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KRISHNAVA
The only independent Eng published from
 

UNTHIAWASAN -
ish Weekly newspaper
95 - 1953

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The People's Voice first issue was dedicated to Martyr Kandasamy.
VKandasamy was shot dead by the Police as he was one of those leading a protest procession of public servants on 5th
June 1947 in pursuance of a mass strike action in Colombo. TO KANDASAMY
Martyr to the Cause of his public Service Colleagues and the People of Lanka
WE DEDICATE THIS FIRST ISSUE OF 'PEOPLE'S WOICE" WHICH WILL CARRY FORWARD THE STRUGGLE
As appered on the People's Voice 19th January 1951 issue
 
 
 

FOREWORD
when I organised and started the new publication in 1951 (January)."
-HT
alled the People's Voice, many men of standing in the intellectual sphere, Marxistoriented politicians and active Trade Unionists helped Ille a great
deal. '
These included Pieter Keunernan M .P., M. Karthigesan B.A. (Hons.)
(communist), Senetor S. Nadesan Q.C., P. Kandiah M.P. (Point Pedro),
N.Shanmugathasan (later Mao supporter) Dr.S.A. Wickremasinghe, S.W. R. D. Bändaranalike, S.D. Bandaranalike M.P., T. B. Ilangaratna, Mrs. Tamara Ilangaratna, Philip Gunawardene, K.C. Nythianantha,
A.R.AsirwathiaIll and several others.
As at publication of this book, I do not have the photos of all of them
to be published here. regret this very much. Here you find the pictures of
some of them.
WAIKUNTHAWASAN

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EDITORIAL
19th Jan 1
OURSELVES
IN Ceylon, where the entirety of the influential English press stands almost four-square behind a ruling party that is conservative in outlook, reactionary in policy and undemocratic in action, the need for an independent English paper, be it even a weekly, that will neither slavishly ditto the fiats of the Government nor mechanically echo the slogans of its opponents, has been a need long felt, much discussed and often tackled but with little lasting result.
That we, in our turn, have come forward to meet this need means no act of financial bravado or fit of political indignation on our part, is borne out by the gathering momentum of a three month campaign which, as we go to print, claims its strength not from a few thousand-rupee donations but from thousands of people who have contributed only their subscriptions to make possible the emergence of their voice on a national Scale.
Assured, therefore, of this inexhaustible popular source of financial stability and moral support, we shall go to the same source for our news, confident in the belief that truth is where life is and life is where people
a.
Nor need we, in presenting this news have to resort to easy shibboleths and sensational headlines, for life is too complex to be portrayed in shibboleths and more gripping in interest than any journalistic imagination can make it.
Then, for views. Here, too, we shall not approach our work with the preconceived notion that the Government can do no right and its opponents no wrong. For, were we to take such a narrow, firm-set focus on things, we shall have forfeited-and rightly too- any claim to call ourselves
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 1

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the paper of the people. Hence, we shall examine each event, each issue and each policy on its merits in the larger context of the country and its People,
And that our columns may not depart from this principle and become stuffed and stuffy with parochial and sectarian news and views, we call upon our readers to express the monsoonal force of public opinion and make the paper their own in a more real and lasting sense.
Norshall we confine ourselves to dealing with developments in the political arena but shall attempt to cover, as far as is possible, all important and progressive achievements of the day in the fields of art and science.
To sum up, we shall voice the demand, describe the struggle and, where necessary and where possible, guide the upsurge of the people of Lanka for an independent, democratic, peaceful and happy existence in a world of freedom, equality, friendship and progress.
Peoples's Wagice, 1951-1953
 

EDITORIA
Fri 2
THE COST OF LIVING
The single, most urgent question today is the continuing vicious rise in the prices of every article of consumption, The question, above all else and governing all others, which harasses every incolle-earner and every housewife is the probleII of how to meet the demands for food and-clothing with their present fixed income, which is daily losing value.
The useful work done by the All-Island conference of Middle Class Employees and the Housewives' Conference focused the attention of all responsible people on this issue, and showed a course of action by the injured public. Cost of living is not only high; it is not only spreading to more and wider classes of our people; it is also daily increasing, and has reached the point today that it is impossible for the majority of the People of this country to live lives of minimun health-and minimum decency, This increase has been continuing, despite certain measures which the Government state they have taken to arrest its pace.
Subsequent to the grant of increased dearness allowance, however inadequate, to public servants, the cost of practically all consumer goods has shot up in prices this month-thus more than negativating any compensation derived.
To explain their failure and neglect, the Government have alleged that shortage of supplies has sent the prices up. If that was so, it is incredible that a responsible government can deliberately send the prices still higher by devaluing our currency and reducing its value. The Government's answer is an easy one, and it is intended to justify inaction on its part. The burden of guilt is shifted from its incompetence to an alleged shortage of supply.
As We see it, the problem of high prices for our consumption goods is less a latter of shortage, of supply than one of a total lack of policy in
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the Govern Illent! Shortage of supply is admitted. The task of the Government, faced with this shortage, is the two-fold one of maintaining the prices at a stable level by official and budgetary action, and of organising an equitable distribution of the goods in short supply. In facing up to this task the Government has failed; and it is no excuse to cite the continued shortage of supply as the cause.
A policy is needed combining action in regard to importation of goods, to the direction of our external trade, of stringent taxation on higher incomes, of planned increase of local production, agriculturally and industrially, of strong action against profiteering, and of efficient organisation,
It is easy, we assert, to arrest this increase in the cost of living, and to stabilise all prices at a level appropriate to the largest number of incomes. It is criminal not to take action in this urgent matter.
It is not an overstatement, in the context of existing circumstances, to say that the stability of our society is threatened. It is urgent that the Government take immediate action or give room to a Government that can effectively interwene.
: 鷲 獻
蠶
Mr. A. R. Asirwatham
Peoples's Wrict, 1951-1953
 
 
 
 

EDITOR.A.
Fri 2
MUST WE CELEBRATE 2
And so another anniversary of freedom-with its attendant celebrations, fireworks and tamashas- has come round to confront the taxpayer with the burden of paying for them and the Government with the bother of organising them,
If there were not, in 1948, Illany who could find an excuse to celebrate the inauguration of freedom, and fewer in 1949 to celebrate the first anniversary and fewer still in 1950 to celebrate the second, We Wonder whether, on the eve of the third in 1951, there can be any excuse for any celebration other than the mere fact that the cycle of time brings round February 4th on to the calendar once every 365 days
In fact, with the death of Sir FRANCIS MOLAMURE, Ceylon's veteran Speaker and one of its elder statesmen, only a Weck ago, the Government has good reason to cancel the celebrations. But this is not to be, for a government, which studiously exploits tamashas and tom-toms to distract the attention of the people from their trouble and travail, must perforce have its parter et circerases, its feasting and its festivity.
Anyway, to put first things first, festivity is not unjustifiable if preceded not by feasting for the few (the Government and its followers) but by food for the many (the working people of town and country). But this is not so; for, when the people stand half-fed, gaping in despair, at the soaring prices of foodstuffs (rice Rs. 1-25 per measure), the only thing this efficiently socialist government can do is to send up rockets to hypnotize their gazel
And even if the people are well fed, can they (with Indian tussore, for example, at Rs. 3.- per yard) be well clothed to join in the fun and frolic at the "Anchor's Aweigh" Carnival? Or will the generosity of the ruling party expand to include a green shirt or a green jacket for every one in Ceylon'?
Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953 5

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As for housing, the less said the better, when the rent of even a 'dealbox' model of a suburban home in Colombo is enough to Swallow half the salary of a Class III clerk
Such then being the housing problem, how could our sorely harassed Government provide spacious accommodation, leave alone ample drugs, for patients in hospitals? For, wouldn't there be a mass exodus merely for living space from the slums and pavements of our crowded towns into the hospitals and sanatoria of our Welfare State?
Nor does the position in the field of education warrant fireworks, not to mention acrobatics, when, in the capital city of our land, this Government has to wait for the third year of its freedom to take a census (and that too half-hearted) of students who are stranded without a school to attend!
And even for the students fortunate to be in school, what are the prospects of employment, when the length of the queues outside the Employment Exchanges have not shrunk even by a third after three glorious years of UNP freedom?
In fact, one would be naive to expect the implementation of our Finance Minister's famous full employment policy when our Minister of Industries closes down more factories than he opens and himself gaily sets off to globe-trot and study industrial development at first hand Nor can one afford to be too trustful and enthusiastic about a Colombo Plan whose programme envisages no industries heavier than fertiliser, Sugar and coconut oil
However, all this may sound too mundane and material to a government that prides itself on the spiritual and moral values that it cherishes, But where, we ask, is its Ilorality when pedigree fetches a portfolio and moral licence is no bar to an import licence?
Ald where, we again ask in this third year of freedom, are the Four Freedoms when civil liberties have to Wiggle under the dead Weight of 208 B and the Public Security Ordinance Nor can any talk of
Commonwealth aid for Ceylon's defence deceive even a political tyro,
Peoples's Wnice, 1951-1951

when our Premier has, after confabulations with his British counterpart, dotted thei's and dashed the t's on that very document which wrote off the Trincomalee, Katunayake and Koggala bases into foreign custody.
In the light of this fact, the declaration for the, "middle way" in world politics is no substantial contribution to peace. At best, it can only be a pious declaration for peace and, at worst, a realistic concession to the growing might of new China and the free Asia that it leads.
And so (with Ceylon a loyal "little England' and England virtually the "49th State of the USA") in this third glorious year of resplendent freedom, we cannot but return to the festive note suited to the occasionthat Coylon's freedom is a political merrygo-round with Truman leading the (war) dance, his coat-tails in the hands of Attlee, whose coat-tails, in turn, are in the hands of the Honourble MR. D. S. SENANAYAKE!
But this rewelry will have its end, this motley crew will be dispersed, when the dawn of real freedom breaks. And then the people will count their freedom anniversaries from the date of the demise of a government that today arrogantly lords the land with loud noise and empty show.
MT. Pieter KLIIIlemail M.P.
Peoples's WDice, 1951-1953 7

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EDITORIAL
Friday, 9th February, 1951
3 YEAR BALANCE -SHEET
We have been presented with yet another balance sheet. If its tale is true, the people of this country have reason not to be complacent, but to be satisfied. But unfortunately, not one word in the record of achievement proclaimed by Mr. D. S. SENANAYAKE or by Lord SOULBURY is true. They have carefully omitted all reference to the debit side; and if this is examined, the balance-sheet is seen to be the confession of a bankrupt.
LORD SOULBURY, in his broadcast, this week referred to the substantial progress in every aspect of our national life-political and social, industrial and agricultural. MR. SENANAYAKE referred, in addition, to the Central Bank and to a hope that he cherishes of providing homes for the aged and the incurable. These are words, and hopes. The real question is this: Have our people, as a whole, and particularly, the masses of common folk, been provided with better conditions of living, however small the improvement be? Has our real national wealth increased in the last three or four years, and has the increase begun to be felt in the daily lives of ordinary people?
The answer to these questions is unequivocally in the negative. All unbiased opinion proves that we, as a nation, are worse offin 1951 than in 1947. In actual fact, against the new hydro-electric scheme, the cement factory in the north, the promises of GALOYA, we should enter the following items: the phenomenal increase in the cost of living, the cancellation of the poor man's savings by the deliberately permitted pestilence of inflation, the increase in unemployment, the increasing landlessness, the lack of educational and medical facilities in relation to the demand for them, and finally, the spread of corruption in the country's public life. When so examined, there is room, not for cheer, but for despair and anger.
8 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

If there is an all round progress, as is claimed, surely, that progress must be seen in the daily life of our people. Where that is not the case, then it must be presumed that progress is a non-human ethereal valuation, unrelated to man's condition, in which case it hardly matters to human beings whether it exists or not.
If there is no improvement, but only degeneration, the question arises whether the present Government is engaged in work that will result eventually in the future, in the material and social progress of our people This is not the case, either. The work of the U.N.P. Government is confined solely to maintaining the country's century-old colonial economy of plantation production, to tying up this country's trade, finance and resources more strongly to Britain, associated with the U.S.A., and to allowing it to be used as a war base of ANGLO-AMERICA against brother ASIAN peoples, a foul position whose logical outcome is that this country will be branded as a traitor by our brothers. We are not only bankrupt now, but this Government has ensured, by its policy, that we will continue to become more bankrupt. If this policy is the result of our "Independence', so much the worse.
The U.N.P chiefs have one solitary hope: a further sell-out to the U.S.A. under the terms of the commonwealth aid and point-four programs. That hope, ifhope that is, is conditional: U.S. A. has now said that the aid must wait till the needs of its war preparations are first met. Till they are met, they remain promises.
The tale is a sorry one. It could not be different as long as we remain
a vassal of alien imperialism and have a Government pledged to maintain the multiple chains of this vassaldom.
ന്നOവ
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 9

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EDITORIAL
Friday, 16 February 1951
UNCLE SAMAND SEVEN LIVES
The news that the seven Negroes from Martinsville in Virginia (USA), sentenced to death for mass rape of a white woman, have actually been sent to the electric chair comes as a shock to many in this country. In spite of the wide knowledge that in the USA (with its lynchings, its Ku Klux klan and its general "Jim Crow' outlook) Negro life is cheap, this news is definitely shocking.
One need not be an expert in the intricacies of legal theory to realise the blatant injustice and cold-blooded cruelty of this action of Yankee justice. For it is not only unjustifiable but humanly incomprehensible that the law in any land should demand and destroy the life of even a single man as the price for the outraged virtue of a woman, even if she be the queen of that land.
In this case, it is not just one man that has paid the supreme penalty; but seven have. And, of the seven, only one (39 years old) could be considered an adult; the others were all lads still in their teens. Nor was that adult among them a homeless vagabond; he was a responsible father, and that too, of five children.
And, on what evidence, one is bound to ask, were these flowers of humanity cut down in the morning of their life? on the evidence only of the woman concerned. And what was her evidence worth? Not much, if one is to go by the report - reliable in its source - that this woman was a prostitute. The evidence must, in fact, have been as flimsy as her character itself. Nor was this woman, according to the same report, to be found by the defence counsel any where at any stage after the original trial which found the men guilty and sentence them to death.
Nor, again, can it be argued by any advocate of American democracy and justice that the Negro people on the spot allowed justice to take its
10 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

own course in the beliefthat the conviction and the sentence were justified. For not only the Negro people in the U.S.A, not only the American people irrespective of colour, but many thousands of democrats all over the world protested against this inhuman frame-up and called for clemency for, if not acquittal of, the Martinsville seven.
This world - wide protest would have been greater, more indignant and more powerful, if the yellow press (which talks its head off about the honour and sanctity of American war aims and actions in Korea) had given the world the full facts of this case which took place not a week or two ago, but months ago. In fact, only two of Ceylon's dailies carried news regarding this tragedy - and that too at a stage when it was almost all over.
Even now it is not too late for the daily press of our country to call for details from their American correspondents or, what is easier, to ask for information from the local American Embassy which has been only too obliging to flood our country with propaganda sheets exposing the alleged inhumanity of Asians like the Koreans and Chinese.
Yet another point which any coloured man (or for that matter, any democrat) must note is that this particular law on rape has been in force in Virginia ever since 1908 and that during these years as many as 52 Negroes have paid with their lives for having the temerity, alleged or otherwise, to know so intimately white feminine virtue.
And this barbaric law is in force in an advanced country in the year 1951 of their Lord, Jesus Christ, whose principles the dollar-crazy bosses of that country claim to carry into backward Asia at the point of their bayonets and which they threaten to rub into the peoples of our great continent with their infernal atom bomb.
If that is the American Way of Life, its nemesis must and will be Death
ബ
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 11

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ELDITORIAL.
FRIDAY. 23 FEBRUARY 1951
INDIANS IN CEYLON
In this week's issue we carry a statement by the leader of the Ceylon
Indian Congress, Mr. A. Aziz, M.P. wherein he states that a very large
number of Indians in Ceylon would stand disenfranchised as a result of the present policy of the UNP government.
The settlement of the Ceylon Indian question is one of the urgent questions facing the government and the UNP. We view it not merely from the point of establishing cordial and friendly relations with our great neighbour India, although this is most important
The Ceylon Indians constitute not merely the largest minority in this country but they also constitute the major section of Ceylon's working class, for the most part workers in the tea and rubber plantations-ouTIllajor industries. It is this fact that accounts for the virulence of the anti-Indian policy of the UNP.
The UNP is able, at one stroke, to pander to the chauvinist and communal feelings of their supporters and at the same time strike a blow at the working class movement in Ceylon. It is no secret that at the last elections the Inajority of the Indians voted against the UNP and with the left. This they did for the very good reason that apart from the fact that they were an oppressed minority they were mainly workers whose interests were espoused by the left parties.
It is because of this that the UNP hawe introduced the amendiment to the clection ordinance. Thereby, along with the stringent provisions of the Citizenship Acts, they have at one stroke deprived the Indians of the right of vote which they enjoyed up till now.
We charge the UNP government with having deliberately taken this step to deprive their Political opponents of the right to vote so that they
1. Peoples's Write, 1951-1953

could the easier assure themselves of a majority in the next elections. To such crooked methods have the UNP been driven to bolster up their decreasing following in the country.
It is no use trying to hide behind the intemperate and raving utterances of the Minister of state and of the Prime Minist cr himself about leftists trying to sell the country to Indians. The talk of selling the country to foreigners comes ill from the lips of those who have sold themselves and the country into bondage to Anglo-American imperialism.
Ordinary common justice demands that the Indians who have contributed so much to the development of our country be given the same rights as other Ceylonese citizens. Ceylon has, of course, the right to restrict further immigration into this country. But the light of citizenship to those who desire to make Ceylon their home and the right of franchise to those normally resident in Ceylon are demands which no fair minded individual or government cun refuse,
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Friday, 2nd March 19
EDITORIAL
THE NATIONAL FLAG
The National Flag of any country is something more than a mere physical embleII. It is usually asyIllbol that emotionally binds together all sections of the people.
In most countries, the National Flag is the syIIlbol under which a people have fought for and obtained their unity and independence. In India it is the Tri-colour Flag. Many a Congressman in India has held this flag aloft with devotion when police rained lathi blows on his back. They have gone to jail for it. The flag of tri-colour is dyed with the blood of many Indian martyrs. Little wonder that today the tri-colour flag evokes such emotional feeling in the hearts of all Indians.
No flag in Ceylon has such a past or record. Here different sections hawe had different flags. No one is quite sure about the historical antecedents of the Lion Flag itself. But it has come to be accepted as the flag of the Sinhalese.
Under such circumstances, it would have been the height of prudence for the statesmen of the Illajority to have accommodated the minorities by gracefully incorporating into the flag certain modification to suit them. As we have stated earlier, the national Flag should be an object of the veneration and pride, not of sullen obedience.
A flag can never be forced down on any people or even sections. That the question of the national flag has evoked wide controversy, particularly in the minority areas, must be admitted by all sections. Mr. SUNTHERALINGAM is not exaggerating when he says that any decision that does not meet with the approval of all sections will "meet at least with passive resistance".
It is significant that during the recent, much publicised visit of the Prime Minister to Jaffna, in spite of the fact that most of the functions were
14 Peçples's Voice, 1951-195

organised by the Premier’s new-foundally, Mr.G.G.PONNAMPALM, no where was the Lion Flag in evidence. It was neither a coincidence nor unpremeditated. The Prime Minister, during that visit, refused to be drawn into a discussion of the flag question though invited to oil public platform.
This is only an indication of the extent of public feeling in the Tamil areas. If the UNP uses its majority in Parliament to steam-roller a decision favorable to itself, it would only lead to a further lease of communalism in this country. It was in an endeavour to avoid such a situation developing that the flag committee, consisting of representatives of different Sections, was appointed,
It is unfortunate that this flag committee should have chosen a design which, in the words of Senator NADESAN, the only dissentient in the committee, gives an impression "that the minorities are given a place outside the Lion Flag."
THE LANGARATNES GREET P.V.
リ
::::::: MR. T.B. LANGARATNE.
š
NIE.
Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953 15

