2 3 



and villages. Police underlings, who now have a free hand, levy 

 blackmail from the villagers under threat of prosecution. In 

 certain villages people are fleeing from their cottages for fear of 

 being unjustly charged and taken up. 



Proclamation. 



" i. All persons are hereby required to give all assist- 

 ance and information to the Military and Civil Authorities 

 in the Municipality of Colombo with regard to the recent 

 rioting and all matters connected therewith. 



" 2. All persons refusing or neglecting to obey any 

 order given to them by the said Military and Civil Authori- 

 ties or who may be found carrying firearms will be liable to 

 be shot. 



" 3. Any person harbouring any rioter or suppressing 

 any evidence with regard to the offenders in the recent riots 

 or spreading any false report will be treated as an aider and 

 abettor in the said riots, and will be liable to be shot. 



" 4. Any person in possession of any firearms or dan- 

 gerous weapon is required to surrender the same forthwith 

 at the nearest Police Station. Any person neglecting to obey 

 this order will be liable to a penalty. (This order does not 

 extend to any member of the European Community or any 

 person entitled to bear arms as a member of a duly enrolled 

 Corps.) 



" 5. Any person found in possession of any explosives, 

 gunpowder or ammunition, without a licence from the 

 Proper Authority, will be liable to punishment. 

 " By Order, 



"R. W. BYRDE, Special Commissioner. 



" The Municipal Office, 



" Colombo, June roth, 1915." 



26. Proclamations by the same Special Commissioners 

 have been issued directing, under pain of being shot, the return 

 of firearms and all instruments of cutting, under which the vil- 

 lagers have been deprived of all their implements, including the 

 hatchets, rice-pounders and knives for domestic and household 

 use. 



