NO. 37—1888.] CAPTURE OF COLOMBO. 



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yourselves called upon by the Stadtholder's letter to acquiesce altogether 

 in the propositions our President had made to you ; and that even the 

 limited manner in which your Government had thought proper to 

 comply was frustrated by the Officer Commanding in Trincomalee 

 from a deficiency in point of form, with regard to the signature of the 

 order, not deeming himself warranted to obey it. 



In conformity to the orders from Europe, in the event of your 

 declining the protection of Great Britain, the reduction of the Forts 

 of Ostenburg and Trincomalee, with the adjoining districts, and that 

 of other settlements belonging to the Dutch on the Island of Ceylon, 

 which we have reason to expect either are by this time actually in our 

 possession, or on the eve of being subdued by the British troops, has 

 been the immediate consequence of the commencement of hostilities. 



Being led by many circumstances to believe that we have a common 

 interest with you in the result of the present war, we seriously lament 

 the alternative to which we have been driven, and under this impression 

 are anxious to make every effort in our power to bring our differences 

 to an amicable and speedy termination, that we may at least enjoy 

 the satisfactory reflection of having followed the impulse of humanity, 

 and the dictates of those sentiments of regard we feel towards your 

 nation, by strenuously endeavouring to avert those evils which must 

 inevitably attend a continuation of hostility. 



We are the more induced to make an attempt towards the restoration 

 of tranquility at this time from the conviction that your means of 

 resistance are extremely inadequate, and we are persuaded that you 

 cannot but concur with us in that opinion, when you are informed 

 that by a capitulation signed at Neufchatel on March 30 last, on the 

 part of the British Government and the Count de Meuron, proprietor 

 of the regiment of that name, it has been stipulated that the whole 

 corps should be immediately withdrawn from your service, with a 

 view to its afterwards being transferred to that of Great Britain, and 

 that for the purpose of executing the terms of the said capitulation 

 the Count de Meuron had arrived at Tellicherry on the 6th instant. 

 We have received accounts from His Majesty's Secretary of State, 

 communicating the terms of this agreement, and have letters from 

 Mr. Cleghorn, the gentleman who negotiated them, and who accompanied 

 the Count de Meuron from Europe to this country. 



Your letter of the 15th ultimo would warrant our availing ourselves 

 of the advantages we must derive from so considerable a diminution 

 of your force, and might be an inducement to us to complete the 

 reduction of all the Dutch Settlements on the Island of Ceylon by 

 conquest, a measure to which we might reasonably look without 

 imposing upon ourselves a very arduous undertaking. We are, however, 

 too well disposed to peace with the representatives of the Stadtholder's 

 Government to forego any opening which may lead to so desirable an 

 object, and therefore renew our former proposition, as far as it regards 

 those Settlements which remain in the possession of your Government. 