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EDITORAL.
Friday, 9th March 1951
SUPPORT NEHRUS PEACE POLICY
Yet another commonwealth war conference is to be held in London in May and the UNP Government has readily consented to participate. Of course, it is being camouflaged under the title of "Defence Talks", but only political babies will be taken in by such deception,
Defence talks implies the threat of aggression from some quarter. Who is threatening Ceylon today? The UNP Ministers will, parrot-like, echo their master's voice and spout about the threat of aggression from the Soviet Union and China.
But any impartial and serious student of international politics will know that these countries are threatening no one. Their soldiers are not to be found any where outside their territories, except where, as in the case of China, their soldiers have gone in defence of the integrity of their own sovereignty, to assist their neighbours to repel aggression on the part of foreign imperialist powers.
American, British, French and other imperialist troops are fighting all over the world-thousands of miles away from their frontiers, in Korea, China, Malaya, Indo China, Greece etc. And we are being asked to believe that all these aggression is in the interest of the defence of their mother country.
We have had enough of this fooling. These so-called "defence talks" are in reality war conferences to plan out the next step in the scheme of the imperialists, under American direction, and to launch another World War.But what the peace loving people of Ceylon would like to know is what the Ceylon government is doing in such a war conference. Is this the much talked about middle way enunciated by the Prime Minister? The participation of Ceylon in these talks becomes all the more sinister when one learns that India is chary about participating in this conference in view of
Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953

her well known policy of tying to be neutral. At best, India is expected to hold only a "watching brief at the talks.
It is well known that America and England are disturbed at the trend of Indian foreign policy. There are rumours that America is attempting to use military bases in Pakistan, Ceylon, and Malaya to intimidate India into subservience. In this context, the ready participation of Ceylon in these talks will not only mean committing our people to the horrors of the next World War but also antagonising our great neighbour, India.
Public opinion in this country should cry halt to this suicidal policy of the UNP government and demand with one voice that Ceylon refuse the Lise of her base to any foreign power and keep out any Commonwealth commitments in any war started by Yankee imperialists: and that it should support the peace policy of Pandit Nehru.
HKH
閭
Mr. Philip Gunawardena General Sec. L.S.S.P
Periples's Woice, 951-1953 ל"ן

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EDITORIAL
ri
THE CASE AGAINST THE MINISTERS
A definite charge was made in our last issue against the UNP Government. The copy of a letter, intended to influence the selection of candidates for certain jobs in the public service, was published, after we were satisfied that it was authentic. The letter showed that here was a case of interference by two Ministers of the Government to persuade a selection committee, usually composed of officers working under the ministers to appoint particular candidates, in whom they were interested, irrespective of the merits of the candidates concerned. We emphasize two specific points in regard to this subject. Firstly, here is an example of unwarranted ministerial interference; and, if their attempt was successful, we would have a case of persons appointed to posts without an assessment of their merits.
This practice would be totally repugnant to the rules of recruitment to public service, and would disqualify the candidates concerned. A fraud is being played on the public by announcing that the selection is on merit and calling for applications, when, in fact, the appointments are made on grounds of very questionable morality.
Secondly, there is the question: Why are the ministers and their permanent secretaries interfering in such matters? Interest in public welfare? Hardly. We suggest that this is an example of a process of nepotism and favouritism, by which the UNP is commonly accused of showering favours, either as a return for past, and present services rendered to their party or as a means of further consolidating, in this instance by extra-constitutional and incorrect methods, a power, which they are, it is to be feared, not certain of keeping by the normal practice of good Government. In any event, this action, if proved true, is a species of corruption which, in the interests even of the UNP, and certainly in the immediate interests of the common people, should be eradicated forthwith.
18 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

We are not concerned here to go into the morals of the actions of the ministers who are named in the letter. That, indeed, would be a matter for inquiry by a Commission which we demand should be appointed by the Government. The information we published last week is highly disturbing and injurious to public morale and stability.
The country is full of talk, some of a loose character, and some wellfounded, of the practice of corruption (in the legal and in the moral sense) in the Government circles and in the public service. It is difficult to collect proved information on this subject, because there is, firstly the fear of reprisals against those who give information, and secondly, because people are not easily able to overcome a feeling of despair and hopelessness in an atmosphere so heavily contaminated with corrupt and dishonorable practices.
This is all the more, reason why the Government should, without delay, appoint a commission to inquire into and, report on the existence and extent of corrupt practices such as the one we have referred to in our last issue. We ourselves will be prepared to place before the commission all the information we have.
It is very seldom that precise allegations of this type are placed before the public openly. The Government will lose nothing, but will gain in prestige, if it inquires into this allegation and similar allegations which we doubt not, will be forthcoming when a commission is appointed. Indeed, to inquire and punish those guilty is the duty of the Government. Its failure to do so would imply an acceptance by it of the truth of this allegation and an expression of their decision to condone it as a normal routine practice of their Government. Their is only one honorable course opened to the Government and that is, to appoint a commission of inquiry without delay.
Oമ്മ
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 19

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ETORAL
Friday, 30th March 1951
LEFT UNITY
ONE of the ills that beset the political life of our country is the disunity
in the ranks of the left movement. Everyone accepts that if the left movement was a united one it could offer a powerful opposition to the present corrupt UNP regime and even defeat it. On the basis of individual as well as collective record, the left movement and its leaders command a greater measure of support and confidence in the country both for their sincerity and integrity as well as for the self-less devotion to service of the people. It is only disunity in their ranks that spells demoralisation, among their followers and prevents a more dynamic mobilisation of the people behind their policies.
We are not here concerned with the genesis of the split in the left In ovement. What we are aware of is the absolute need of the hour for a united left movement to offer a serious challenge to the power-mad UNP regime, particularly at the coming general elections.
All the same, we are not one of those who advocate unity on an unprincipled basis. But what we do expect of the left leaders is to review some of the causes that have led to disunity in the past and to see whether in the light of present day development, especially in the international situation, certain of their set views cannot undergo modification.
We are referring, for instance, to the attitude of the left parties to the Soviet Union. The origin of the split in the left movement dates back to differences about the existence or not of a socialist regime in the Soviet Union. We are prepared to admit that, perhaps, in the days before the second world war, it was possible for honest people to entertain doubts about whether socialism existed in the Soviet Union or not. Imperialist propaganda had blinded peoples' eyes so much that people could not decide for themselves.
20 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

But such an excuse does not hold good any longer. The Soviet Unions' magnificent resistance to Nazi aggression (Possible only in the case of a united people who knew what they were fighting for) and still more magnificent tasks of peaceful reconstruction in which the Soviets are engaged today Inust convince an honest observer. The real test of any progressive today is his attitude to Soviet Union. We assert that it is not possible for any one to call himself a progressive or socialist and yet oppose the Soviet Union and the progressive movement headed by it. To do so would be a contradiction in terms.
That is why we hope that those left parties that have disagreed on their attitude to the Soviet Union would reconsider their views in this light. We might, recommend to them the courageous example of Mrs. Aruna Asaf Ali, most popular Leader of Indian Socialist Party who, after a recent visit to Soviet Union, has repudiated all the slanders and tall stories spread about the Soviet Union.
It is this spirit that we wholeheartedly greet the news that CP and the LSSP (led by Mr. Philip Gunawardena) are holding talks to establish it united front on the basis of an agreed programline,
re-elected President of the All-Ceylon Workers' Union.
Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953 1

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EDITORI
Friday, 6th April 1951
The Public Service Commission
We carry in this issue a letter to the Governor-General by one of the victims of Administrative Regulation 208B, urging the remodeling of the Public Service Commission to enable it to perform its onerous functions in a manner that would be most acceptable to all concerned. The author of this letter has also, through a series of articles published in this paper, shown clearly the various defects and handicaps under which the Public Service Commission exists and functions today.
That the Public Service Commission needs to be more broadbased than it is at present, will be conceded on all sides by responsible and impartial opinion. The constitution of the P. S. C. should be of such a level as to make any kind of impeachment impossible. This Commission, functioning as it is, as the only and ultimate authority for the enforcement of justice, fairplay and other concomitant essentials for the preservation of the highest concepts of Public Service, should be of such composition as to allay any shreds of fear or suspicion and infuse the highest degree of confidence and dependability amongst all those who look up to it, with hope, for justice.
We are in a position to say categorically and in doing so we reflect the majority opinion of the Public Service, that the P.S.C. as it is at present composed, does not meet any of the requirements expected of such a body. The composition today is weighted more to a particular political party although the membership has been distributed among three communities. What the Public Servants want is not communal parity (fifty-fifty campaign is dead and buried!) but the unqualified assurance and safeguards that this body will be above political partisanship and other evil influences which are a cancerous malady in the Public Service. On the degree of this assurance and safeguards depends the degree of confidence the P.S.C. will evoke from among the Public Servants.
22 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

The progressive denudation of the confidence in this body among the Public Service will gradually undermine the morale and will certainly develop characteristics which will be pernicious to the spirit and purpose of Public Service.
We ourselves have had occasion to bring to the notice of our readers, the inroads that are being attempted by politicians and other influential and interested personages into the independent character and the moral unassailability of the P. S. C. It will not be a spurious contention to make that today this Commission, working as it does, inivory towers and rigidly watertight compartments, is harbouring and camouflaging a whole heap of acts of commission and omission. These and various other obvious defects have, not surprisingly, undermined the morale in the Public Service.
The suggested remedy, therefore, appears, to our mind, to be the best solution under the present circumstances. Better solution is of course available but that involves an amendment in the Constitution, requiring a two-third majority in Parliament. We see no insuperable objections as to why the suggestions should not be implemented. A Commission of the composition as suggested will evoke the maximum degree of confidence on all sides. A Commission of this nature is fundamentally a matter of confidence and when that confidence is impaired, then the commission is just worthless.
Therefore, it rests upon His Excellency's shoulders - acting, we hope, on his independent discretion - to assess the situation in its proper perspective and appoint such a commission that would truly be the repository of all the pious hopes and intentions of Lord Soulbury himself when he created this Commission in the Soulbury Constitution.
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Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 23

Page 15
Friday h
RICE FROM BURMA
For the last few weeks we have been treated to rosy promises of increased ricerations as a result of rice from Burma. In fact, ever since Ceylon's so-called fairygod!-father, Sir OLIVER GOONETILEKE, arrived in the island, he has been busy going here and there trying his level best to boost up the sagging prestige of the U.N.P. But this time it looks as if even the Super magician cannot pull off the tricks.
He is presiding over a sub-committee to bring down the cost of living; he flew to Burma to get us more rice; he has been making many speeches up and down the country-particularly at Panadura. But all that stands to his credit is the "hat-trick'at the above place. (And whata commenton U.N.P. efficiency that was Sir OLIVER had to come from England to release a hall from the food authorities. Have you everheard a better one?)
But what the prospects of getting more rice? May be we will get some rice from Bulla. But if we did, even that is no credit to the U.N.P. as they are trying to make it. It is the most devastating comment on the results of our agricultural policy of our country.
The SENANAYAKES, father and son, have held the portfolio of Agriculture between them for the last twenty years. And during that period not one cent that was asked for by them was ever refused either by the State Councilor by Parliament. Yet, what is the result? Every time weare faced with a shortage we have to sendour Ministers on begging missions abroad.
During budget speeches we are treated to figures of the number of acres brought under cultivation. But what is not pointed out is that the increased production of paddy is not even keeping space with the increase in populationleave alone making good the deficiency.
And while we are on the subject of rice, why will not our Food Minister explore the possibility of obtaining rice from countries other than within the
24 Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953

Commonwealth orbit. We have the example of India before us, While the USA is still debating about sending second rate wheat to starving India, Chinese rice is already being unloaded in Indian ports. Russia too has offered wheat.
Has our Minister made any attempts to get rice from these quarters? Or does our "freedom' allow us to ask for rice from Burma only? We understand that recently a M.P. asked the Food Minister in the lobby as to why he would not approach China for a request of rice. The Finance Minister who was at hand intervened to say that the Americans would not permit it! He should know.
S. Nadesan Q.C.
Periples's Voice, 1951-1953
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5

Page 16
ri il 1
WE GREET
RECENTLY we welcomed the news that the Ceylon Communist Party and the Lanka Samasamaja Party were holding talks to establish a united front on the basis of an agreed programme. We are publishing on this page the full text of the Agreement signed by Mr. D.P.R.GUNAWARDENE and Dr.S.A.WICKREMASINGHE on behalf of their respective parties.
The fact that the announcement of the Agreement has been received by the general public with a great sense of relief and enthusiasm unmistakably indicates the people's approval of the steps taken by the CP and the LSSP.
A careful study of the Agreement would convince any fair-minded person that the real progressive forces in this country are definitely marching forward-now united. It is important to note that the Agreement has not left out a single important question. We have not the slightest doubt that the Agreement has opened a new chapter in the history of the struggle of the common people of Ceylon for an independent, democratic, peaceful and happy existence.
The task that lies ahead of the Central Joint Committee is by no means easy. It is the solemn and sacred duty of every citizen to offer his or her maximum support and co-operation to the new Committee. For our part, we take the plunge and proclaim our pledge, to do anything and everything that would assist the Committee in its historic task. It is in that spirit that we echo the appeal of the CP and the LSSP for the active and concrete supportofall the progressive sections in this country.
-0-
26 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDITORIAL
r. 1951
SUPPORT THE L.S.S.P CANDIDATE
The issues before the country in the Balangoda by-election are plain as daylight. Abankrupt political clique, who have spent five years feathering their own nests and those of their capitalist friends, the bus monopolists, the tea, rubber coconut estate owners, hotel proprietors and building contractors, in short, the open and sworn enemies of the people of this country, are frantically using every known device of demagogy and sophistry to deceive the people into adding one more follower to the family caucus which is misusing political power in the name of the country. But the country knows them for what they are. They are the men who have-Suppressed the political liberties ofthe public servants and introduced that shameful piece offascist regulation known as Public Service Regulation208B.
Sabotaged the Free Education Scheme, stopped the establishment of new central schools, and left 90% of the children of this country without any proper education.
Given more power to the hated Bus Monopolists and opposed the nationalisation of the Transport system,
Refused to bring down the cost of living by taxing the gigantic rubber, tea and coconutprofitsandusing themoney so obtained to subsidisefoodstuffs, clothing and otheressential commodities,
Refused to stop the rise in price of foodstuffs, clothing, petrol gas etc. by imposing price control. Failed to provide the necessary housing for the people and instead have tried to fool the country byproviding paperplans for housing schemes, s
Failed to provide employment for the thousands of young men passing out of the schools until today there are over 50,000 S.S.C certified youths without employment or even the hope of employment and have proved their incompetencytosolveasingle problemto the satisfaction ofthe common people,
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 27

Page 17
The U.N. P. family clique of the SENANAYAKES, KOTELAWALAS, MOLAMURES and JAYAWARDENES cannot be depended upon to deliver the goods,
The only course open to the people of Balangoda is to wote for the L.S.S.P. candidate M.R., JOTHIPALA and return him to Parliament with a large пajority.
2 Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953
 

EDITORIA.
Friday, 4th May 1951
THE GOOD THEY CANNOT WILL
The news that Ministers HENRY AMARASURIYA, and A, RATNAYAKE are to be sent on a goodwill mission to Pakistan Illust bring an amused smile to the lips of everyone who knows anything about the politicians who exercise power in this country at the present time. If incompetence were the same thing as goodness, then one might even concede that a more incomparable pair it would be hard to come by. Even this comparison is perhaps not altogether true as these two emissaries are from a cabinet bankrupt not only of the goodwill of its own citizens, but also of all its former friends abroad.
To deny citizenship rights to Indians and Pakistanis who have been resident in this country for generations and made it their home, and then to send goodwill missions to those same countries, is to add insult to injury. And what is worse is the abject servility with which this same political group treats the American and the European residents of this country. No wonder that the Indian newspapers during the past Wecks have had long columns of news and editorial comment denouncing the SENANAYAKE clique as enemies of Asia.
And yet they have the hardihood to send goodwill missions at colossal expcIlse to this country. If these trips were merely a cloak for Ministers to take holiday jaunts at the expense of a country reduced to bankruptcy and starvation then the aerial expenditure is understandable. It was not without reason that MR. PIETERKEUNEMAN coined the apt slogan, "Join the U.N. P. and see the World'
Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953 29

Page 18
Friday, 11th May 1951
THEY FEAR EVEN VICTORY
The state ofmorbid and agonised heart searching which has suddenly overtaken the UNP bosses, is one of the most significant things which has appeared on the political scene during the past few months. The suppressed state ofmutual suspicion and writhing hatredofeach otherin which some of the cabinet members have lived and functioned canno longerbe concealed. The KOTELAWALAS, BANDARANAIKES, NUGAWELAS, PONNAMBALAMS, and GOONESINGHES are at each other's throats. The Ministers are openly reviling each other and accusing their colleagues of betraying not only the trust of the people but also the elementary decencies of religion and civilized life.
Mr.GOONESINGHE charges the Government with encouraging the sale of intoxicating liquor and says its conduct is a stain upon a Buddhist country. Mr. BANDARANAIKE charges the Prime Minister and the UNP with failing to accord state protection to the Buddhist religion against the vandalism which centuries of Christian oppression by European and American Imperialists had wrought. Sir OLIVER GOONETILLEKE'S unconcealed support of the licensed gambling on the race course has called down the denunciations of his own party colleagues. Mr. D. S. SENANAYAKES open support of St. Thomas' College even when its conduct is contrary to the policy of the State, as in its decision to stay outside the free education scheme, is the subject of severe condemnation. It is reported that Mr. BANDARANAIKE is taking courage to make a final and irrevocable parting with the clique between whom and him there never was much love lost.
This is the background against which the strange calm and depression of the UNP clique even after the Balangoda victory must be viewed. And the explanation cannot be better given than from the very propaganda agencies of the UNP. In an editorial of May, 1, under the title, "The Lesson of Balangoda' the, "Times ofCeylon'commented:
30 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

"There are lessons to be learned from Balangoda. The personal magnetism of the Prime Minister, the local influence of Mr. BANDARANAIKE, the appeal to sentiment by Lady MOLAMURE; those things above all produced results. They would not necessarily have the same effect in all constituencies. Take away those influences in the Balangoda electorate and the whole thing became a matter of one electioneering organisation against the other.
"And from an on-the spot survey of the vital organisation; the machinery by which people were persuaded to vote-and then enabled to vote-we feel bound to concede the palm to the leftists. Personal, door-todoor canvassing was much better done; there was infinitely more concentration on seeking out the voters and going to work on them, rather than the gathering together in photogenic groups, arriving on the scene in large, highly polished cars, and having jovial meetings in resthouses.
"How else would the leftists have persuaded 13,400 people to vote for them?'.
Yes, Balangoda was half a fluke and half a ruse. The winning of elections by wiping out Indians from the Electoral Registers is an exceedingly short-lived kind of triumph. That is why the UNP clique are silent. The storm of public indignation and protest against their gross and callous misrule, rages up and down the land, intown and country, in highway and byway, in city alley and rural valley. Yes! the miscreants know it. That is why they feareven victory
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 31

Page 19
EDITORIAL
18th 1951
THE VOICE OF WAR
The “Voice of America' is the voice of war.
That is the aim of this subsidised broadcast. It seeks to use the Goebellsian techniqueofthe "Big Lie' to winsupport for the Third World War for which imperialist circles in America are preparing so assiduously.
Mr. SENANAYAKE, who talks of "ahimsa', has allowed this misanthropic radio feature to be relayed and transmitted daily from Radio Ceylon.
Mr. SENANAYAKE, who talks of a "middle path', has seen it fit to give overRadio Ceylonto this partisanandinspired broadcast, which is nothing but an agency of the U.S. State Department and its policies. The tremendous interest which the American Embassy in Ceylon took in getting the government to reverse Mr. SITTAMPALAM'S earlier decision not to allow this broadcast itselfshows that it has official sponsorship.
This action clearly shows that Mr. SENANAYAKEismore than willing to drag this country behind America into a war with China and the Soviet Union.
That Mr.SENANAYAKE has acted in this way is not surprising. For him the "Voice of America'is.His Master's Voice.
The way in which this radio feature was included in our programmes is a striking comment on the way Americans get things done. It is no secret that the Government was offered a "bribe'ofexpensive transmission equipment in order to gettime for this preaching of war and hatred against othernations.
Slowly but surely, the Americans are taking overall organs of official propaganda in Ceylon, aided and abetted by Ceylonese collaborators like the U.N.P. leaders.
32 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

