§ 67. Mr. GINNELLasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will state the result of tiny inquiry into the case of Edmund Hewavitarne, the Buddhist temperance leader of Colombo, convicted in 1915 by a court-martial of treason and shop-breaking, sentenced to penal servitude for life, died in prison after a few months from ill-treatment, accorded, in spite of the Government, a public funeral in which all the leading citizens of Colombo deemed it an honour to join; what is Sir Kobert Chalmers' explanation of his refusal to transfer this respected citizen from the insanitary prison in which he was dying to a sanitary prison; and whether the Colonial Office still adheres to its appreciation of the administration of martial law in Ceylon in 1915?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES (Sir A. D. Steel-Maitland)I have seen a full report on this case. The prisoner was convicted on evidence which appears sufficient, and has not been rebutted. There is no ground for the statement that he was ill-treated, or that the prison in which he was confined was insanitary. I see nothing in this case to support any justifiable criticism of the administration of martial law.
§ Mr. GINNELLDoes the hon. Gentleman describe the petition presented to the Governor of Ceylon by the most respectable inhabitants as no ground for the allegation that the prison was insanitary I Why was not this prisoner removed before he died from the insanitary condition of the prison?