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APPENDIX " D.i' 



Editorial, " Morning Leader/ 1 June QtH. 

 (Under Censorship.) 



" Renter's telegram summarises the official reports issued 

 by the Colonial Office in Downing Street on the information of 

 H.E. the Governor to the British authorities. 



" The telegram makes saddening reading to the Ceylonese, 

 whose good reputation for peace and tranquility stood high. 

 The official reports have conveyed to the British authorities the 

 impression that the rioting was due to a sudden outbreak of 

 racial and commercial animosities. 



" We have no doubt that directly the last vestige of the 

 trouble is quiet, the local authorities will hasten to make it clear 

 to the British people that the Island is quiet and peaceful once 

 more, and that the Ceylonese have resumed their normal charac- 

 ter of quiet, law-abiding people. 



" In this connection, it may not be inappropriate to say 

 that stern and prompt as has been the punishment of those actu- 

 ally caught looting and rioting, those who spread false rumours 

 and needlessly alarmed large sections of the population ought 

 to be dealt with even more sternly. 



" It was the circulation of false rumours that, for instance, 

 alarmed the people of the northern suburbs and led them to 

 imagine that the Catholic Churches at Grand Pass and Kota- 

 hena were desecrated. The Catholics, on receipt of this alarm- 

 ing news, mustered in large numbers and began to march on 

 Colombo, with the idea of protecting their priests and sacred 

 edifices from violence. Similarly, utterly false rumours carried 

 inland through Kelaniya, Heneratgoda, and Veyangoda 

 alarmed the rural populations along this route, and they got 

 ready to protect themselves and their Temples against an ima- 

 ginary attempt at aggression by the Moors. 



" It is fairly certain that the circulation of false rumours, 

 and the inability of those alarmed to get at the truth, at once 

 went a long way to rouse the masses around Colombo, and to 

 keep up a state of suspense even within the city. 



" We believe in Kandy, too, something of the same kind 

 tended to prolong the disturbances, by creating alarm in the 

 popular mind and inducing large sections of the people to be on 

 the alert with weapons of all sorts in their hands." 