Our Press which a Senatorrightly, called "Pimps of America', have become nothing but propaganda sheets for the American Embassy and the State Department. The Lake House syndicate has sent aspecial representative to the U.S.A. to transmit regularly thesickening vomit from the "New York Times'. The Government Information Officer has been sent to the U.S.A. for "special training" in American methods. Three quarters ofthe time on Radio Ceylonis taken up by sponsored broadcasts from U.S.I.S.
Every one of our schools is flooded with literature from the American Embassy, which preaches the "cultureofthe vulture', the "culture' ofthe gangster, the Negro-hater and the lynch-maniac. And our so-called “National' Governmentencourages this indoctrination ofour children in the American way of death while it spits upon the demand that the national languages and culture, of our peoples should be given their proper place in our administrative and educational system.
The U.N.P stooges will stop at nothing in their efforts to sell Ceylon to America. How long will it be before they formally change "Radio Ceylon' to "Radio America'transfer Parliament to the U.S. Embassy.
The people of Ceylon will not allow the Americans and the U.N.P. to drag them along the path of hatred for othernations into world war. It will not be long before they remove the gangoftraitors who have bartered away the interests ofour country to the dollar-proud and atom-crazy warmongers of WallStreet.
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 33

Page 20
EDITORIAL
Friday, 25th May 1951
A WORD TO THE LEFT
For the first time in over a decade, unity of the entire leftis within reach.
The CP&LSSP. have, we understand, approached the Navalanka Samasamaja Party asking to join the recently concluded agreement between these parties.
Discussions are already taking place, although all the parties have not yet comeround Oile table fot formal discussions,
With therestofthe progressive section of the county, we wish these discussions
SLLCCESS.
Unity of the left is the desperately needed key to the present situation, the one guarantee of a coalition which call finally bring to an end the hated and treacherous regime of the UNP.
At this critical juncture, all who have stood by the left through thick and thin have a duty to make their views known.
What sort of agreement do we expect from the Left Parties?
There are some who are thinking in terms of a mere electoral agreement, a
pact to avoid Left Parties contesting each other in the same constituency. This is a policy of despair, of regarding a principled agreement as impossible.
We expect something more of the Left Parties. They must rise to the full stature of their responsibilities.
The left must show that they are not content with remaining an opposition. They must not shirk the issue of power. They must show that they are prepared to take power and govern.
34 Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953

This cannot be done by a mere electoral agreement. Even if they gain a majority of seats on this basis, disagreement on policy and programme will leave them helpless and enable the UNP to creepback to power.
The Left Parties must produce an agreementaround a programme which can be presented to the country as an alternative to the UNP and declare their willingness to assume power and implement this programme.
Such a programme obviously should not be an extremely radical one. It must be abroad anti-imperialistandanti-UNP programme which can combine all sections who stand for independence and progress. In this way can be built coalition, led by a united left, which will fight the UNP in every constituency and appeal to the country to be returned to power.
The CP-LSSP agreement provides a programme which corresponds to the needs of the present situation and which will find support even among non left opponents of the UNP. It should forma useful basis for further discussion with the Navalanka Samasamaja Party.
Mr. S. D. Bandaranalike.
Peoples's Woice, 1951-53 35

Page 21
- EDITORIAL -
Friday, 1st June 1951
LETTHE PEOPLE INTERWENE
Left unity is not the exclusive concern of the Left parties. On it depends the fate of all progressive forces in the country. Unless the Left Parties agree now to a common programme, all those who hate imperialism and UNP misrule will be scattered before the wind and the UNP will once more be returtled
to power,
That is why the negotiations which have been started between the Left Parties cannot be left to them alone. The people have awital stake in the Success of these negotiations. Let them intervene now and help to cement Left Unity
Let every trade union, youth league and progressive association pass | resolutions calling upon the Left Parties not to fail the country, but to reach
agreement on a common programme,
Let every individual who wants Peace, Freedom and Progress personally write to the leaders of the Left Parties calling on then to unite,
Let all those within the Left Parties who are convinced of the urgent necessity for agreement exert all their efforts within their parties to persuade their comrades not to allow sectarian prejudices to standin the Way of a principled agreement,
What earthly use is gained by continuing outworn arguments of the 1920s when they have no relevance to today's situation? What possible benefit is there to the country in endless re-iterations of far-offobjectives, while failing to give concrete leadership to the people in the situation under our noses?
The facts are plain. The UNP has bartered away our country to AngloAmerican imperialism. It is steadily drawing us into war behind the Yankee atom-maniacs. It has brought national subjection, poverty, unemployment and
ჭწ. Peples's Voice, 1951-1953

misery to the vast mass of the people.
The general Elections are at hand. Must we endure for five more years what we have endured so long? Must we die in wars, go hungry and have our democratic rights taken away before we unite to get rid of the gang of traitors who are ruining Ceylon?
The people say: No! There is an alternative. The UNP represents a miserable handful only. If the Left, the most powerful, unswerving and popular anti-UNP force, can give a united and courageous lead which will unite other anti-imperialist and anti-UNP forces behind it and pose the question of an alternative government with a progressive programme, the UNP will be routed and the path opened to liberation.
Let all who realise this intervene now and press this realisation on the Left Parties. If we remain passive both they - and we - can miss the bus. History does not forgive those who let opportunities slip.
Dr. S.A. Wickremasinghe General Sec. C.P.
Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953 37

Page 22
EDITORIAL
Friday, 8th June 1951
A TIME FOR THOUGHT
NEVERhas the leftmovement needed time for serious thoughtas it needs it to-day.
Ten years of bitteracrimony and division are drawing to an end. Never has the chance of agreement been so great as it is to-day. Once again it is possible to create the condition ofunited struggle that brought such glory to the left movements in the years 1935-40.
The points of difference between left parties are narrowing down. All parties agree on the paramountneed ofpreventing the UNP plunging this country into war on theside ofthe Anglo-American imperialist aggressors. All agree that the maintask at the moment is the establishment of a Democratic Independent Republic. All agree on aperiod of democratic transition to full socialism. The economic programmes of each party for this period resemble each other like two peas in a pod.
With so much incommon now, where does the remaining difficulty lie?
It lies in the sphere of external affairs, in the attitude towards the Soviet Union, New China and the countries associated with them. It is here that serious and courageous thinking must take place in the entire left movement.
External relations are not some funny business that happens in far-off countries and is no concern of ours. For a country like ours,dependent even for our food on the rest of the world, external relations are matter of life and death.
The UNP openly associates this country with the war-mongering Anglo American bloc. What answer has the left got to this? It is notenough merely to condemn and oppose this policy as one of national subjection and war. The people must be offered some alternative.
38 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

Canatruly independent Ceylon hope to maintain itself withoutfirmfriends and allies? From whom shall we get food and the technical and material assistance we need to constructour country? To whom can we look to espouse our cause ifthe imperialists try to turnus into another Korea? Who will giveus real help insteadoftrying to exploitus?
We cannot hope for such help from an imperialist Britain or America. The recordin Korea and even now in Persia show how they treat any Eastern people who want to be really free. It is only to the Soviet Union, New China and the countries associated with them that a free Ceylon can turn for assistance and trade on an equal basis.
That is why apolicy offull support for and firm friendship with the Soviet Union, New China and associated countries is a question without which independence will haveno meaning.
Nomiddlepolicy is possible. Thetragic example of Yugoslaviaisastanding reminder of this.
This factis being increasingly realised by ever widening sections of the left movement. Similarrealisation has takenplace in India, where MRSARUNA ASAF ALI and other prominent personalities of the Indian Socialist Party have courageously reconsidered their position and openly stated that any position other than full support and friendship with the progressive forces of the worldwill land socialists into the pockets of the Americans.
After all no "middle path' is possible betweenpeace and war, freedom and slavery, progress and reaction.
We are confident that the same courageous rethinking will take place in our left movement also. If the remaining hurdle can be cleared, left unity is assured. The urgentrealities of today's situation demand this.
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Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 39

Page 23
Friday, 15th June 1951
CEYLONISATION
Our Pandam Press has given great publicity to the "Ceylonisation" agreements concluded between the Government and certain mercantile fills. Mr. Goonesingha, the Ministerof State, publicly threatened legislative compulsion on employers who do not toetheline.
All these agreements, however, are for future. They only cover an infinitesimal fraction of employees and are relevant only to the filling future Vacancies,
"Jobs for Ceylonese" is an attractive slogan for a Government looking round desperately foran issue to prop up its rapidly deteriorating position in the country.
But what about the tens of thousands of Ceylonese registered as unemployed at the Labour Exchanges? What about jobs for them?
Nor can all the newspaperheadlines about "Ceylonisation" conceal the fact that non-Ceylonese are being recruited into the leading positions in the administrative and technical services in far greater volume than in the days when we were officially a Crown Colony.
Indeed, in the old days, aspecial" March resolution" had to be passed by the State Council before a non-Ceylonese could be recruited to an administrative post. Now, however, we are "independent" and alleged British and American "experts' are pouring in like the Kelani Gangain flood.
An American (a U.S. treasury official) runs our Central Bank which controls the economy and financial structure of the Island. Britishers command the "Ceylon" Amy, Navy and Air Force. Education, Agriculture, Radio, Public Works and a host of other important departillents are in charge of Europeans specially recruited for the purpose, even though there are more than enough
{I} Pemples's Woice, 1951-1953

competent Ceylonese to hold these jobs.
As for "Ceylonisation' of our economy-the UNP has not only maintained the foreign dominated economy but is openly inviting further foreign capital domination. The Ceylonese firms which were registered for the purpose of entry into the import trade were left stranded when, on pressure from the foreign importers, the Government suddenly put nearly all classes of imports on an open general license,
The truthis that the UNP is not a Government for the Ceylonese-buta Government of persons who, though born in Ceylon and bearing Ceylonese names, are Imerely stooging for the foreign imperialist interests. Their tall talk about "Ceylonisation' will impress no one but themselves and will not deceive the people of the country.
N. Sanmugathasan
Peuples"8 Wwice, 1951-1953

Page 24
E)
Friday, 22nd June 1951
U.N.P's IRON CURTAIN
The Government refusalto allow MTJ. G. Crowtherto landin Ceylonisa shameful abuse of its powers for partisan ends. It has rightly been condemned by all democratically-minded people.
Mr. Crowtherisa distinguished writer on scientific subjects. He is a member of the World Peace Council and last year's President of the British Peace Committee. After completing a tour of peace meetings in Australia and new Zealand, he was coming to Ceylon on the invitation of the All Ceylon Peace Committce.
The venal Lake House Press has tried to justify the Government by raising the Redbogey. Mr. Crowther, italleges, is a communist- which in fact he is not. The peaceMovementis"Communist inspired", apparently on the assumption that any movementin which Communists also participate is an agency of Moscow. By this logic, eating and breathing will also become pro Communist actions, because it is known that Communists do not refrain from these.
An anonymous "Government spokesman" has told the "Daily News' that Mr.Crowther was banned entry as the "enemies of democracy' would not be allowed to use the democratic process to destroy democracy. By this logic, the entire UNP should be deported-lock, stock and barrel. It is they who have used Parliament to destroy democracy with their P.S.R. 208B, disqualification of political prisoners, Public Security Ordinances, Industrial Disputes Bills, CitiZenship Acts and a host of anti-democratic legislation.
No, the real reason why Mr.Crowther was refused entry is because he was coming here to talk Peace is a subversive word for the American Embassy and the UNP Government which dances to its tune. Peace is anti-delinocratic only to those who are actively preparing for war.
Advocates of war have no difficulty in entering Ceylon. The Laytons,
4 Peoples's voice, 1951-1953

Burnhams and other imports of the American Embassy are honoured guests, personally entertained by the Prime minister. They have freedom to preach war and even indulge in party politics, gratuitously advising the people to support the UNP against rival political parties.
This action of the UNP will clearly demonstrate even to the blind the hypocrisy of Mr.Senanayake's talk of a "middlepath".
It blows sky-high his claptrap about Peace. It proves that, for all the UNP talk about an "Iron Curtain'in Eastern Europe, a very real Iron Curtain exists in Ceylon.
This is not the first time the UNP has acted in this way. In Septemberlast year it prohibited the entry of trade unionists from the Soviet Union and China who were coming hereas fiaternal delegates to the annual sessions of the C.T.U.F. Thebanon Mr.Crowtherisyet another incident in this sordid story.
It is heartening to notice the very wide public reaction against this Gowernmental action. This disgust goes beyond party frontiers and is shared by all decent people. Ifit is united and properly led it can lead to the reversal of this shameful discriminatory policy and the defeat of its authors.
S. Handy Perinbanayagam
People's Wuicc, 1951-1953 43

Page 25
EDITORIAL
Friday, 29th June 1951
GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S ADDRESS.
The Governor-General's speech, announcing the Government's policy at the opening of parliament last week, is the usual rag-bag ofmealy-mouthed platitudes and pie-crust promises to which both Parliament and the country have been repeatedly treated in the past.
There is pious talk of" safeguarding peace' at the same time as U. S. destroyers are in Ceylon harbours en-route from Korea to Persia.
There is talk of"firm faithin the democratic way of life” at the same time, at 200,000 workers have been expunged from the electoral lists and hundreds of Ceylonese are being refused inclusion because their names resemble Indian Of1ՇS.
Education is boasted, at the same time as the Free Education scheme is being scrapped. The advancement ofpublic healthis claimed eventhough the rackets in the Medical Department have producedachronic shortage of even basic drugs in all hospitals. "Increased industrial development'is the term used to describe the progressive closing down ofexisting industrial projects.
Hypocrisy cannot go further. Apolicy of waris advocated inthe name of peace. National subjection and poverty are described as freedom and progress.
To the U.N.P., insulated against the real feelings of the people by a host of lick-spittle, fawningpandamkarayas, the people are happy and contented. But anyone who knows the real feelings of the people will agree with the Food Minister who in a recent speech confessed that the Government's "days are numbered.”
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44 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

PEACE IN KOREA
The whole worldwillwelcome and supportMr. Malik's appeal fora“Cease fire' in Korea.
This appeal disproves the slander that the Russians are interested in prolonging the bloodshed there; itoffers arealhope forapeacefulsettlement.
One year of war in Korea has proved to the hilt the calculated aggression and merciless destruction which the Americans have heaped upon this small Asiannation.
The U.N. Commission has now reported that it can find no evidence to prove that the war was started by the North Koreans. When a distinguished member of the British Labour Party, Dr. Monica Felton, after first hand investigation, exposes the American atrocities against Korean people, she is threatened with trial for treason.
One year of bloodshed has made the world realise thatapeaceful settlement is urgent. The Koreans must be allowed to run their own country without outside interference.
Peace in Korea is vital for all Asia-because only this can guarantee that the war there will not be extended into awarinvolving all Asiatic countries. MacArthur's testimony before the American Senate has clearly revealed that such an idea is in the minds of America's leaders.
Though Stock Exchange prices slump at Mr. Malik's proposal, it will be supported by all decent, ordinary people who have nothing to gain and every thing to lose by war.
-(du
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 45

Page 26
EDI
Fri 1
KEGALLA JUDGMENT
The judgement of Mr.N. Sivagnanasunderam, District Judge of Kegalla, in the Naircaseis, ineffect, alegalcondemnation oftheracial discrimination of the U.N.P. and ajustification of the criticisms made by the Opposition.
The learnedjudge has held thatboth the Citizenship Act of 1940 and the Parliamentary Elections Act, under which 200,000 Indian plantation and other workers were deprived of the franchise they hitherto enjoyed, are ultra vires as it violates the provisions of the Constitution.
This point was raised in Parliament by the opposition during the debate on these Acts, but was overruled. The late speaker, Sir Francis Molamure, who was not in the chair at the time, subsequently expressed an opinion that these Acts had not been legally passed as the required two-thirds majority had not been obtained. Both these views have now received legal confirmation.
There is talk of the Government appealing against thisjudgement. But what is to happen meanwhile? The registration of voters is proceeding and by the time the appealisheard, the voters' lists will be finalised. These lists will be the ones on which the next General Election will be held.
The Government canthus defy the law and obtain whatitwants-the effective disfranchisementof200,000voters. Ifthe Governmentrespects the law, asit claims to do, it must immediately stop the registration of voters until a final decision is made. Only such action would be consistent with law and democracy.
U.S. “NEWSBOY'
The public must take serious note ofthe exposures made last weekin the Senate and the House of Representatives oftheway in which the Government is using its administrative apparatus to distribute the filthy war propaganda
46 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

churned out by the U.S. Embassy.
It is a serious reflection on the position of Ceylon when the Governmentacts, as Mr. Pieter Keunemandescribed it in last week's debate, as the “newsboy of the U.S. Embassy'. The Governmentmachine, whichispaid forby the Ceylonese people is being freely used to disseminate the propaganda of another Government whose sole aim is to drag the people of Ceylon behind it into war.
Senator Nadesan has also pointed out how this is being done, with Government encouragement, indefiance of Administrative Regulation208B. Yet another example of the Government's defiance of its own regulation for UNP party purpose is Dr.N.M.Perera’s pertinent question relating to the Government soliciting and accepting contributions to the U.N.P. Election Fund from public servants.
The people must intervene to prevent this. The Government must either enforce its regulations without fear or favour of party bias-or else it must allow the same privileges to all public servants, irrespective of their political opinions.
As for the US Ambassadorand his officers of the Embassy, they should be immediately recalled for animpermissible interference in the internal affairs of Ceylon.
-a-Oual
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 47

Page 27
Friday, 13th July 1951
THE TABLESTURNED
THEtables are being turned on the UNP-with a vengeance,
For four long years, the UNP beat their chests and trumpet: "Look how united weare! We are not like these hopelessly disunited leftists.".
The situation is different today. The leftists are uniting. The UNP is fallingapart.
The Cabinet crisis around Mr.Bandaranaike has come to a head. It is openly known that the Government faces a serious split,
It would be naive to imagine that this position is solely due to personal rivalries between Ministers. It is an index of the deteriorating position within the UNP camp, brought about by the growing discontentin the country.
The personal factor no doubt enters into the picture. But it is no accident that Mr. Bandaranaike has seized upon a pubic issue on which there is widespread public resentment against the Government-the national languages question-tostage his revolt. The recent unexpected attack on the Government made at the Government Party meeting at Sravasti' by UNP backbenchers shows their degree ofuneasiness at the approach of the coming general elections.
Not all these forces hawe the courage and honesty of Mr. H. B. TENNE M.P who, because he was dissatisfied with Government policy, broke away from the Government Party despite the possible repercussions this break might have on his individual position. Many who deeply resent the arbitrary, authoritarian and reactionary policy of the Government still cling to it because they see no practical alternative.
If the left would unite and rally behind it all otheranti-imperialist and antiUNP sections in the fight for a Government, the entire situation will be
S Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953

transformed. Not only will the country be inspired; but demoralisation, crisis and further splits will develop in the ranks of the UNP.
Let the left parties, now negotiating for a united front, not fail to see the immense possibilities of the present situation.
一事一
Mr. C. Suntharalingam
Peuples's Wolce, 1951-1953 4)

