the question which appears on the Paper is not the question which I handed in to the clerk at the Table.

THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Baron H. DE WORMS, Liverpool, East Toxteth)

The Commission in question is a Sub-Committee of the Legislative Council. The Secretary of State's attention has been drawn to the passage quoted; but as the matters referred to are alleged to have happened some years ago, and as they are being carefully inquired into, he does not propose to take any further action pending the Governor's Report.

SIR E. WATKIN

Is the Governor of Ceylon now in England, or in Ceylon?

BARON H. DE WORMS

I believe that he is in Ceylon, but I am not sure.