i6 



tion at Kotte. All these gentlemen were subsequently arrested, 

 kept in jail for a considerable time, without bail being allowed, 

 and after protracted inquiry were acquitted on a charge of 

 rioting and unlawful assembly by Mr. A. C. Allnutt, Special 

 Commissioner. This was mainly on the testimony of Miss 

 Lloyd, an English lady missionary of the Kotte C.M.S. Institu- 

 tion, who deposed to the fact that there was genuine panic 

 among the villagers. The muster was due to this cause, and 

 was not an unlawful assembly for rioting. 



17. Wednesday, June 2nd. 



The Sinhalese fishermen of Mutwal, a body of Roman 

 Catholics, on a similar report that the Coast Moors were coming 

 to destroy their Church, took up anything that came to hand, 

 and prepared to defend themselves. 



Extract from 

 "The Ceylonese" Thursday, June ^rd } 1915. 



Late last evening, June 2nd, Messrs. Byrde and Allnut, accom- 

 panied by Messrs. E. G. Jayawardene and F. R. Senanayake, along 

 with a section of the military, motored to the Kolonnawa-Demette- 

 goda Junction, where a large mob had assembled with the intention 

 of making another dash on the Moorish buildings of that area. 



On the advice of Messrs. Senanayake and Jayawardene, and 

 after a few words from the Chairman, the crowd dispersed, but the 

 military section was put on duty at the junction for the night. 



Hence it is clear that the sudden gathering of large bodies was 

 due to no organization, but entirely to a sense of fear and panic. 



1 8. The rowdy and the criminal elements in the crowds 

 that collected together committed excesses and sometimes 

 directed the energies of expectant and incensed mobs to looting 

 the Moorish bazaars and ill-treating some of their owners. It 

 was reported that Buddhist Temples had been desecrated and 

 Sinhalese men and women murdered and mutilated by Coast 

 Moors in Colombo, and it was affirmed that the Government 

 had given the villagers authority to punish the Muhammadans, 

 as they were in arms against the King in Turkey. The attitude 

 of the authorities in not checking the looting originally tended 

 to foster and encourage this idea in the minds of a simple 

 peasantry, traditionally loyal to the British Crown. One or two 

 Sinhalese who tried to save Moorish bazaars from being looted 

 were murdered. 