Page 28
AEDITORIAL
Friday, 20th July 1951
CRISIS AND CONSEQUENCE
MR.BANDARANAIKE'S resignation has created a most favourable situation for all those opposed to the hated UNP.
It has smashed the myth of theinvincibility and monolithic unity of the UNP, which its propagandists had worked overtime to create.
The entire country Ilow realises that the UNP exists on very shaky foundations, and that the Governmentis one that can be defeated.
The unpopular nature of the Government is more clearly seen today than
ever before. It has to depend for its existence, not on a majority of elected
representatives, butonthesupportofthe Nominated European Members. This isits "democracy".
Itispossible that the Government will survive the crisis of the Budget debate. But it will continue to existon a slender and precarious majority, with its own internal stresses and strains in no way lessened.
In this situation, it is the first duty of the Opposition to do all it can, in unity, to bring down the Government.
This can be done more effectively if, in the first place, the Opposition comes to a working agreement that, in the case of defeat of the Government, it will be ready to create an interim government to carry on.
Such a government cannot expector be expected to do very much. But it can take steps to prevent the drift to war and also guarantee the holding of free and democratic elections, which the UNP is determined to prevent.
Whatever the prospects of such ashort-term arrangement, there is no doubt about the need for a wider agreement between all anti-UNP forces for
5[] Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953

the coming general elections. Such an agreement can be the final nail in the UNP’s cofin.
The Left Parties can and must take the lead in this matter. They must not permit a division to take place between Left and non-Left forces in the Opposition. This is what the UNP is praying and working for.
If the Leftacts wisely, courageously and, above all, quickly, it can turn the scales in favour of progress. Delay is dangerous. Events are moving fast and Time waits for no man.
一事一
Dr. Kumaran Ratnam
Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953 51

Page 29
EDITORIAL
Friday, 27th July 1951
THE LAST FAMILYBUDGET
The family clique who have misused, and continue to misuse, the political power and authority of the people of this country, have produced their last Annual Family Budget. And they have mustered instrength withtheirBuropean Allies and have passed the Second Reading. That Budget, of course, is far from being the country's budget. It has nothing to do with the real welfare of the people. It caters to, protects the ill-gotten wealth of a small caucus of blackmarketeers, busmagnates, building contractors, and other profiteers in trade and industry, as well as the colossal profits which the European exploiters annually drainaway from this country with the active support and approval of the SENANAYAKE coterie.
But while the Budget is as pitiful apiece offinancial manipulation as could have been humanly devised, there is neverthelessjubilation in the hearts of the people. In every nook and corner of this country, the downfall of the hated clique of political adventurers is awaited with eager expectancy. The ovations and the garlands which MR.BANDARANAIKE has received wherever he has gone after his party's resignation from the UNP caucus, are the writing on the wall whichtells the SENANAYAKES that the closing days of their political powerin the country are approaching.
Father and Son, Uncle, Nephew and Cousin who makeup thereal cabinet of this country will have had their last fling when they vote this through. And thento the unbounded joy and reliefofthe nation the stooges of Anglo-American imperialist domination, together with their masters, and the huge landed wealth they now unlawfully hold, will have all vanished into the limbo offorgotten things. The family clique will thenberemembered only as an eviland monstrous nightmare which plagued the happy, peaceful, and contented lives ofthe people of Sri Lanka for the best part of a quarter of a century.
ഖOന്ന
52 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDITORIAL
Friday, 3rd August, 1951
ON TO VICTORY
THE days ofthe SENANAYAKE family dictatorship are clearly over. Every passing Daybrings new evidence of the mounting anger and hatred felt by rich and poor alike, by all classes and all communities in the country, against a family clique thatclings to powerin the teeth of the people's opposition. The bellspeal and the flags flutteratevery village meeting and city gathering which declares its oppositionto the SENANAYAKE regime. They cannot find many friends or sympathisers of any standing in the country among the permanent population. Their only supporters are the British planters and shopkeepers and the American Imperialist exploiters, along with a sprinkling of unscrupulous Indian black-marketeers. Their namestinks in the nostrils ofevery patriotically minded citizen of Sri Lanka.
The BuddhistPriesthood denounces them as men who have prostituted the machinery of State to promote gambling, drinking and every conceivable kind ofcorruptionin public life. The Public Servants inevery nook and corner of the country, and constituting one of the most influential sections of the people, call downdestruction upon them as the enemies of liberty and decency inpublic life. The English teachers cynically and contemptuously sneer at them as mean and petty political bankrupts who deny even propereducationto our children. The vernacular teachers howl them down as traitors to our national culture, traditions, language and civilization.
They point to the Prime Minister's wearing of tail coat and top haton ceremonial occasions as marking the depth of our political degradation. The Western-educated doctors laugh at the muddle of a health system which condemns 1700 patients at the Mental Hospital at Angodato sleep under() beds, without drugs or any proper medical attention while thousands of competent and able young men are denied a Medical education on the preposterous plea oflackofaccommodation. The Ayurvedic Physicians condemnthem as enemies ofall Asia who have soldaway the most precious medical treasure we possess in order to provide hereafree market from British and American manufacturers
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 53

Page 30
of chemicals and drugs at prices totally beyond the reach of our people.
That in short is the SENANAYAKE Contribution to our political advancement! No wonder that the people flock in their tens of thousands to the meetings of Mr. BANDARANAIKE and the Leftist political parties, while this SENANAYAKE Clique of relations looks on in a death-pale stupor.
-0-
42143
நி1 Peuples's Woice, 1951-1953
 

EDITORIA.
Friday, 10th August 1951
WHATNEXT
THEdrama of Mr. Bandnranaike's resignation is over. The crisis provoked by it remains.
The item on the agenda now is: what next?
Mr. Bandnranaikeisforming a new political party, which will seektorally "centre" opinion in the country, Amanifesto has been prepared, but it has not yet been published.
Mr. Bandnranaike has stated where he stands. He must now state what he stands for.
His speech in Parliament indicated several general lines of disagreement with the U.N.P. It remains to be seen whether or not the manifesto of his new party will take the same position.
It is known that Mr. Bandaranaikeisinfavourofseverance from the unequal ties of the Commonwealth and the establishment of a Republic. But these constitutional forms alone do not guarantee freedom, as the example of Burma has shown.
It is also necessary to speak clearly on questions like the British bases on our soil, the British monopoly grip on our economy and the present foreign policy of unquestioningsubservience to Anglo-American imperialism. All these questions are part and parcel of the concept of freedom.
Mr. Bandnranaike is no leftist. No one expects from him a manifesto of the type one would expect from one of the leftist parties. But the country has the right to expect from him a programme of action which will keep Ceylon out of war, guarantee real Independence and make possible the progressive bette ment of the lot of the coIIllon man.
Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953 55

Page 31
It should be a programme of a type that can unite both Left and Centre opponents of the U.N.P., and enable the formation of an alliance which can oust the U.N.P. from power and setup a progressive government.
A programme which is fundamentally the same as that of the U.N.P. will have no appeal to the mass of the country, whose opposition to the U.N.P. is not based on seconday questions, but on its treacherous line of policy.
The country has a right to expect that Mr. Bandaranaike will act now with the same foresight and courage, as when he decided to resign from the U.N.P.
Mr.T. Duraisingam
5. Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953
 

EDITORIAL
Friday, 17th August 1951
THE BEST IN THE WORLDI
There is one thing that the UNP propagandists do not suffer from, and that is Modesty.
According to them, everything in the UNPSri Lanka is of the best, for the best. Usually, it is the best in the world. In more modest moments, it is only the bestin Asia.
We had a "Free Education' Schelle which was claimed to be more progressive than even that in the Soviet Union. The "White Paper" and the "Facilities Fee' have put a stop to that cock-and-bull story,
Now the D.M. and S.S has gone on record that our health services are the best in Asia. AIIlore impudent and baselesslie was never uttered.
T.B is fast winning a victory over our people, and the government is aiding and abetting it. Refusing to provide the 1,000 new T.Bbeds needed, the Gover IIIlent is sending TB patients back to their homes to infect others and add to the toll of this disease.
Even the most elementary drugs cannot be had in our main hospitals, patients are piled on the floors and corridors of the wards, and thousands Inore cannot obtain admittance. Anyone who has visited our premier medical institutions is aware of this.
In an effort to counteract Mr. Bandaranaike's resignation, the Prime Ministeris issuing newspaperstatements to the effect that the problem of health will now be solved. But it is only in the headlines of the UNP press that these problems are being solved.
The first essential for the health of the nation is to get rid of this criminal Government, to whom the life or death of its citizens is a matter of indifference.
Peoples's Voice, Ł951-1953 57

Page 32
If the UNP and their propagandists can really claim to be the "best in Asia" in any matter, it is surely strange that a fact of this importance should have remained unknown to anybody else in the World!
Former Puisne Justice Wishes Success
Mr. M. W. H. de Silva, K.C. retired Puisne Justice and one time High Commissioner for Ceylon in India and Leader of the newly for Ined Lanka Republican Party has sent the following message:
A PROGRESSIVE newspaper which will give the people unbiassed
news and champion their cause is an urgent need to-day.
I hope the People's Voice will supply this need and help to counteract the misrepresentations and propaganda of a section of the Ceylon press which have as their object the mainternance of the present unequal distribution of wealth and the privileged position of a few at the expense of the vast majority of the inhabitants of this Island.
I wish the People's Voice every success and hope that before long
it will be one of the leading newspapers of Ceylon.
58 Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953
 

EDITORIAL:
Friday, 24th August 1951
WE ARE IN OUREIGHTHMONTH
The tempo of political life in Ceylon, as in Asia and the world at large, grows apace. The present parliamentary crisis is merely a reflection of the deepening economic crisis outside. Life is becoming much more difficult for increasingly large sections of the population. A political caucus allied with for eign interest exploits an economy of scarcity to denyus the abundance of food, clothing, education, housing, medical care, opportunity for cultural pursuits, social security and employment for our youth, which are the basic conditions of a real civilized existence, and which proper economic planning can procure for usin
plenty,
The Welfare of the nation has been sacrificed to the interests of a handful ofwealthy capitalistandan ironcontrolexercised by the Anglo-American Imperialist bloc, These are the enemies of the people, which it has been the endeavour of the "People's Woice" to expose and destroy, with the warm and enthusiastic support which our paper has received from large sections of the people,
The enormous increase in our circulation in nearly eight months of its existence and the warmtributes we daily receive from persons of high eminence in the public service and the political life of the country, are proof that the paper is serving a need which has been felt not only by the oppressed sections of the people, but even by certain elements among the privileged classes.
In order to continue our usefulness to our readers and the county, at this Critical hour in the nation's political and economic life, funds are urgently needed. Wetherefore appeal to all our friends and sympathisers to help us by renewing their subscriptions and helping usin every other way possible. This will resultin a more continuous and comprehensive commentary on the news, and the more effective exposure of the attempts by a government, utterly callousand indifferent to the needs of the people, to deceive the electors by means of the unscrupulous misrepresentations of a monopolypress.
*-
Feuples's Woice, 1951-1953 59

Page 33
EDITORIAL
Friday, 31st August 1951
THE TASKAHEAD
IT is gratifying to note that, in response to our recent appeals to subscribers to renew their subscriptions, many hundreds of renewals have already comein. We are confident that many more hundreds will follow before the second week of September when the original subscriptions are due to expire.
While expressing our gratitude to these subscribers for rallying round us once morewith their financial supportand theirmoralencouragenent, We Would be failing in our duty if we did not render to all our readers an account of our achievements, retarded though they have been by certain handicaps.
To begin at the beginning, we hawe, by the mere factofcoming out with unfailing regularity and punctuality during the eight months of our existence, disproved the prophecies of those doubting Thomases who grudgingly gave us no Inore than a six month's lease of life.
Next, we have, by building up a circulation of about eight thousand and thereby reaching a reading public of many times that number, achieved a record which it would be false modesty to conceal or belittle. For in the whole history of journalism in Ceylon Ilo English weekly has everhit such a figure, Noris this figure Just an isolated peak achieved during a time of political crisis and active public interest. It is a figure achieved and maintained overa considerable period of time and, to judge by the growing public response, soon to be eclipsed. Nor, again, has the range of the People's Voice' been confined to one town or one province. It reaches outin increasing volume to every province and every town.
As for the news we have always endeavored to describe the plight of the people as oppressed and victimised by foreign overlords as in the estates or the Gal Oya Scheme and by their local lackeys as in the Polonaruwwa Agricultural Corps or the Public Service. We have also focused attention on the methods, infidiousatone momentandbarefacedatanother, ofthe Americanimperialists and their British allies to interfere in the affairs of our country and drag it, with the connivance of the U.N.P., into the camp of war and destruction, -
Ճ0 Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953

by the Government in power. On the issue of the national flag, on the denial of
the Public Service, on the dismissal of public servants under the notorious 208
| Subjected many an issue of economic importance (from the deep-seated crises
basis of such analysis we have stated with all the eloquence and power at our
the defeat of the U.N.P. which is maintained in powerby foreign masters.
in Korea, Persia and Kashmir, it is these same foreign masters who are using
We have exposed every flagrant, violation of democratic principle perpetrated
democratic rights to Indians, on the interference of ministers in appointments to
Bregulation, Onsabotaging of the Free Education Scheme by the introduction of various restrictions and fees and on a host of other actions directed against the common man, we have without qualification and apology come out in vehementprotest.
Nor can our efforts be dismissed as mere sound and fury for we have
of our agriculture and the long-ranged economic subjection implicit in the Colomboplan on the one hand to the immediate causes of distress like inflation and the cost of living on the other) to calm and critical analysis. And on the
command that no satisfactory solution to these problems can be found without
And, in this connection, we hawe shown howin world affairs, particularly
economic, technical and military threats and even waging War to deny freedom and democracy to our fellow peoples allower the world. Also, with the logic flowing from this international impact on our destiny, we have shown the people that, while the U.N.P. has its allies headed by the U.S.A. and Britain, they too have their international allies in the fighters for peace, freedom and democracy.
Nevertheless, as the success of the struggle for our freedom, depends mainly on our efforts, we have never failed to preach that the unity of all forces opposed to the U.N.P. is indispensable. It is precisely to bring about this unity that we have been earnestly endeavoring and we would continue to do sountil the unity is achieved. For, without opposition unity, there is little hope of defeating the corrupt and inefficient U.N.P. Government.
*
Peoples's Wrice, 1951-1953

Page 34
EDITORIAL
Friday, 7th September 1951
MERCANTILE REPORT
ATlong last, the report of the committee on the introduction of legislation to regulate the terms and conditions of mercantile employees has seen the light
of day.
Witha comIIittee consisting ofrepresentatives ofso many diverse interests, it is natural that there should be so many dissents and riders and that many of the recommendations should be in the nature of a compromise.
However, the report does contain several suggestions which, if implemented, will Inake conditions of service for Inercantile employees IIlore attractive and secure,
No further time should be wasted in introducing legislation to safeguard the
interests of mercantile employees. This report should not meet with the same fate as befell the report of the Committee on Social Services.
The much-maligned "whitecollar worker', from whom somuch is expected and to whom so little is given, deserves a New Deal and must not be denied it.
THE BURDEN OF DEBT
The facts revealed in the "Report of the Committee on Indebtedness in the Public Service' are truly shocking.
One out of every twelve Government servants was indebt. Their total debts amounted to Rs. 15 million, making an average of nearly Rs.900 per head. These figures, however, do not coverindebtedness among Government school teachers,
26 percent of these public servants, were indebt to professional money
$2 Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953

lenders and were being bled white by the extortionate rates of interest that they
had to pay.
Government has done little or nothing to relieve the distress of its employees
who have been plunged into this position by the steeply rising cost of living.
For months the Lady Lochore Fund, the only mechanism of relief, was starved of funds, and it was only a couple of weeks ago that fresh financial provision was made.
Prompt action by Government is needed if the burden of debt is not to crushits employees completely,
CARTOONIST - SIWA
ITSA FACT THAT SWAGNANASUNDARAM STARTED HIS CARTOONIST CAREER - PUBLISHINGHS CREATIONS IN THE - WEEKLYNEWS-PAPER, "PEOPLE'S WOICE - COLOMBO. WE AME TO KNOW EACH OTHER IN THE YEARS. 1950-51 AND WHEN IDECIDED ON STARTING THE NEWSWEEKLY HE WOLUNTEERED TO HELPTHE PAPER...WITH HIS CARTOONS. SOME ARE BEING RE-PUBLISHED HERE
Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953 63

Page 35
EDITORIAL
Friday, 14th September 1951
WARTREATY
By setting its signature to the so-called "Peace' treaty with Japan, the UNP government has misused the name ofthe people of this country to give approval to the war policies of the U.S imperialists in the Far East.
What has been signed in San Francisco is a treaty of war, not ofpeace. It is a treaty whose object is to retain Japan as an American colony and a base of aggression against Korea, China and other Asian nations.
It is obvious that any peacetreaty which does not command the support of the majorpowers is an unstable one, which carries within itself the seeds of new wars and conflicts. The Yankee-dominated treaty, signed at San Francisco, not only excludes two ofthese powers-China and the Soviet Union-butis also directed against them.
Insteadofpressing for a treaty which will command the support of all the powers concerned and thus contribute towards the maintenance ofpeace inthe Far East, the UNP Government delegate, Mr.Jayawardene, has made himself a willing tool of America and disgraced this country and Asia.
The San Francisco"Treaty” holds out no prospect of peace for Asia. Its smokescreen provision for the withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces within ninety days will deceive no one. Already a separate pact has been signed allowing Americatomaintain unlimited troops foran unlimited time on Japanese soil and to use Japan as a base of attack on other nations.
Japan is also to be dismembered. Certain strategic islands are to be separated from her and placed under American"trusteeship'.
No limit is placed on the military development of Japan or on her armed forces. No provisionexists for outlawing Japanese fascism and militarism and preventing its resurgence.
64 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

While Japan's war development is unfettered, its peaceful, economic development is severely curtailed by limitations imposed on trade and fiscal policies.
The future of Japan's former colonies is left unsettled, thus ensuring that they continue under the present American occupation. The independence of Korea from Japan is recognised, but there is no guarantee given of the right of the Koreans to rule themselves in an united and democratic Korea. Formosais separated from Japan, but not returned to Chinato whichitrightly belongs. The banditadministrationofChiang Kai Shekand U.Soccupation forces will continue to use this island as the main base from which a war against China is being planned.
It is thus clear that a document of war has been sanctioned by our government in our name. Another step has been taken to increase the subordination of this government to WallStreet and endangerourrelations with our Asian neighbours and the prospect of peace in the Far East.
-e)
Grave Crisis
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 65

Page 36
EDITORIAL
Friday, 21st September 1951
ELECTIONS AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE
IT is now clear to everyone that, initsfrantic and unscrupulous preparation for the next elections, the U.N.P. is determined to use the Public Service as its main means ofinfluencing the Voters.
The recent conference of Village Headmen held in Colomboisacaseinpoint.
This conference had many features not usually associated with official conferences of Government officers. The Headmen were taken for free joy rides in aeroplanes, made conducted tours ofthe City and were finally entertained to dinner at Colonibo's Swank Grand Oriental Hotel.
Mr. D. S. Senanayake and Sir Oliver, who were the principal figures responsible for organising this conference, obviously intend to make the village Headman the main propagandistand election worker for the U.N.P. in each village. For not only can the Headmen use his official position to intimidate villagers who have to live in fear of him, but, as he is the officer attached to pollingbooths to assistintheidentification of voters, he can be ofgreat assistance in allowingimpersonators to carry on theirnefarious activities withimpunity.
Knowing that, from top to bottom, the rest of the Public Service is implacably opposed to all itstands for, the U.N.P. now reliesonananachronism like the village Headmento save it from disaster. But even here they are doomed to disappointmentformany Headmenthemselves are turning against the U.N.P. while the influenceofothers is steadily diminishing.
CAR RACKET
How the British and American manufacturers exploit Ceylonis graphicall illustrated in the latest development in the motorcarmarket. −
Only last month, import duties on motor cars were lowered by the
66 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

