14. Mr. CHANCELLORasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, under the recent amendment to the Ceylon Education Code, Grants are made con- 1059 ditional on the Department of Education being satisfied that the owner, manager, or teachers of the school have not associated themselves in any way with movements or societies which are concerned in any political or social programme directed against the Government or calculated to disturb public tranquility and excite unrest among any class of His Majesty's subjects; whether unrest has been caused by the Government opening about 1,000 liquor shops among them against the wishes of the Buddhist population, whose religion forbids the use of intoxicants; whether temperance societies have been formed to save the population from Government temptations by teaching them to be faithful to their religion; whether, in consequence of the amended Code, many schoolmasters have had to resign from such societies or lose their Grant; and whether he will cause the removal from the Code of this Regulation, which is believed to indicate the Government's hostility to temperance teaching, and under which all advocacy by school teachers of any kind of political or social reform can be penalised?
§ Mr. BRIDGEMANI have no information as to the amendment of the Education Code, nor as to the resignation of schoolmasters in consequence of it, but I will ask for a report from the officer administering the government of Ceylon. With reference to the second part of the question the excise policy of the Ceylon Government has been frequently explained in this House by my predecessor; I "would refer for example to the questions and answers appearing in the OFFICIAL REPORT for the 1st July and the 24th July, 1912. There is, of course, no foundation for the suggestion that the Ceylon Government desires to discourage temperance, or is in any way hostile to societies whose real object is the promotion of temperance; but I regret to say that it has been established that many of the so-called temperance societies have been largely used for the propagation of views of which it would be impossible for any Government to approve.