MEMORANDUM 



UPON 



Recent Disturbances in Ceylon. 



r. Riots between Sinhalese and Muhammadan Coast 

 Moormen broke out in Kandy on the night of May 28th last, the 

 festival of the Birth of Buddha. 



The indirect causes of these riots were the following : 



(a) The monopoly enjoyed by the Coast Moors 1 from 

 the adjoining continent. 



The peasantry in the villages and the working classes 

 in towns get their food stuffs, rice, etc. 2 and all the articles 

 required by them for their daily wants, including small 

 loans at high interest, from the Coast Moormen, who 

 have small bazaars and shops all over Ceylon. Owing to 

 their tendency to raise the price of food stuffs whenever 

 they got a chance or a suitable excuse, a feeling of dislike 

 gradually began to grow up against them. This feeling 

 was confined only to the Sinhalese villagers and working 

 classes, and was unconsciously stimulated by the formation 



1. The Coast Moors are natives and residents of South India and are 

 Muhammadans by religion, who come to Ceylon for the purpose of 

 trade. A portion of the petty trade in foodstuffs of the Colony 

 has been in their hands for some years. The Coast Moors are to be 

 distinguished from the Ceylon Moors, the latter being mostly the 

 descendants of Arab traders who settled in the Island about five or six 

 centuries ago. They have nothing in common with the Coast Moors, 

 except a common religion, form part of the permanent population, and 

 there has always been mutual understanding and religious toleration 

 between them and the Sinhalese Buddhists. Originally they were the 

 only petty traders in the villages, but they were ousted by the Coast 

 Moors. There are 232,927 Ceylon Moors and 33.527 Coast Moors in 

 Ceylon. (Census 1911). 



2. Curry stuffs and rice, the staple ood of the Sinhalese peasant, is now 

 imported wholesale from South India by Indian money lenders, called Natu 

 Kotta Chetties, who sell to the Coast Moormen. The country rice grown 

 in Ceylon is not sufficient for local consumption. 