Government on the orders of the World Bank. The U.N.P. boasted that, by doing so, it was making more cars available, lowering prices and ending the motor car re-sale racket.
Hardly had these regulations come into force when the manufacturers in America and Britain put up the prices and the shippers slapped an extra 15 percent on prices to cover freight surcharges. Thus motorcars that leave their country of origin after September 1st will cost the Ceylon buyer almost the same old inflated prices, while the Government loses what it made in import duties.
It was only last week that the way in which a New York firm swindled Ceylon businessmen by sending them bundlesofrags instead oftextiles was disclosed. The latestracketin the carmarketis anotherindication of the "ethics' of Mr.Senanayake's Anglo-American friends.
-0-
ー。
-FREEDOM FROM HUMBUG
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 67

Page 37
EDITORIAL
Friday, 28th September 1951
FREEDOM FRONT
EVERY patriotic Ceylonese will welcome the presenteffortstoforge an electoral alliance between all anti-UNP parties in order to defeat the UNP at the next elections and establish a progressive government.
Defeat of the UNP is the necessary precondition for progress. It is the common interestofall Opposition parties and of the country as a whole.
There is no question that the vast majority of the people do not want the UNP. Its position to-day is even worse than it was in 1947, when it was unable to secure an absolute majority of either seats or votes.
There is also no question that, while the overwhelming majority of the people are anti-UNP, their allegiances are divided between the various parties in the Opposition, none of which can say that it has an absolute majority and is capable of defeating the UNP on its own.
No useful purpose is served by any Opposition party seeking to demonstrate that it enjoys the most support among Opposition forces. This will only lead to the UNP being returned to power once again.
An electoral alliance and a progressive coalition Government, onamutually agreed programme, is the only way forward.
If the UNP in each constituency has to face a single candidate backed by such a Freedom Front, there is no question that it will be decisively routed.
It is sincerely hoped that all anti-UNP parties will see the wisdom and practicality ofthis step and exert all their effortstowards this end.
K)
68 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

TWO TYPES OF FREEDOM
October 1st marks the second anniversary of the liberation of China.
Itisinteresting to compare what China has achieved intwo years with what we have received under four years of UNP"freedom'. It is the difference between two types offreedom.
UNP"freedom' has meant increasing subordination to Anglo-American Imperialism. China's freedom has seen the endofimperialist domination.
UNP"freedom” has seen government being carried on for the benefit of foreign imperialists and a miserable handful of corrupt, reactionary and treacherous stooges. China's freedom has seen government carried on by a bloc ofpatriotic classes for the benefit of the Chinese people.
UNP"freedom” has seen Ceylon being used to assist attacks by imperialists on fellow Asian nations struggling forfeedom. China'sfreedom has seen assistance, as in Korea, to Asian peoples fighting American imperialist aggression.
Under four years of UNP “freedom'the food problem has become more acute, and the land under food cultivation has become less. Within two years, New Chinahas completely solved her food problemandaformer deficit, faminestricken and food importing country is now in aposition, not only to feed all her vast population, but also to begin exporting food.
UNP"freedom”has meant the closing down offactories. Chinese freedom has seen the beginning of vastindustrial projects which will change the face of | Chi
On the second anniversary of its liberation, we send our greetings and good wishes to the people and Government of New China, the major Asian nation. We call for the furtherstrengthening ofgood relationship between Ceylon and China by the opening of trade and diplomatic relations.
{0-
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 69

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EDITORIAL
Friday, 5th October 1951
U.N.P. CONFERENCE
DESPITE the ballyhoo in the Pantham Press, it is clear that the UNP conference at Kandy was a dismal failure.
Public enthusiasm was nil. The vastmass of Kandy's population boycotted the tamasha and the rest of Ceylon was profoundly unimpressed. The audience mainly consisted of specially-imported "Green Shirts' and a few women who had been enticed to go to Kandy on the pretext of seeing the Sacred Tooth Relic.
This was the crowning resultofelaborate preparation, the expenditure of overhalfalakhofrupees and the disgraceful exploitation ofreligion in order to gather a crowd for the sessions.
The Kandy fiascoconvincingly demonstrated the utterisolation ofthe UNP from the people at large. Its discussions were concentrated, noton giving any positive lead to the country, but on healing the effects ofrecent Party schisms. It was a demonstration ofpolitical bankruptcy by an unwanted and hated Party driven onto the defensive.
All thatremains now is to putpaid to this gang of traitors, who have bartered away the liberties and interests oftheir fellowcountrymen. An electoral agreement and coalition of all Opposition forces cando the trick, and no effort should be spared to bring this into existence.
BUS KINGS BENEFIT
SIRJohn Kotelawala, who runs the railway at a loss rather thantouch the profits of the "bus barons' is now trying to hit the, Colombo Municipal Council in the eye.
Sometime ago the Council decided to scrap the antiquated trams and to establish an up-to-date trolleybus service.
70 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

The “busnayakes' resented such competition from a public body. So their friend, and protector, Sir John, rushed to their aid.
The Motor Regulations were used to prevent the Council operating the trolleybuses on the routes they wanted. The Council was also not allowed to take any steps to protect itselffrom the bus owners by eliminating competition on the only routes along which they were allowed to ply.
The new TransportActhas now been used to prohibit the running oftrolley buses at all. Though the Council's long-indentedtrolleybuses has now arrived and are being assembled, they cannot be operated. The question of amending the Transport Act to permit their use has been postponed by Sir John for the distant future.
Thus does the UNP use its Governmental powertoprevent the development ofa public-owned transport service and to assist its main local supporters, the bus magnates, to make collosal profits.
Short Cut to Success
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953 71

Page 39
EDITORIAL
Friday, 12th October 1951
CRISIS OF LEFT UNITY
THE unity negotiations between the C.P.-L.S.S.P. United Front and the L.S.S.P. appear to have reached a critical stage.
The whole position may well be summed up in the phrase: "So nearand yet so far.”
The C.P.-L.S.S.P. United Front, which first proposed a "comprehensive united front” has been prepared to come down to accepting the L.S.S.P. suggestion for a front confined to the elections and the formation of a Government on a programme of specific issues.
However, progress is being impeded by disputes about agenda. The L.S.S.P. apparently desire to have their 14-point programme as the only agenda with the other parties given the right to accept or canvass their differences with this programme. The C.P.-L.S.S.P. United Front, on the other hand, asks that both the 14-points of the L.S.S.P. and their own electoral programme in the C.P.- L.S.S.P. agreement should form the agenda.
Without in any way commenting on the rights and wrongs of the respective programmes or the attitudes of the respective parties, we venture to suggest that the main thing to do at the momentis to find a means of getting together.
As long as contact between the different sections is maintained through letters, the spirit of which grows increasingly acrimonious as time progresses, no one will get much further. The important thing now is for the respective parties to meet at a conference table and there attempt to iron out their differences.
If the only way of doing this is for both sides to place their proposals on the table as part of the agenda, then this should be done. It would be
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the height of foolishness to prevent any chance of unity by insisting that only a particular point of view should be considered.
We trust that wise counsels will prevail and the present crisis in the Left Unity negotiations overcome.
MAHARAJ, SIR WE HAVE STRIP(P)ED THEM
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EDITORIAL
Friday, 19th October 1951
BUS-NAYAKES FRIEND
Sir John Kotelawala has descended to new depths in order to help the bus-nayake supporters of the UNP and enable them to fleece the public.
Some time ago we drew attention to the way in which Sir John had used his Ministerial position to prevent the Colombo Municipal Council Starting its own trolley bus service, which might compete with the busnayakes and lessen their enormous profits.
Sir John has now effectively prevented any trolley-bus service at all by insisting that it should only operate along the present tram lines-a technically impossible proposal.
He has added insult to injury by sending a letter to the Colombo Municipal Council inveighing against nationalisation and municipalisation of bus services, and denouncing the idea of a Municipal bus service.
Need further proofbe furnished that the UNP exists, not to work for the public, but to line the pockets of its supporters?
Every decent-minded person will be alarmed and apprehensive that the destinies of this country should be in the hands of this ignorant, purseproud thug who is to-day the real leader of the UNP and the Government and whom the UNP has chosen as the Prime Minister of tomorrow.
In his pamphlet “This is for You', Sir John pleads for the UNP by stating that any alternative government would be much worse. But what could be worse than a Government under Sir John?
The public must end this shameless reign of favouritism and protection of vested interests at the expense of people by seeing that the UNP is given its coup de grace at the next elections.
74 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDITORIAL
Friday, 26th October 1951
AWELCOME STATEMENT
MR.BANDARANAIKE'S speech at Wellampitiya where he endorsed the need for a united front of all anti-UNP parties to defeat the UNP at the next elections and establish a progressive government, will be welcomed by all who have the best interests of Ceylon at heart.
Such a united front is clearly the need of the hour. It would be the height of folly for any single Party in the present Opposition to imagine that it can singly defeat the UNP and establish a government on its own.
The need for a broad united front for a progressive government has already been voiced by the CP-LSSP United Front. It has been endorsed by Mr.Bandaranaike on behalf of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. It is to be hoped that the other parties in the opposition will not be long in accepting this very necessary step.
If the need for such unity is accepted in principle and if each party keeps firmly in view that the major question of defeating the UNP traitors transcends whatever differences may exist between them, it will not be difficult to arrive at a common programme which can be offered to the country.
An agreement around such a programme can lead to a single progressive candidate contesting the UNP in every electorate. It will electrify the country, mobilise the immense anti-UNP feeling in the country and lead to the certain rout of the UNP and all it stands for.
മ്മCബ
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EDITORIAL
Friday, 2nd November 1951
S. S. C. MASSACRE
THE second "massacre' of thousands of students who sat for the S.S.C. examination is rightly causing great public concern.
It is indeed curious that, whereas the S.S.C. results a couple of years ago and earlier produced only a few thousand failures, the results in the last two examinations should have seen failures topping the half a lakh mark.
Something, is certainly rotten in the state of the Examination system. It cannot be that the quality of our students has so suddenly and dramatically deteriorated or that the standard of teaching has declined in such a marked
IՈ311:16,
The U.N.P. Government is seeking to obscure the issues by citing the example of Mr. Corea, Principal of Royal College, who was gravely dissatisfied with the results but, on further examination of the position, changed his mind. However two other school Principals as distinguished as Mr. Corea in the educational field- Mr. A. M. A. Azeez and Mrs. Clara Motwani-have publicly recorded their extreme concern and have requested an examination of the position.
The vast mass of students, parents and teachers believe that this sudden extensive failures are the results, not of the deterioration of educational standards, but of the Government's employment policy.
Leading Government spokesmen have publicly voiced their alarm at so many S.S.C. students who pass their examination being unable to obtain employment afterwards. The Government is apparently of opinion that this drives the students into the arms of the Opposition and against the Government. Its apparent remedy is not to findjobs for the S.S.C. students but to 'plough' them in the examination.
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There is a widespread public belief that, with this end in view, the Government has extravagantly raised the standard of the marking and introduced additional compulsory subjects.
The whole matter is one which requires immediate investigation by a competent and independent body.
It is necessary that students, parents and teachers should jointly demand the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry to investigate this question and bring the causes of these spectacular failures to light. It is also necessary that the Government should immediately set up machinery to ensure employment for the students who pass the S.S.C.
PONNASTRIPPED ON THE WAVUNYA STAGE
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EDITORIAL
Friday, 9th November, 1951
THE HOUSING FIASCO
MAYOR Sellamuttu is usually a mild-mannered man. He is a loyal supporter of the U.N.P. When, therefore, he decides publicly to speak in the sharpest terms about the Government's failure and obstruction over the solution of the housing crisis, not even the most purblind panthankaraya of the Government can defend its inactivity.
The housing problem, is graver than it has ever been before. In the City of Colombo, about which Mr. Sellamuttu spoke, half the houses have been condemned by the Health authorities as unfit for human habitation. 2,000 new houses are needed to replace those which Sir Oliver pulled down during the war for fire-gaps, and 10,000 new houses must be built to house the surplus population that our capital city has acquired since 1939.
The recently published Census discloses the appalling state of housing in the rest of the country. 68 percent of all urban families, for instance, are living in either one or two-room dwellings, the majority of which are in serious disrepair. The figures of overcrowding and of more than one family occupying a single room are intensely shocking.
All that the Government could claim to have done towards a solution of this problem was to build 2,353 houses throughout the Island since it came to power. These figures alone condemn the U.N.P.
Housing loans to local government authorities have proved a farce. The loans themselves have been most niggardly and have been followed by complicated arguments about financial relations. The provisions of the Housing Loans Act, which is supposed to assist private persons to build their own houses, are being negatived by the daily rising prices of building materials and their use for non-essential building.
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Those who want homes will certainly vote against the U.N.P. at the next elections. The choice is Houses or the U.N.P.-and we can't have both.
-0-a-
As Non-interfering as Their Colleagues
Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

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EDITORIAL
Friday, 16th November 1951
NO CONFIDENCE
EVERY right-minded person will sympathise with the motion of "no confidence' in the Government, which the Opposition has tabled in Parliament for debate next week.
The charge against the Government is that it has misused its powers for "partisan political ends'. Even supporters of the Government will be compelled to enter a plea of "Guilty' to this charge.
It is a sign of the disintegration and decay of any regime when it begins to flout its own laws and regulations. By this criterion, the U.N.P. is on its last legs.
Never has public confidence in the administration been at a lower ebb than today. Never has nepotism, favoritism, corruption and malpractice flourished so vigorously as it does under the patronage of the U.N.P.
There is no sphere of public life which is free from its malign influence. The Police has been transformed into a branch of the U.N.P. The Public Service has been demoralised by the promotion of favourites, relations and pandankarayas and the penalisation of conscientious and impartial officers. Bribery and corruption flourish openly in high places. The machinery of Government has been abused to render personal favours at public expense.
Elementary decency in public life demands the removal of the corrupt U.N.P. regime. Though the “no confidence' motion may be defeated in Parliament by the use of the U.N.P. steam-roller, it has already been adopted by the people of this country by an overwhelming majority. It will not be long before they demonstrate convincingly by their votes that they have “no confidence' in the U.N.P. regime of national treachery, graft and corruption.
80 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDITORIAL
Friday, 23rd N ber 1951
ELECTORAL AGREEMENT
THE opposition Parties are, at the moment, in various stages of discussion with each other about an electoral agreement with a view to defeating U. N. P. at the next elections.
We welcome all attempts of the various Opposition Parties to get together. But there are already signs that hard and clear thinking is required if these attempts are to succeed.
The ideal outcome of these discussions would be the emergence of a United Front of the present Opposition Parties. Such a united front should have a single candidate against the U.N. P. in every electorate. It should be based on an agreement on a programme and a pledge to form a Government to implement that programme if the United Front defeats the U.N.P. at the polls.
Unfortunately, there are signs that such an ideal is not uppermost in the minds of all sections of the Opposition.
Some people, for instance, argue that an electoral agreement on a programme and a pledge to form a government should be sought between the Left parties only. They consider that the only agreement possible with other sections of the Opposition, such as Mr.Bandaranaike's "Freedom Party', is on a "no contest” basis-i.e. an agreement to avoid two Candidates clashing with each other in the contest with the U.N.P.
Such an agreement, however, is based neither on principle nor on programme. It merely postpones issues and does not solve them.
It appears unlikely that any single party in the Opposition will be able to secure an absolute majority at the next elections. If the Opposition as a whole wishes to form another Government, agreement with other
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parties on a programme is necessary. A Government cannot be run on a "no contest' basis.
It is best that the Opposition groups, instead of trying to jockey each other out of leading positions, should now sit downto the task of agreeing upon such a programme. Its framework should be the highest common factor of agreement. Fortunately, almost all the Opposition Parties are committed to apolicy of Independence, Peace and social progress - which are the immediate needs of the country. With this aim in view and goodwill and a spirit of"give and take” on all sides, agreement will not be difficult.
K)
Next in Succession
The Trine records that Sri Oliver had earlier told Sir John: "Lionel, the old Man has played you out, me too.” What Sir Oliver meant by this remark is made sense of in an Editorial of the “People's Voice" of the time which stated in effect that the strategem of Senanayake per se was to appoint Dudley Senanayake as Minister of Agriculture, and when the vacancy for the post of Prime Minister came round, in order to avoid the charge of nepotism if Dudley was appointed to succed him immediately, Sir s Här *-AC-adres Francis Molamure was to succeed The Double Dealer Dudley for a sort of Regency period and then give way to Dudley, It was to be all so familiar and friend. When Sir Francis died, this plan misfired and it was next arranged to obtain a safe seat for oliver in Ja-ela or in the pocket borough of Buttala and for him to be made Prime Minister till Dudley was ready to step in.The contents of this Editorial can be considered as being more imaginative than factual. It was unfair by the elder Senanyake. It could not be said of him that he would intrigue to this extent to ensure Dudley,s succession.
82 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953
 

EDITORIAL
Tuesday, 27th November 1951
POWER WITHOUT GLORY
THE debate on the vote of No Confidence in the Parliament last week has shocked into shame even the supporters of the present Government. For, this No Confidence motion was based, not on any partisan issues, or political beliefs but on one thing on which every decent minded person in this country is whole-heatedly agreed-Morality in Public Life.
The detailed exposures made by the opposition are a scathing denunciation of the unmitigated immorality of the party in power. Abuse of Government machinery, defiance of its own laws, unholy defence ofpimps and procuresses, contempt for ordinary decencies of civilised conduct, a cynical prostitution of Parliamentary Government-these were the charges against the despots now in power, convincingly and conclusively established in the course of the debate.
The Government guilty of even one of these charges has no right to continue in power even for a day more, and such men, even out of power, can only be outcastes in a society whose moral standards they have so brazenly outraged. That this racket continues even after the debate, is an insult to the culture and heritage of our land and an outrage on our sense and sensibilities.
In the name of Decency, let the U.N.P. GO- and GO QUICK!
-o-0-
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EDITORIAL
Friday, 30th November 1951
WARNING SIGNALS
DOES the Opposition wish to remain an Opposition? or does it intend making a serious bid for Government next time? This blunt question must be asked from all Opposition parties.
Of course, all Opposition parties will answer 'No' to the first question and "Yes' to the second. But there are already warning signals that indicate that these intentions may not be translated into Practice.
The negotiations which have been announced between the Freedom Party and Dr.N.M. Perera's L.S.S.P are a case in point.
Each of these parties has announced its intention of contesting over 70 seats next time. As there are only 95 elected seats, contests between them are inevitable if each party sticks to its announcement. Hence the present negotiations, which are aimed at "avoiding contests'.
"Avoiding contests' is an admirable, if negative, sentiment. But it is apparent that neither the Freedom Party nor the L. S. S. P. of Dr. Perera have much hope of it being realised all along the line. Spokesmen of both parties have publicly indicated that they expect that there will be a large residue of seats where they will have to "agree to disagree'-i.e. contest each other, to the benefit of the U.N.P. which at least has learnt from the experience of the last elections how foolish it is to have "open seats'.
Such an unfortunate and tragic situation is bound to arise if each Opposition party follows a sectarian path, stakes its own claims and refuses to seek a principled agreement with other parties.
Only prior agreement on a programme, with a pledge to form a Government on this programme if a majority is secured at the polls, can fully eliminate contests between Opposition parties. Otherwise, each Party
84 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

will naturally back its own nominee and insist that the nominee of the other party stand down in his favour. The only "agreements' will be on the basis of sordid bargaining and horse-trading, which will be of little value when the Opposition is called upon to govern.
As we have said before, one can run an election, but not a government, ona"no contest' basis. A Government requires agreement on a programme. Why not reach that agreement now? Otherwise, 1952 may see the sad story of the “Yamuna” conference of 1947 repeated.
What is it that stands in the way of an agreement? We are unable to see that the main difficulty lies in the field of programme. The manifesto of the Freedom Party, in its broad general outlines, is similar to that of the L. S. S. P., the C.P.-L. S. S. P. United Front and the Republican Party. The differences between these election programmes can be ironed out in discussions.
It would appear that the chief difficulty is that neither the leadership of the Freedom Party nor the leadership of Dr. N. M. Perera's L. S. S. P. are anxious for an agreement on a programme with a view to a coalition government.
Mr. Bandaranaike, while he is prepared for private understandings and "no contest” arrangements, if possible, with the Left Parties, is obviously nervous of an agreement. He appears to have fallen a victim of the Red Bogey of the UNP and of certain reactionary forces which have tacked themselves on to his party.
The L.S.S.P, while it has stated that it is prepared to consider an agreement on the basis of forming a Government with the Communist Party, has made it clear that it does not want such an agreement with either the Freedom Party or the L.S.S.P, led by Mr.Philip Gunawardena.
The vast mass of anti U.N.P people are not interested in the manoeuvers and counter manoeuvers of the various Opposition parties. They want to kick out the U.N.P and know that the only way of securing it is by an agreement between all Opposition parties for a coalition
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government on an agreed programme. Mr.Bandaranaike cannot hope to defeat the U.N.P without the Left, which has been the most consistent anti-U.N.P force. In the same way, it would be foolish for the Left not to draw in the vast mass of opinion, which is anti-U.N.P but not Left and which has clustered around the Freedom Party. The only way out of the impasse is for all Opposition parties immediately to seek agreement on a programme with a view to forming a Government. It will be such a course that will make "no contests' really possible.
*మత
THE SHAMEFUL CONTRAST
86 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953
 

