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" There are some people among us who will find it difficult 

 to resist the temptation to take full advantage of the opportunity 

 to run down the whole Sinhalese people, and to harass and, if 

 possible, entirely to crush the more important of them. 



" There are among the Sinhalese themselves men who will 

 try to prove their own worth by showing how unworthy all their 

 fellow-countrymen are. Nothing will delight some men so 

 much as to see the whole Sinhalese race branded as criminals, 

 and the more influential and wealthier men penalised for the 

 offence of the rioters. 



" A few thousand rowdies do not constitute the Sinhalese 

 race, and it is a matter of common knowledge that the bulk of 

 the Sinhalese people had nothing whatever to do with the mad 

 lawlessness of the rioters, while hundreds of the more educated 

 of them rendered yeoman service to the authorities in quelling 

 the disturbances and protecting the Moors. 



" We court the fullest enquiry into the whole matter, but 

 we trust the enquiry will be conducted by European officials, 

 unhampered by unscrupulous and self-seeking meddlers, and 

 that every endeavour will be made to discriminate between the 

 guilty and the innocent. 



" We feel that the situation is a difficult one, but we have 

 sufficient faith in British justice, and sufficient confidence in the 

 British official, to know that nothing un-British will be done." 



