back owing to the mobs. Rioters were fired on by the police, 

 and wherever this was done they broke up and dispersed. They 

 carried no arms. 



15. Wednesday, June 2nd. 



In the suburbs and the inland villages on June 2nd a report 

 quickly spread that from place to place " the Coast Moors are 

 coming, slaying, and destroying Temples." This was readily 

 believed in by the villagers and others more educated, including 

 Government servants, as those who were seeking to enter 

 Colombo were prevented by the police and military authorities 

 from entering, and no first-hand information was then available 

 as to what was happening in the town. 



1 6. Wednesday, June 2nd. 



A few instances will show how the report gained currency. 

 It operated to create a panic throughout the country districts. 

 On the morning of June 2nd news spread to the district of 

 Kotte (a township in the suburbs, about six miles from 

 Colombo) that an armed gang of Coast Moormen were coming, 

 murdering and ill-treating the women on the way, and pillaging 

 their bazaars and breaking Buddhist Temples. On the previous 

 day the bazaars of Coast Moormen were looted in the neighbour- 

 hood, and a valuable tannery belonging to them destroyed. 

 People running away panic-stricken from the direction of 

 Colombo, and the cries of abject fear in the village roads, contri- 

 buted to the belief that danger was imminent. Women and 

 children fled to the jungles and hid themselves, where some died 

 of exposure and starvation. The men, old as well as young, 

 turned out with any weapon that came readily to hand, sticks, 

 cudgels, hatchets, old firearms, and swords, to defend their 

 families and houses. They took their stand on the bridge at 

 Kotte, but were persuaded not to proceed further until the Coast 

 Moors came up. After waiting for hours they eventually dis- 

 persed to their villages, when they found that there was no 

 immediate danger. Among the people collected by this alarm 

 were Messrs. Peter Rodrigo, Mudaliyar of the Surveyor-General's 

 Department; M. Silva, licensed surveyor and leveller; John 

 Rodrigo, Registrar and Village Headman (Vidane Arachchi) ; 

 Reginald Wijekoon, headmaster of the C.M.S. Christian Institu- 