EDITORIAL
Friday, 7th December 1951
FACTS AND FICTION
Will the present Government comeback to power after the next general election? The answer: No! The present Government is in power mainly for two reasons. One is the intransigence and calculated obstruction of certain theoreticians immediately after the last General Elections on the question of a united front. The other is the personal prestige and influence of the present Prime Minister who was able to "get together” certain political parties and opportunists to form a Government.
The Prime Minister was then a grand old gentleman. That was before he started garlanding itinerant courtesans and when Cabinet Ministers disdained the fleshpots of Egypt. That was before he employed Police officers and public funds to rob and disgrace aged, helpless spinsters. In those honourable days, the quality of mercy was not tainted by moral cowardice in the face of blackmailing procuresses and panderers. Much water has flown under the bridge since then.
Sir John was a very pugnacious gentleman. He could have public servants shot down like dogs on the streets and still fight his election successfully. The Finance Minister was then in his puberty. He had not started his surreptitious flirtations with Washington and got chastised by his lawful masters in Whitehall.
The Tamil congress leader was then an honest politician. He was free to join or leave the Government as he liked. But things have changed now. However much political expediency may dictate a complete severance with the Government, before the elections, he dares not do it. Prime Ministers in desperate straits do not hold together Cabinet Ministers by love and affection. Evidence of shady transaction may for a time be smothered by obliging statements from Earls and Admirals but such evidence remains and strengthens Cabinet solidarity From being an appendage to the Government, the Tamil Congress has now become a useless ballast unwanted by the Tamils, that must in due time sink the ship of Government. The invincibility of the U.N. P. has now passed into the realm of fiction. -0-
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EDITORIAL
Tuesday, 11th December 1951
EVICTION BILL
THE Quarters for employees (Recovery of Possession) Bill is one of the most vicious and retrograde pieces of legislation which even the U.N.P. has introduced.
The title is innocent enough. But it is an Eviction Bill and nothing else.
The purpose of the Bill is to undermine the protection which the Rent Restriction Act has given to certain classes of tenants and to by-pass the decision of the Privy Council in the Knavesmire case.
For years, the trade union movement has been demanding that employees, whose conditions of service involve the provision of a dwelling - house, should enjoy the same rights of tenancy as are available to other tenants.
This was particularly so in the slave camps which are the estates. Resident labour on estates found that, on losing their jobs, they were evicted from their homes and ran the risk of imprisonment for "criminal trespass' if they refused to quit.
The Privy Council decision in the Knavesmire case drew sharp attention to the illegal practices of the Police and the plantation bosses. It upheld the position that, if a worker commits no overt act of mischief, the employer has to resort to the normal civil process in order to evict his employee.
The new Eviction Bill not only by-passes this decision. It extends a vicious principle to many other classes of employees as well. Thus Government and Municipal employees and others who are allotted houses by their employers are now caught up in the scope of the new legislation.
88 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

The Rent Restriction Act provides certain protection to these employees at the moment. It compels the owner to resort to the civil process in order to effect eviction and gives the tenant the same legal protection enjoyed by other tenants.
With one stroke all this is to be abolished. The new Bill gives the employer the right summarily to throw his employee into the street.
A Parliamentary struggle against this Bill is not sufficient. United trade union action against it is also required. The Bill cannot be allowed to remain on the Statute Book.
The same mass agitation which forced amendments in the Motor Traffic Act can force the repeal of the vicious legislation.
K) At the of the Physical Training Course
݂ ݂ 1ßኋዳ፳ሪ 嵩 锣|
But, certainly she will not bear the men of today
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EDITORIAL
Tuesday, 18th December 1951
“BELIEVE ME, THEY ARE REASONABLE MEN'
THOSE who attended the G.C.S.U. Rally at the St. Joseph's College Hall on Saturday last, hoping to hear straight from the horse's mouth a vivid clarification of the attitude of the Government towards the Public Service Associations in general, and the G. C. S.U. in particular, would have been sorely disappointed at the performance of the Head of the Treasury and the Public Service. It would appear that the rank and file of the G. C. S. U. had a premonition of this performance; for, never before was a Mass Rally of the G. C. S.U., in all its varied history, so sparsely attended. Mr. Ranasingha himselfmade a passing reference to his coming prepared to face the members amass. But presumably what Mr. Ranasingha failed to note was and if so, let him note now, that the disgraceful attendance at the Rally was the most effective expression of the rank and file of the lack of confidence in the Government, in him and in his administration of the Public Service. The now customary Kandasamy Day meetings draw a larger crowd to be addressed by Union officials alone and none other, than was the one that assembled at St. Joseph's Hall. Let it, therefore, not be said in future that the leadership of the G. C. S. U. was the only serious obstacle to the happy relations between the General Clerical Service and the Government. The leadership being willing, the membership refused to respond. Any fault of the leadership, Mr. Ranasingha
Quite at the outset of his observations, Mr. Ranasingha belaboured the point, that though he was now accustomed to speak without a brief, he had thought it more prudent to produce half a dozen sheets of typewritten notes on this occasion. A copious compliment to the G. C. S. U., one would admit, but what did those notes contain? On a more precise examination, his notes would have been some what valuable to an S. S. C. student offering 'Civics' as one of his subjects, for, though the notes were couched in language of classical erudition, the sum and substance of his speech could be reduced to the fossilised and now threadbare theoretical concept of the relationship between the public Service and the Government.
90 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

Strangely enough, Mr. Ranasinha himself admitted that it was only a “theoretical exposition,” but the mistake he made was that he never proceeded from that "theoretical exposition' to the practical aspects as obtaining in a free and independent Sri Lanka'.
Proceeding therefrom, Mr. Ranasingha significantly emphasised the fact that the Public Service was part of the Government and therefore not, an entity apart from the Government, and that the Public Service was the essential instrument through which the Government enforced its program and achieved its purposes. Curiously enough, Mr. Ranasingha, despite his erudition, could not arrive in his learned discourse at that simple question as to how and why the Public Services were compelled to consider themselves an entity not entirely synonymous with the Government. If only he arrived at that question, he would himself have been solving the problem.
One listened with considerable bewilderment Mr. Ranasinha's onslaught at the administration of the Public Service by the Colonial Government and he quoted unnecessary statistics to indicate the gradual process of Ceylonisation of the higher grades in the Public Service, notwithstanding the fact that but for that benevolent policy of the Colonial Government of those days, Mr.Ranasingha would not be in the position in which he finds himself today But all those statistics do not affect the Clerical Services of this country, for all along they were Ceylonised. But in the process of this curious argument, Mr. Ranasinha developed a novel theory by implication and that was, while it had been proper for the Clerical Services to have agitated for the improvement of their conditions of service during the Colonial era, it was palpably improper for them to agitate under a National Government. By what process of logic, by what process of reasoning and by, what mode of analysis, Mr.Ranasinha arrived at this preposterous position, no discerning person could ever grasp. He spared no pains to kindle the spark of national fevour and the fire of patriotism as an effective deterrent to the agitation for the improvement of the conditions of the poor Clerical Servants. If Mr. Ranasinha possessed a fraction of that spark of patriotism, he would not be drawing that sterling salary that he is now accustomed to draw. Alternately, it will be a very pertinent question to ask whether he would be performing the same loyal and patriotic
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service to this Government, if, for instance, his salary were reduced? On the basis of his argument, he must of course; but would he? 'Example is better than precept’ is an old adage, Mr. Ranasinha.
Hurdling through a heap of irrelevancies, Mr. Ranasinha sought to make a single accusation against the Union. He characterised it in what he called “the three Vs'-Vim, Vigourand Vitality. Mr. Ranasinhadoes not apparently favour the display of those qualities in making representations to the Government by the Unions. But Mr. Ranasinha must surely remember the following words which he wrote in compiling the book, 'Agriculture and Patriotism' by D. S. Senanayake. Said he, "It is a curious but regrettable frame of mind that impels many of us in Ceylon to regard lack of vigour as a permanent and irredeemable feature in our national character. Many a witness, giving evidence before the Ceylon Banking Commission, appears to have stressed this point in explanation of the apathy and indifference with which Ceylonese have generally looked upon vocations....', and even quoted President Theodore Roosevelt as saying, "The conservation of vigour should be a national honour”. That was in 1935. But in 1951 with the self-same Mr. A.G. Ranasinha as Head of the Public Service, the display of the very qualities, the lack of which he bemoaned then, have become not a national honour but a despicable vice!
So, in the ultimate analysis, Mr. Ranasinha has shown himself up to be, not only as bad as the Colonial Administrators whom he had sought to criticise, but as their lineal descendant both by the virtue of the office he holds and by the display of that “colonial mentality which has not yet become accustomed to the changed and still changing circumstances of the time, even worse than the Colonial administrators. All the plethora of character certificates given to his masters, Messrs the Prime and Finance Ministers by the poignant words, "Believe me, they are reasonable men' are all of no avail. He was merely functioning as the mouth-piece of his masters, a faithful rendering of His Master's Voice'. The statement that the Prime Minister and Mr. J. R. Jayawardene are reasonable men, does not in itself solve a given problem. The proof of their being "reasonable men is in the manner in which they approach the problems which beset them. If this mode of measurement is applied to these very reasonable men', the certificate so laboriously given by Mr. Ranasinha collapses for
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want of content and consistency. This was proved to the hilt when Mr. Ranasinha burked a question from the house, with a rather sordid reply, "Come round a Round Table, I will explain it to you', when asked what the changing conditions were which provoked the present Government to introduce A.R. 208B and re-introduce A.R. 249 in a more vicious form, which even the Colonial Administrators did not feel it necessary to invoke.
In short, Mr. Ranasinha's speech gave personification to two factors and they are (i) Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and (ii) An emancipated slave is a worse tyrant. And the Pubic Servants must indeed be obliged to Mr. Ranasinha for this statuary exposition of the frame of mind of his "reasonable' masters.
«O-
U.N.P. HUMBUG
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EDITORIAL
Tuesday, 21st December 1951
TRUTH WILL OUT
THE return of the Ceylon delegates to the Berlin Youth Festival has given us an opportunity of hearing first-hand reports of the way of life of countries which lie beyond the so called "Iron curtain.”
The American Embassy and the Pandam Press have spared neither time, space normoney to try to convince the people of Ceylon that countries like the Soviet Union, New China and the Eastern European Peoples' Democracies were the worst hells on earth in the history of human scourges.
The U.N.P's policy of dancing to every Wall Street tune has been a great barrier standing in the way of direct contact between Ceylon and these countries. Delegations and visitors from those countries have been refused entry into Ceylon; trade has been discouraged and even the ageold cultural relations between ourselves and some of these countries have not been permitted to be resumed.
Hitherto only a handful of Communists had visited these countries. Their reports had been accepted with some reserve because of a possible bias.
The Youth delegation has given us an opportunity of hearing reports - from sources which are not Communist. Premkumar, the well-known dancer, is equally known as one who belongs to no party or clearly defined political group. Mr. Basil Silva is a prominent Samasamajist who has been known to have been critical of the Soviet Union in the past.
The reports which both these gentlemen have given of their actual experiences in the Soviet Union and New China give the lie direct to the hostile propaganda of the U.S. Embassy and the Press that lives on its bounty. They have been able to convey to us the new spiritofthese peoples, the enormous advance in their standards of life, their high culture and
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deep desire for peace and friendship with all people. Premkumar, in particular, both in his public utterances and his radio interview, has given us a moving picture of a new civilisation.
We are exceedingly glad that such objective reports are now available to us. We are glad that further efforts are being made to build direct contacts with these countries. At the moment, a trade union delegation from Ceylon is visiting the Soviet Union. All but one of the main trade union organisations of the Island are represented on the delegation and the majority of the delegates have no connection with the Communist Party. Their return and their reports will be eagerly awaited.
Many public personalities from our neighbouring country of India have also been visiting these countries recently. They include such wellknown film stars like N.S. Krishnan and Mathuram, poets like Vallathol and Harindranath Chattopadiya and journalists like Karanjia and Ahmed Abbas. None of them can be suspected of being Communist-and yet they have returned to tell the same story as our youth delegates.
Truth will out. And the truth about these countries is now breaking through the fog of American and Lake House lies. Let us hope that it will help to consolidate good relations between Ceylon and these countries on which our struggle for peace and freedom so closely depends.
മ്മമ്മ
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Page 51
Friday, 4th January 1952
SIR AGNES NONA!
THE more "independent” UNP talks, the more slavishly it clings to foreign customs.
The New Year list of "those whom the King has been pleased to Honour” is a case in point. With a few notable exceptions, it is a sorry medley ofunmentionables who will shortly become unbearables.
The New Year Honours list usually differs from that issued on the King's Birthday in that it is concerned with the upper brackets of UNP supporters only. It is only on the latter occasion that the bus magnates, black marketeers and pandamkarayas come in to their own.
In selecting the recipients of"honours” for the New Year, the Prime Minister has obviously had the coming elections firmly in the front of his mind. The "honours' granted to Dr. Rajapakse, Mr.K.Adamaly, Mr.Rosslyn Koch, Senator Rodrigo, Mr.Ebrahim and Messrs. Wilfred Gunesekera and D.J.Kumarage have obviously nothing to do with distinguished public service. Firm supporters of the UNP from different communities and castes have been selected for "honour' in the vain beliefthat themembers of the various castes and communities will be so grateful for this signal honourthat they will vote for the UNP all along the line. In the case of Messrs. Gunesekera and Kumarage, they are the last bulwark of the UNP left in the Matara district to fight the "Red Menace'.
Public opinion, which has grown used to being outraged by the UNP, will nevertheless resent the knighthood given to Dr. Rajapakse. In any decent government, Dr. Rajapakse would have been compelled to resign after the disclosures of the sordid Agnes Nona affair. The UNP however "honours' this good and faithful servant, who will probably be known in future as Sir Agnes Nona Rajapaksel
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A progressive government would sweep away this servile system of foreign honours and see that, whatever the form of public honour that takes its place, it is awarded to persons distinguished for public service and not for sycophancy to a family caucus which has crept into political power.
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EDITORIAL
Tuesday, 8th January 1952
ALESSON FOR LANKA
THE closest study should be paid to the results of the Indian elections, particularly the elections to the Cochin-Travancore Assembly. They provide us with a lesson which it will be fatal to ignore, for the parallel with our situationis almost exact. Congress has been the ruling party for several Years. It had become corrupt and was hated by the people. The vast majority of votes cast were against the Congress, but nevertheless the Congress managed to lead in the number of seats obtained.
This happened because the anti Congress votes were split and Congress managed to wriggle through the cracks into power. And the main reason for this was the attitude of the Socialist Party of India which, before the election, refused to enter into a united front with the other antiCongress parties and proclaimed vain gloriously that it alone could defeat the Congress and form a government.
The result however was different. The Socialists lost their deposits in many places and the United Front candidates were returned to power. But although they were defeated, the Socialists ensured victory for the Congress.
The tragic story must not be repeated in Ceylon this year. It is no use being wise after the event. Let us profit from the lessons of the Indian elections and not repeat the same mistakes.
Any party which will not learn this lesson and seek a united front against UNP must take the responsibility before the people if its actions sends into power for a further term the traitors and arch-enemies of the people - the UNP.
ബ്ബ
98 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDITORIAL
Friday, 11th January 1952
NEW YEAR GIFT
THE ministry of food has decided to increase the price of off-ration rice by nine cents a measure. The consumer will have to pay 87 cents a measure in future.
This is the first of the New Year Gifts which the U.N.P. has in store for us in 1952.
Last month's cost-of-living index figure was 288, the highest on record. There is little doubt that this months figure will beat the record.
The U.N.P.'s efforts to reduce the cost of living have all ended in miserable fiasco. Since Mr.J.R Jayawardene promised, three years ago, to reduce the cost of living to a matter of no consequence in the modern world, the index figure has soared upwards.
The Ministerial Cost-of-Living committee, presided over by the U.N.P.'s Gogia Pasha, Sir Oliver, failed to arrest this upward flight.
This continuous rise in the cost of living is intimately connected with the economies of war and war preparations.
It is no accident that, in the countries which have aligned themselves, with the U.S.A, and its war preparations, prices rise daily while wages remain pegged.
On the other hand, in the countries like the Soviet Union, which are committed to a policy of peace, wages have risen and prices have been continuously reduced.
The first item in the agenda for reducing the cost of living is to reverse the war policy of the U.N.P. and kickit out ofpower. A government pledged to peace and more diversified production can make the necessary
change. -0w
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EDITORIAL
Saturday, 19th January 1952
OUR FIRST YEAR
With this issue, "People's Voice’ completes its first year and begins its second.
Though conscious of our shortcomings, we feel confident that we claim to have justified our existence.
When we began publication, the Press in the English Language was a monopoly of the U.N.P. We were able to break through that rigid monopoly and provide a forum through which the news of the opposition could be made known.
The treachery and crimes of the U.N.P., which hitherto had been suppressed by the daily Press, were brought to light by us. We answered the baseless charges that the U.N.P. and the Pantham Press threw against the opposition.
We have continuously campaigned for the unity of the left movement and the unity of all opposition forces to the greatest extent possible.
We thankour readers, subscribers, contributors, advertisers and those who have generously given donations to our P.V. Fund. Their assistance and encouragement have been invaluable.
In the coming year, we shall endeavour to provide a brighter and better paper which will make its contribution to the defeat of the U.N.P.
We ask our readers to help us to do so by enrolling more subscribers, getting new readers and donating generously towards our fighting fund.
It is no easy matter to keep such paper as ours going. We have neither big capital nor heavy advertising to backus. Our biggest capital is the goodwill of the people whom we serve. We are confident that they will help us to fight for them. -0-
100 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDITORIAL
Tuesday, 22nd January 1952
THE PRINCESS AND THE SACRED TOOTH
The daily Press has recently carried stories of protests by militant Protestant Organisation in Great Britain at the exhibition of the Sacred Tooth Relic, to Princess Elizabeth, when she visits Ceylon next month.
These protests are not likely to affect the people of Ceylon unduly. They are largely of a sectarian and inner denominational nature.
What will outrage the feeling of thousands of ceylonese, both Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, is the way in which the U.N.P. has systematically sought to use this object of religious veneration as an article of political propaganda.
Ceylonese Buddhists have the epportunity of seeing and worshipping the Sacred Tooth Relic very seldom. But every political big-wig whom the U.N.P. imports into this Island is given the opportunity of viewingitas ifit were a picturesque item for delectation ofthe curious.
when the Sacred Relic was shown to the late Mr.Ernest Bevin, fresh from the war-plots of the Colombo Conference, wide indignation was expressed. But the U.N.P. took no notice and have repeated their performance once again.
This is how the self-appointed"defendersofreligion” behave. Itis they -and no one else-who have deliberately dragged religion into the political arena and made it part and parcel of theirunscrupulous campaignto cling ontopower at all costs.
ബ്ബ
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EDITORIAL
Friday, 25th January 1952
THE AMBALANGODA INCIDENT
THE Lake House Press is driven to frenzy at an incident at a meeting in Ambalangoda last week,when the crowd jostled and chased a police
.
To the Lake House, this is an outrageous display of "religious fanaticism” and "mob violence'.
But what really happened. The Buddhist public of the area met to register their protest at the publication in the American magazine, the "Catholic Digest', of an insulting and offensive picture of Lord Buddha.
To make matters worse, the magazine carried an article by the war criminal, MacArthur, heaping scorn upon Orientals and their beliefs.
At this stage, the Police entered the picture. In excess of their duty and to protect this Yankee magazine from the criticisms of Ceylon Buddhists, they began to tear down the posters advertising the meeting and thus prevent it being held.
When the Buddhists, who were already enraged at the action of the Police, saw a C.I.D. man taking shorthand notes of the proceedings, they naturally drove him away.
There was no element of "religious fanaticism' in the incident but only righteous indignation against the unlawful and biased action of the Police.
It is worth noting how Lake House sings a different tune whenever the occasion demands.
When the Soviet journal "Izvestra' published a cartoon attacking
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Mr.Bevin being shown the Sacred Tooth for purposes of war propaganda, Lake House worked itself into a frenzy about the "insult to Buddhism.” The U. N. P. Government followed it up with a note to the Soviet Government.
When an American magazine publishes a really insulting picture of Lord Buddha, as well as anti-Asiatic remarks by General MacArthur, Lake House condemns, not the authors, but those whose feelings are out-raged. The U. N. P. Government which is so free with Notes of Protest to the Soviet Government, never thinks of lodging a protest with the American Government about this.
With the U. N. P. and Lake House, it is a case of not being able to love Buddhism so much because they love U. S. A. more.
Truman's Japanese Toy in Action at San Francisco
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EDITORIAL
Tuesday, 29th January, 1952
PEOPLE DEMAND PEACE
PEACE is the paramount desire of the vast majority of people in this country today. Ifa Gallup poll were taken on the issue of war and peace, there is little doubt that the entirepopulation, with the exception of the U.NP. cabal would vote for peace. Yet, this tiny minority is dragging the country straightinto the camp of the war-mongers.
Peace in Ceylon can be preserved only through neutrality. Through war we cannot attain an ultimate peace. That is the supreme peace, the peace of the graveyard. America and Britain are also fighting for "Peace' through war. They believe that their peace can be founded on the war graves of Eastern Europe and Asia.
Some ofusin Ceylon are dubious about the possibility of our remaining neutral as long as Britain occupies our bases againstour wish. To preserve our neutrality we have only to proclaim to the world the fact that Britain forcibly occupies our bases, and demonstrate in practice our desire to be free from British occupation.
Egypt by repudiating her 1936 “Treaty of Alliance' and withdrawing all co-operation with the occupation forces have isolated the Canal Zone, and are in position to preserve their neutrality inafuture war involving Britain. Belligerent powers arebound under the present circumstancestorespect Egypt's neutrality and confine hostile operations to the Canal Zone.
Peace through neutrality is unthinkable when a cabal is in power that shamelessly truckles to Anglo-American imperialism and barters away the whole country and the people to protect its members from the wrath of the people. Churchill with his characteristic disdain of colonial peoples has invited America to join in the occupation and spoilation of this country.
Quislings of the anti-nationalist cabal can hardly conceal their elation
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of this prospect, for their last hope ofretrieving their declining fortunes lies in that direction. The struggle of the people for peace is spearheaded by their struggle against the U.N.P. Whichstand forwar.
Leaving all other issues of politics and economics aside if there is one issue on which the entire people of this country should unite as one man to defeat the U.N. P. it is on this vital, supreme, and burning issue of War or Peace. All other issues can be postponed, but the question of Peace cannot wait. Truman and Churchill have entered into a demoniacal plot to unleash a third world war by an attack on China. It is time for the people of Ceylon to rise and expel from power the remants of this anti-nationalist cabal, so that Ceylon may remain out of the War. The choice before the people today is between their own survival and that of the U.N. P. for they cannot have both.
STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS HOT
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EDITORIAL
Friday, 1st February 1952
RIGGING THE BALLOT
The U.N.P. talk about democracy and the sanctity of adult franchise was blown to bits by the Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Bill, which the Government rushed through Parliament this week.
The purpose of this Bill, which seeks to amend the Parliamentary Elections Order-in-Council is to ensure that the 1952-53 general elections are fought on the 1950 electoral registers.
These registers, as is well known, are those from which the names of 200,000 plantation workers have been expunged as a result of U.N.P. legislation.
The vast majority of these workers have filed claims with the respective Registering Officers, demanding that their names be included in the 1951 registers.
Interms of the unamended law, the electoral registers for 1951 should have been completed by 31st December, 1951.
The amending legislation, which the U.N.P. has just rushed through makes it possible for Registering Officers to delay inquiries into claims and certification for as long as they like, so that the general elections can be held on the admittedly defective registers of 1950.
A further result of this legislation will be that over 75,000 young people (the majority staunchly anti-U.N.P.) who were 21 years old on 1st June 1951 (the day on which the preparation of the 1951 registers began) will not be able to vote eventhough they are fully entitled to do so.
It is through filthy rigging of the electoral lists like this that the U.N.P. hopes to creep back to power.
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Government has used every device it knows to prevent proper electoral registers being compiled.
Even copies of the printed and certified 1950 electoral registers were not sold to the public. A single copy was kept at the office of each Registering Officer and, in many areas, people had to travel 60 to 70 miles to ascertain whether or not their names had been included. When they got there, several of them were unable to know what the position was, as the lists were prepared in English only, and not in Sinhalese and Tamil.
When asked in Parliament this week to allow further time for inspection of the lists and claims, Government flatly refused. These are the "defenders of democracy”
Nephew Visits Uncle's Maldivian Empire!
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EDITORIAL
Friday, 8th February 1952
WE WISHSUCCESS
Elsewhere in our columns we are publishing the letter sent by the CPLSSP United Front to the LSSP led by Dr. N.M.Perera inviting the latter to discuss the possibilities of electoral agreement. The conference is scheduled to take place on the 12th or 13th instant.
As a paper which has continuously campaigned for the unity of all opposition parties, and particularly the working class parties, to defeat the U.N.P., we are very happy that at long last a conference is to be held even ifit is only for the purpose of arriving at a limited form of electoral agreement.
There is no doubt that a more comprehensive agreement between the three left parties, somewhaton the lines of the United Frontagreement between the CP and the LSSP led by Philip Gunawardene, would have better served the cause of the working class movement and given acorrect lead to the rest of the anti-UNP movement.
But failing such an agreement, we would like to see at least an electoral agreement between the left parties so that on the basis of this agreement they could draw the rest of the anti-UNP movement into a wide anti-UNP front.
We are not overlooking the dangers that still confront the conclusion of an electoral agreement. The left parties have divergent points of view on a number of subjects, particularly foreign policy. But it is to be hoped that in the widerinterestofaefeating the UNP, they would not let these differences stand in the way of anti-UNPunity.
We have no doubt that when they startworking together the left parties will find greaterfields for common agreement and eventually lead to closer unity on the basis of a principled left programme. ܖ
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We wish the conference success; and, in doing so, we are sure that we are echoing the sentiments of all our readers.
J.R.J. Is Fiddling
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EDITORIAL
Tuesday, 12th February, 1952
KINGS, QUEENS & FREEDOM
The ceremonies connected with the death of King George VI and the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the Throne have made many people wonder just where our much-vaunted "freedom' comes in.
While most of the Ceylonese people-like the majority of the people throughout the modern world are Republicans by conviction, the events of the last few days would have demonstrated convincingly that “independent' Ceylon has no choice but to accept the ruler of Great Britain as its ruler as well.
Our cabinet is "free” to accept this fact and to proclaim it. Our parliament cannot meet and conduct its business until and unless its Members take an oath of allegiance to the British Sovereign.
The UNP Ministers and press have indulged in constitutional hairsplitting to prove that this homage has to be paid, not to the Queen of Great Britain but to the Queen of Ceylon.
But the inescapable fact remains that the people of Ceylon have not been consulted about whether or not they agree to this. In fact, the vast majority of political parties have as one of their main demands the establishment of an Independent Republic of Ceylon.
The acceptance of the British Royal House as the sovereigns of Ceylon is not a mere formal act. It is the legal expression and symbol of the continuance of the military and economic domination of Ceylon by British Imperialism.
adu
110 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDITORIAL ,
Tuesday, 19th February 1952
OUR IMMEDIATE AIM
WE wish to draw the attention of our readers to an event of exceptional significance that took place last week in neighbouring Madras. We refer to the convention of Non-Congress MLAs where agreement was reached on a common programme and the parties represented agreed to form themselves into a United Democratic Front and form a Ministry to replace the defeated Congress Ministry. There is every hope that they will succeed.
This news must send a ray of hope to all Progressives in Ceylon. At this Convention there were MLAs with different political beliefs-Communists KMP, Toilers Party, Commonweal Party, Independents etc.-butalofthem had fought and defeated Congress candidates and here they were met to iron out differences betweenthemselves and to workout a common programme on the basis of which they could form a government and thereby serve the people. It is a matterfor regret that the Socialists, were not there at this Convention. But the Important, factis that the Majority of the anti-Congress parties were there at the Convention.
There is no doubt that if these parties had come to an agreement, based on a programme, before the elections and fought the elections as candidates ofa democratic front, they would have more successfully routed the congress. There is still time for the anti-U.N.P. parties in Ceylon to take a lesson from the Madras elections.
All anti-UNP parties must get into their heads that the immediate task beforeus is not the full realisation of each party's individual programme but the defeat of the U.N.P. and the formation of a democratic government, free from the control of foreign imperialism, which can pave the way for further advance towards socialism. It is in the light of this realisation that all anti-U.N.P. parties must sink their minor, sectional differences and unite-together to bury once and for all the hated U.N.P. regime. That is
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why we have always supported the appeal of the CP-LSSP United Front for a comprehensive agreement between all Anti-Imperialist and AntiUNP parties.
Time is running out. There are talks about an early election. History will never forgive those parties which dilly-dally at this juncture. We hope that common sense and prudence will prevail at last and that before the elections are on we will be able to form abroad democratic anti-UNP front. To this end we invite our readers to bring pressure on the respective political parties.
What Left Unity Can Achieve
112 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953
 
