The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1909-07-29

memorials Whlch mas Deen sent
home" to England asks only over
100000 Sinhalese should have only
two representatives while 5000 Eu-
ropeans have three.
The native party does not expect to
gain control of the colony through
the reforms now demanded. Indeed,
it doesn't care for the responsibility
of government. But what it does
expect is a larger share of the govern
ment Offices in the various depart
ments. A native who has been edu-
Gated in England from boyhood, who
has gone through the Royal college
here, who has taken his degree at
classic Cambridge in England, and
who comes back to his island para
disc to live, naturally desires the hon
orable station OF government Of
fcer. 1t is the only thing which af-
fords the slightest opportunity for
even the outward semblance of that
social equality with Europeans which
he learned to love in his English COL
lege experience.
Such men make good officers, it is
admitted, and some of them are at
the head of important departments
without English supervision or ad-
vice. The only reason the English
are not willing to distribute more bill
lets among the natives is that there
are so many younger sons from
home" who look to the civil service
for SUPPORT and career.
Against the demands Of the natives
for a representative parliament the
argument is advanced that it would
do no good, that it would simply
bring into existence a class Of dema-
gogic politicians who would spend all
the time talking, and thereby delay
the business of the government and
keep the departmental officials away
from their legitimate duties.
The native press, of course, urges
the reforms in season and out. But
| it is temperate in tone, protestant of
it's, loyalty to the empire, and does
not even consider the possibility of q
severance from England. The Cey-
lonese know, all too well, that their
little island is one of the richest
prizes of the sea and that if England
was driven away some other nation
would come in and seize it. Much as
they gloried in an Asiatic victory,
they fear japanese control beyond
Ianything. So far as the press is con-
cerned there isnot the slightest pro-
test against English domination, it is
only against the method of admins
tration.
But, in private, and this is the
reason why the average Englishman
is so eloquent in discussing what he
calls the American failure in the
Philippines, in private, many Cey-
Ilonese will declare that they would
like nothing so much as to come un-
der the wing of the American eagle.
1t is impossible for them to under
stand that all the United States is
not a unit for imperial aggrandize-
ment, and if their flag is changed at
all they would ask for the Stars and
Stripes. The Philippine administra-
ton is responsible for this feeling,
and it must be admitted that the edu-
Gated Ceylonese knows vastly more
about the American rule in the
Philippines than does the average
educated American.
Another effort of the Asiatic awak-
ening in Ceylon is social rather than
political. Many of the most promi-
nent men are leading movement for
a return to purely native social GUS
toms and costumes. The teaching of
ancient Ceylonese history in the Eng
|lish schools-practically every school
in the island is English-is one of the
recent results of this agitation.
Ceylon is particularly fortunate in
possessing an authentic and uninter-
rupted history from the time of the
foundation of the Sinhalese dynasty,
544 years before Christ, down to the
fall of the last king of Handy, who
was overthrown by the British in
1915. These records were kept by
royal historians and have been trans
lated into English. An abridgement
of this great history is being used as
textbook in the schools. The Sin
halese dynasty endured longer than
any other race of kings of which mod
! lern history takes account, with the
single exception of the present
ruling dynasty of Japan. And no
nation on earth has a written history
covering such long period of time