 

DIT
ri 22nd F 1952
CHANCES OF LEFT AGREEMENT
THE chances of an electoral agreement between the Left Parties seem now to depend on a successful solution of three questions, if one can judge from the correspondence exchanged between the different organisations.
The first is the refusal of the LSSP, led by Dr. N. M. Perera, to recognise that the negotiations are being conducted with the CP-LSSP United Front.
The United Front has throughout the negotiations, insisted that, on their part, they were acting as a front and not as separate parties. Nevertheless, the LSSP has continued to ignore this and address all their communications to the Communist Party alone, branding the other LSSP as the "D. P. R. Gunawardena group'.
This gratuitous discourtesy is unlikely to help to bring about a settlement. After all, every organisation is entitled to be called by the name which it chooses to give itself. It should be stated to the credit of the LSSP, led by Mr. Philip Gunawardena, that, notwithstanding their dispute with the other LSSP as to which Organisation is entitled to the name, they have continued to address Dr.N.M. Perera’s party as “LSSP” and not as “Nava LSSP', the name by which it is popularly known.
Apart from the above, there are two other matters that stand in the Way.
The first concerns the nature of the front that should be forged against the UNP. While there is general agreement that there should be an effort to arrive at a common governmental programme based on the United Front's suggested programme and the LSSP's 14-point's, the LSSP continues to insist that such an agreement should be open to the Left parties alone. The United Front, on the other hand, suggests that the agreement should be
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open to all parties who arg prepared to accept such an agreed programme or a similar one.
It is rather difficult to follow the reasoning of the LSSP. If parties other than Left parties are prepared to accept, and are ready to fight against the UNP to establish a government to carry out such a programme, by what logic can they be excluded? Surely the Left cannot claim that they possess amonopoly of anti-UNP feeling?
Progressive people hope that sensible people in Dr. N. M's LSSP will show a similar conciliatory spirit. Otherwise, they will have to shoulder the blame ofdisrupting negotiations on a secondary question. Time is too short and the issue too big for posterity (or even the present generation) to forgive those who refuse to see the wood for the trees.
Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Ahead
114 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953
 

EDITORIAL
Tuesday, 26th February 1952
COLOMBO EXHIBITION
After spending Rs. 5 million, the Government declared open the Colombo Exhibition last week.
Strippedofthe artificial glamourofaRoyal opening, the Exhibition can be easier seen in its true colours.
When first organised, the Exhibition was known as the Colombo plan Exhibition. The "Plan” was soon dropped from its title. America was not a member of the Colombo Plan- and America desired to use the Exhibition for its propagandapurposes. Dutifully, the U.N. P. Government obliged.
Though the title is different, the purpose of the Exhibition remains the same. It is a window display, intended to convince the reluctant foreign capitalist that Ceylon, under the U.N.P., is a profitable and "safe” field for the investment of capital.
The Government's section of the Exhibition is intended as Mr. J.R. Jayawardene indicated in his opening day speech, to show the progress that has been made since 1931. Selected pictures and cooked statistics have been displayed to convince the innocent that the U.N. P. regime has made steady progress in bringing welfare to the people.
In this imaginative demi-Paradise is no indication of the realities of U.N. P. Ceylon. There is neither sight nor smell of unemployment queues, overcrowded hospitals, appalling slums, the T. B. murder camps, the loss of civil liberties, the closed down factories, the thousands of poor relief applicants without relief or other familiar sights to the people of this island.
Nor is the truth told about the Colombo Plan, which the Exhibition seeks to popularise as the savior of Ceylon's economic ills. There is not
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even a whisperor a footnote to tell us that this much vaunted "Plan” has only meant a handful of dubious "experts' and the release by Britain of a small part of the frozen sterling balances owned by us.
If the Government wanted to hold a really valuable exhibition it should also have invited countries outside the Anglo-American bloc to participate.
THE FOX BETWEEN THE HAMMER AND THE SICKLE
116 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953
 

EDITORIAL
Friday, 29th February 1952
A TRIUMPH FOR UNITY
Public opinion has forced the government to announce that it will not proceed with the notorious Eviction Bill, politely call "Quarters for Employees (Recovery of Possession) Bill.”
This represents a second Triumph for the forces ranged against the government. The first was when they compelled the withdrawal and amendment of the Motor Traffic Regulations.
It is no secret that the withdrawal of the Eviction Bill is the result of the joint campaign run by all the main trade union centres and opposition political parties. The fact that the government know that, by proceeding with the bill, they would provoke a strike of dimensions far greater than that of 1947 helped considerably to bring it to its senses, despite the heavy pressure from the British Planters.
So successful was this opposition campaign that even Mr. Goonasingha, his so-called Labour Party and his alleged "Trade Union Congress' realised that, if they wished to maintain even the vestige of trade union support they have, they would have to oppose the Bill.
If the opposition actsasunitedly to defeat the U.N.P. as it did to force the withdrawal of the Eviction Bill, a new and progressive governmentis ensured.
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DITORIA
4 rCh 1952
BURMA & THE BANDITS
IT is reported that remnants of the Kuomintang Army have been smuggled into the Sino-Burma border and have started sniping operations.
It is patently the logical outcome of a concerted plan of Truman and Churchill to extend the war to the Chinese mainland, and use Chiang Kai Sheks bandits, not only against China, but also against the people of Viet Nam and Malaya.
The complacence of the Western Nations in this ominous event, that contains the roots of a World War, is really and truly amazing. It would be mere euphemism to say that the U.S.A. and U.K. condone the action of the Kuomintang bandits.They are really the instigators of this new aggression.
What action will the U.N.O. take against such a brazen violation of international law? The U.S., one expects, judging by her recent criminal record in international relations, will now use its servile majority in the U.N.O. to railroad a resolution branding Red China as the aggressor on the Burma Front as it happened in the case of Korea.
In spite of all the filthy lies of America, the world now knows that the South Koreans were the aggressors in Korea, at the instigation of the U.S.A.
It may not be long before the servitors of American Imperialism in the U.N.O. support U.S. aggression in South China in defence of Kuomintang bandits. The world will then be called upon to believe that Red China started the aggression and that the U.S. intervened in defence of “democracy” and the “free world".
Fascist America has well and truly beaten Nazi Germany in international lawlessness and banditry
«O-
118 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDITORIAL
Friday, 7th March 1952
THE CASE, AGAINST THE TREASURY OFFICIAL
INour lastissue, we reproduced a letter dated 22nd June 1951, which was circulated by the Managing Director of the Colombo Hotels Co. Ltd. among his staff informing them that "Mr. D. Amarasinha has taken up duties with this Company as from the 20th instant and is working in conjunction with the present Secretary as from that date. Please note that Mr. Amarasinha is entitled to purchases at cost price plus 10%'.
The original of this letter is with us.
Mr. Amarasinha is the Deputy Controller of Finance. He thus holds a key post in the Government. He is a “big staff officer.
Public Service Regulation No. 211 reads as follows:-
No officer whose remuneration is fixed on the assumption that the whole time of such officer is at the disposal of the Government shall, except with the approval of the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry (who will obtain the concurrence of the Secretary to the Treasury before granting such approval), take part in affairs of any commercial, business. or agricultural undertaking, or of any firm carrying on any description of professional work in Ceylon,
As far as we are aware no such approval was ever obtained by Mr. Amarasinha.
From the above it is clear beyond any doubt that Mr. Amarasinha has outrageously violated Government regulations.
It cannot be seriously suggested that Government was not aware of the violation of its regulations by its Deputy Controller of Finance. Why has the Government not taken any action?. Why has it preferred to ignore
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the violation of its own regulations? Is it because that the Government stinks of corruption that it does not want to stultify itself by taking action against one of its own men? If the same regulation has been violated by a public servant who is not in the U.N.P. camp, immediate and drastic action would have been taken in the name of strict enforcement of the regulations.
It is certain that Government does not add a wee-bit to its prestige when it refuses to enforce its regulations impartially and without any discrimination.
The country is full of talk, some of a loose character, and some well founded, of the practice of corruption in the Government circles and in the public service. It is difficult to collect proved information on this subject, because there is, firstly the fear of reprisals against those who give information, and secondly, because peoples are not easily able to overcome a feeling of despair and hopelessness in an atmosphere so heavily contaminated with corrupt and dishonorable practices.
It is very seldom that precise allegations of this type are made openly. If the Government fail to inquire into this case, it would imply an acceptance by them of the truth of this allegation and an expression of their decision to condone it as a normal routine practice.
There is only one honourable course open to the government -and that is, to appoint a commission of inquiry without delay. We ourselves are prepared to place before the commission all the information we have including the original of the letter referred to.
മ്മCബ
120 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDITORIAL
Tuesday, 11th March 1952
SEND SATHERWAITE HOME
The U.N.P. is never tired of accusing the Leftists in general and the Communists in particular of owing allegiance to a foreign power.
Like a stale gramaphone record, we have listened to this U.N.P. propaganda in season and out. But not a shred of evidence could they adduce in support of these base slanders.
Not a single Russian rouble has been seen in Ceylon. In fact, when the Prime Minister made veiled accusations in Parliament about people in this country being in touch with the Soviet Government and that he had proofin his possession, he was challenged by Mr. Pieter Keuneman, M.P. to either table the evidence or else appoint a Commission to investigate the charge. Mr. D. S. Senanayake got out of this uncomfortable position by trotting out the lame excuse that it was not in the public interest to do SO.
We are convinced that the U.N.P. propaganda accusation, of the Leftists owing foreign allegiance, is like the story of the thief shouting “thief'. In reality it is the U.N.P. that has sold out our country to a foreign power, America, and our country is today ruled through the American Embassy.
Interference in the internal affairs of Ceylon by the American Embassy is becoming more and more open. The latest example is their impudent interference in the Akuressa by-election where anti-Communist literature, printed by the American Embassy, is being distributed freely by the U.N.P.
We know for certain that American firms in Ceylon have, on Instructions from the American Embassy, increased their contributions to the U. N. P. Election Fund from a nominal sum to five-figure cheques. And in return the U.N.P. Government is acting as the distributing agency
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The Yanks are becoming increasingly insolent. They are using even the Colombo Exhibition for their own propaganda. Any self-respecting Government would have cried halt to such open and aggressive interference in our internal affairs by a foreign power. But the U.N.P. only kno-tows to them the more.
The self-respecting and freedom loving people of this country will demand with one voice that the American Ambassador who has been responsible for such open interference should be asked to pack up and go home.
Let the slogan echo round Ceylon: SEND SATHERWAITE HOME
ബ
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ri 14
A WORD TO THE OPPOSITION
How does the Opposition expect to defeat the U.N.P. at the next elections without a powerful daily paper at least in Sinhalese? Are there not sufficiently rich men in the opposition parties who could finance the running of a daily paper? These are questions which arise in the minds of those who realise the immeasurable value of a newspaper as a medium of propaganda, especially in the present context in Ceylon where the influential section of the press is solidly behind the corrupt U.N.P. Govt. indulging even in lies to boost up the U.N.P.
It is indeed most unfortunate that the opposition leaders have so far not succeeded in their attempts to establish and run even a single daily paper either in English, Sinhalese or Tamil. The failure of the opposition is all the more to be deplored when it is realised that some of the richest men in Ceylon are in the opposition parties.
Nobody has ever suggested that the opposition parties do not realise the value of a daily paper. What then is the actual reason for the failure? It cannot be that they expect the poor labourers and the underpaid clerks to finance the project.
Even if it is not possible for the opposition leaders to start and run papers on their own, they should at least extend sufficient support to those few papers that are on their side.
The only English paper for the opposition that has been regularly published during the last fourteen months is "People's Voice'. It was started as a weekly and later, about five months ago, converted into bi-weekly.
It is with the severest strain and almost incredible difficulty that the paper has been published all this time. The paper is being run at an average monthly loss of about Rs. 1300/-. It is because of the donations we received
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that we have been able to meet a part of this loss.
Friends and sympathizers would readily appreciate that the paper cannot go on for long at this rate. It must be realised that the substantial source of income to any newspaper is from regular advertisements. We are not in a position to secure enough regular advertisements for the main reason that businessmen do not wish to displease the U.N.P. Govt. by advertising in our paper.
It is therefore clear that the only way to ensure the publication of "People's Voice' is by helping it by regular monthly donations. We have not the slightest doubt that all those who really believe that "People's Voice' is performing a useful task by the people of Ceylon would rush to its rescue before it is too late.
ബ
124 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDITORIAL
Duesday, 25th March 1952
BITTER STRIFE INSIDE U.N. P.
Don Stephen Senanayake, Prime Minister of Ceylon and leader of the United National Party is dead. And, in dying, he has sounded the death knell of the U.N.P.-not that his continued existence would have prolonged the death-bed agony very much longer.
The great scramble for power is now on. Even as the Prime Minister lay sinking, stratagems had been laid and plans worked out by the rival factions. The Premier's death has unleashed all the hidden jealousies and rivalries inside the UNP whose only cohesive influence was the presence of the Mr.Senanayke.
The two factions contending for power at the moment are the Senanayake and the Kotelawela families, once very closely attached to each other and now threatening to become the bitterest of enemies.
It was, of course, an open secret that Sir John Kotelawela was aspiring to be the future Premier. It would now appear that all his efforts have been in vain. Nobody wants him as Prime Minister, not even those inside the UNP High Command. He has become the most unpopular Minister not only in the country but even inside the ranks of his own party. It is reported that Sir Richard Aluvlhare, I.G.P., had threatened to resign if Sir John were made Premier - such is the popularity of Sir John
The majority of the Cabinet, including Ministers like Mr. G.G.Ponnambalam, want Dudley to be Premier. Among the top men, Dudley, J. R. and Oliver are reported to be on one side. Sir John has been completely isolated. At the same time, the Yankee stooge-ambitious J. R.-is also reported to be trying out his support on the side.
Mrs. D. S. Senanayake is reported to have expressed her desire to see that her husband is succeeded by her son. Interested parties have been
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trying to bring out a settlement but have met with no success. Sir John is reported to be adamant. Dudley Senanayake was invited to a conference at Horton Place to persuade him to stand down. But of no avail.
When Lord Soulbury arrives on Wednesday, he is expected to call upon Dudley to form a Cabinet. This is in accordance with the expressed desire of Mr. Senanayake. Soulbury is reported, to have asked D. S. before the former's going on leave to England as to whom he would like to have as his successor in the event of the Premiership falling vacant. D. S. is reported to have indicated his preference for his son.
It is this that has made Sir John very bitter- that his "chief' should have ignored him after all his services to the Party as Leader of the House, Propaganda Chief of the Party, Chairman of the U. N. P. Youth League, Editor of the Party paper etc., etc.
The Senanayakes need not crow over the Kotelawelas. Dudley is not going to enjoy this glory for long. He and Sir John, along with the rest of the U.N. P. gang will receive their verdict at the coming elections and be swept out of power and into oblivion where they belong.
Bereft of the personal influence of the Prime Minister, so assiduously built up by the Lake House Press, the U. N. P. is like a rudderless ship with its crew divided among itself. Now is the opportunity for the forces of the opposition. If they unite behind a common minimum programme and give a bold lead the country will follow them.
26 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDIT
Friday, 28th March 1952
PREMIER BY STRATAGEM
WHILE the friends and relations of Mr. Dudley Senanayake gleefully rejoice at the deft piece of double-dealing and political treachery by which John Kotalawela was done out of the Prime Ministership for which he had laboured so much, the bitter and disillusioned cousin who had helped to relieve the family debts of the Senanayakes, secured the election of Dudley and Gotabhaya Senanayake to Parliament, shouldered the burdens of his uncle the late Premier, and built up the U. N. P. party machine, is today a sadder but wiser man. For he has learned through bitter experience the true character of his kinsmen and friends in the U. N. P. Here is the story in brief outline -a story, the calculated treachery of which lays bare the ethics of the family clique that rules our Country today.
The first scene of this sordid drama was enacted in 1947, when in spite of the public outcry at that time, Dudley Senanayake was appointed Minister of Agriculture by his father. This was the first step in a calculated plan to ensure that the premiership of the country Would remain in the Senanayake family.
But even his fond father felt that it would be too much to ask a nation enraged by the misrule and nepotism of the U.N. P. to accept son Dudley, an immature political upstart as Prime Minister. A cover therefore had to be found under whose regency Dudley Senanayake could be groomed for the Premiership, until a respectable period of time would have elapsed after D. S. Senanayake's death. when Dudley could be safely piloted into that office without making it appear as an act ofnepotism. Such a cover was found in the person of the late A. F. Molamure who was carefully built up to step into D.S. Senanayake's shoes. But fate dealt the Senanayake family a severe blow when it took Molamure away before the plan had fully matured.
A substitute was soon found in Oliver Goonetilleke The Gogia Pasha was expressly brought down from London and given a Cabinet portfolio in
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spite ofthe six hundred odd audit queries which had yet to be answered. At the forthcoming General Elections he was to have been found a safe seatin Ja-ela or in the pocket borough of Buttala, and then foisted upon unwilling people as Prime Minister, which position he would hold until conditions were favourable for Dudley Senanayake to creep in there. But even the best laid plans meet with disaster, and this one did when D.S.Senanayake came by his untimely death.
In the meantime there were two rival claimants who had to be disposed of, if Dudley Senanayake was to have a clear field. One was John Kotalawela whose claim was based on his senior position in the U. N. P. and his control of the Party machine. The other was S.W.R.D. Bandaranake who would have been the popular choice as the logical successor to D.S. Senanayake on the basis of his record of national service. The plan of the Senanayake family was to play these two against each other until the rift between them was so wide that a third person could be brought in as the only man who could hold the party together.
This well prepared plan was again upset when Bandaranaike resigned from the U.N.P. in disgust after the Madampe resolutions were rejected by that party. This left John Kotalawela as the only claimant and ignorant of the deep schemes and plots being hatched behind his backhe felt assured that he was within reaching his life's ambition. He felt doubly certain that his position was unassailable because of the great service he had rendered the Senanayake family. When the Senanayakes in dire financial straits were forced to sell One large estate, Mrs. Alice Kotalawela, John Kotalawela's mother, bought it but allowed them to use and enjoy its fruits. It was mainly John Kotalawela's efforts that secured the election of Dudley and Gotabhaya Senanayake to parliament and brought these unknown figures into the public limelight. From such men he expected gratitude not betrayal.
The final scenes of this drama of political murder was enacted during the last few days when the death of D. S. Senanayake exposed to the public gaze the intrigues and manoeuvering of this power crazy gang. A rival claimant to Kotalawela was immediately found in J. R. Jayawardena. Meanwhile the story was assiduously and carefully spread that Dudley was not
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interested in the Premiership; that he was retiring from public life; and it was even rumoured thathe was renouncing this worldly life! A fewbackbenchers and thenominated European members were got to signaletter to the effect that they did not want Kotalawala as Prime Minister. The Pandam press was instructed to leave out Kotalawala from all photographs takenin connection with the death of D.S. Senanayake, and to bring Dudley into the limelight by focusing all attention on him.
Such was the cold, calculated and planned manner in which Dudley Senanayake set about the task of becoming the Prime Minister of Ceylon. When the stage was well set he came forward with the pronouncement that in this hour of national peril, to save the U.N.P. from complete chaos (a chaos which had been deliberately engineered and stage-managed by himself and his clique) be would in spite of his disinclination accept premiership
That is the strange story of how Dudley Senanayake worked his way into the Premiership having first committed the cold-blooded political murder of his cousin John Kotalawala. It is indeed a valuable lesson for the country in the ethics of the U.N. P. family caucus,
But the story does not end there. There is the further question as to who will succeed Dudley? Is it to be Robert Senanayake, Gotabhaya Senanayake or someone unknown Senanayake, still languishing in the wilderness, or yet unborn? No doubt in due course Dudley will indicate his wishes to Lord Soulbury or his successor. The people however have another answer to give to this rotten, corrupt and scheming family clique.
-a dual
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Frid th April 1952
NO CHANGE
THERE is an old French proverb that runs: “The more things change, the more they are the same'. No saying could be more appropriate to sum up the events that have followed the death of Mr.D. S. Senanayake.
Now that the funeral is over and the hysteria campaign whipped up by Press and Radio begun to fizzle out, people can soberly estimate what has happened.
Dudley Senanayake has succeeded his father. He has appointed the same cabinet and vowed to carry on the same policy.
All the gushing praise of the late Mr. Senanayake will not bring more jobs to the unemployed, more houses to the homeless, cheaper goods to the harassed housewife.
All the tributes in the newspapers will not secure the withdrawal of 208B or the host of anti-democratic legislation which the UNP has heaped on the country.
All the pomp and ceremony, all the bouquets and wreaths cannot camouflage the policy of betrayal to foreign imperialism which goes on without abiatement.
It is not the country, but UNP, that is poorer by MR. D.S Senanayake's death. The country remains in the same mess to which the UNP has brought it. The UNP has lost the one figure whom years of inspired propaganda has given even an appearance of respectability.
Those who fondly imagined that MR. Senanayake's death would see the end of the Davids, Wakwellas and others of their ilk whom Mr. Senanayake encouraged to flourish find themselves mistaken.
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Those who imagined that Dudley Senanayake's assumption of Premiership would mean the end of men like Sir John Kotelawala found to their cost that the same Dudley made a special pilgrimage to Sir John to implore him to take same place in the cabinet.
Mr.Senanayake is dead and his body has been cremated. But the dreadful legacy that he left the country in the form of the UNP and its policies remain. It is only when the UNP is swept from power that we can really begin to have a Lanka worth living in.
You can't fool her again, D.S.
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EDITORIAL
Friday, 11t il 1952
THE ISSUES AT STAKE
The forthcoming General Election confronts the country with the gravest issue it has had to face in all its long and chequered history.
For here, for the first time we face in all its grim seriousness the real issue of Freedom versus Slavery. Here is the first real test whether our nation is to be really free or whether the people of Ceylon will have become the bond slaves of British and American Imperialist exploiters masking behind a corrupt, degenerate, immoral and bankrupt family clique of political adventurers and careerists, who have debased themselves to the point of unashamedly selling the interests of our people to the interest of foreigners.
For what other meaning can there be found in the abject sevility of J.R. Jayawardene's prostrations before his American and British masters at the signing of the Japanese Peace Treaty at San Francisco'? What was the meaning of his affixing his signature to a statement by the Finance Ministers' Conference that the Sterling area must live within its means, when the fact of the matter is that these American-backed British exploiters have been for a century or more draining the rich resources of our country until we are left a land of half starved consumptives, beggars, destitutes, of children without schools to go to, of young men without hope of employment, of mothers without food and sapped of their strength to nurse their babies, of old men famished and facing with the hopelessness of despair the grim spectacle of agonising death, of youths and maidens for whom the ecstasy of marriage and the hope of building up a home and bringing up the young darlings who will provide some security for them in their old age, must remain forever a dream.
This then is the crime of the Senanayake, father and son, and the clique of relatives and friends, the disgusting gadflies who cling to the festering body of the Ceylonese nation to enjoy the last benefits from the
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rotting corpse of Sri Lanka for which they and theirbusmen friends, foreign liquor merchants and the Borah recipients of their favours at the expense of the people, and above all their British and American masters to whom they have handed over, not only our economic survival but even our very soil in Trincomalee, Katunayake and Koggala, are responsible.
Dudley Senanayake and his clique of corrupt office-holders and hangers-on in the U.N.P. stand indicated before the bar of the nation for unpardonable treachery to the people of Ceylon. And they will receive their answer in no unmistakable terms at the general election which they have, in fear and panic, stampeded the country.
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Fridav, 18th April 1952
AGRACELESS GESTURE
THE Government's withdrawal of A. R. 208 B. and A. R. 249 on the eve of the general elections is a graceless gesture dictated by expediency rather than sincerity.
The pandam press (which has for so long not noticed anything undemocratic about these infamous regulations) now hails their withdrawal as a great concession to democracy.
No one is likely to be taken in by this. It is the weakness of the Government's position and not any change in its attitude that has compelled it to take this step. It is the last desperate throw of a doomed Government.
As a newspaper that has consistently campaigned for the repeal of these regulations, we naturally welcome the successful outcome of a long period of struggle by the public servants and their associations.
But A. R. 208 B and A.R. 249 were only two of the most publicised and heinous of the repressive regulations of the Government. Democracy demands the repeal of all the other regulations of this type particularly all regulations from A.R. 246 to A.R.266. Full trade union and civic rights are the natural right of all Government employees as of all other citizens.
Mr.J. R. Jayawaraene's Press communique announcing the repeal of those two Administrative Regulations was a further slur on the public servants. Public servants have not been demanding the right to rebel against the Government of the day or destroy its orders. Their demand is for normal democratic rights.
Mr. Jayawardene's statement, makes it obvious that he regards the repeal of these offensive regulations, not as the conferment of a democratic right, but as a bribe to Purchase the votes of the public servants at the
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elections.
We have no doubt that the public servants will know what answer to: give to a Government that wishes to keep them as serfs. They will play their part, by the exercise of their vote, to defeat the U.N. P. and its allies and make it possible for a better Government to be installed in its place.
ബ്ബ
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EDITORIAL
FridaV, 25th April 1952
A Word to the Voter and Two to the Opposition
NEXT Monday is, Nomination Day, and a month hence the voter will have the opportunity-an opportunity that comes only once in five years-to decide who shall rule the country, how they shall do so and for what purpose.
That the rulers who should come to power after the elections should be progressives, that they should rule the country in a truly democratic way and that their purpose should be the establishmentofa free, democratic and prosperous Lanka, are issues that need no emphasis at this stage of our country's history and in this condition of our people's misery.
But the problem of the day is whether it is possible even at this late hour, with the nominations only a week-end away, to achieve such degree of unity among the opposition parties as can defeat the U.N. P., the enemy of the freedom, democracy and prosperity the people so keenly desire.
According to developments up to the time we go to press, such a degree of unity has not materialised. The only manifestation of purposeful unity is the United Front formed by the Communist Party and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (led by Philip Gunawardena) and welcomed by us at its very inception. But, on the other hand, four opposition parties- the People's Republican Party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the Federal Party and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (led by Dr.N.M.Perera) have already announced through the press their separate nomination lists. And it is regrettable that these nomination lists reveal a number of clashes amongst the opposition candidates even in seats where, given a single anti-UNP list, the ruling caucus can be decisively defeated and even ingloriously routed.
Anyway, as "hope springs eternal in the human breast,' we have not resigned ourselves to cynical defeatism or frustrated in action. Nor, do we think, will the people follow such a suicidal path.
()
136 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

Hence we appeal once again -particularly to the four anti-UNP parties who have been so selfish and sectarian as to announce their lists of candidates without making at least one last effort at unity-to be honest with themselves, square up to their political responsibility and draw up a single list of opposition candidates. In this respect, the responsibility of the L. S. S. P. (led by Dr. N. M. Perera), the only Leftist party to stand out of the United Front, is greatest and most momentous.
Such a single anti-UNP list, even if it is not worked out on a solid, common programme but only on a patched-up, no-contest basis, can prove a phalanx so strong that the corrupt, disrupted UNP cannot but go to pieces against it.
Forging such a list is the last-minute task before the opposition parties. It must not fail. Should it fail, the UNP has as good a chance as ever of riding to power again and inflicting further misery on the people.
Yet, even if the opposition parties fail in their task, we appeal to the voters to show the way forward. Relying on their practical common sense and their urgent desire for the common welfare, we urge them to support the candidates of the United Front and, where the United Front is not in the field, those progressive candidates who can defeat the UNP nominees.
This may seem a limited perspective, but it is a perspective focused on an opposition unity that in due course will turn out the UNP and seat the people in power.
Ceylon Indians
The Ceylon Citizenship Act and the Indian and Pakistani Residents (Citizenship) Act by which 2000,000 Ceylon Indians have in practice been denied Citizenship rights, and in consequence, all political and social rights, such as the franchise, the right to employment and unemployment relief, is the worst foam of class discrimination affecting a particular race since Hitler's racial discrimination against, and persecution of, the Jews. In fact
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the 200,000 Ceylon Indians are today in much the same position as the Jews were in Nazi Germany; Stateless, politically dominated and economically enslaved.
Dr. Malan's apartheid laws in South Africa would appear to be touched with justice beside the Senanayake's anti-Indian legislation. Malan's apartheid does not at least deny the coloured people of South Africa their political rights though it socially segregates them. It is essentially a social discrimination. But the Senanayake Government's discrimination against the Ceylon Indian, is a very much more vivid and inhuman form of class and racial discrimination. To say that such discrimination is undemocratic and offends against the laws and customs of civilised society, would be a mere euphemism.
Senanayake Son, on whose shoulders has fallen the mantle of Senanayake Father, in his public declaration of his determination to continue the Father's policy and pursue the father's "ideals', has mistaken filial loyalty for political duty.
In international affairs, the Senanayakes have out-Chianged Chiang. In internal affairs they have out- Malaned Malan But the people of this country have the greatest sympathy for the downtrodden Ceylon Indian worker. We recognise, and are grateful for the fact, that the Ceylon Indians have been-and still are-the major producers of wealth in this country.
The Ceylon Indian problem, as every social and economic problem can only be solved by the wholesale rout of the hated oligarchy in Ceylon known as the United National Party.
ست «»
138 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDITORIAL
Friday, 2nd May 1952
MUST THE FIASCO OF 1947 BE REPEATED.?
TODAY, with the general elections before us, we people of Lanka have another golden opportunity of throwing out the UNP Government and establishing a government nearer to our heart's desire.
The last opportunity that we had was in 1947, the year of the last general elections. That opportunity was lost.
But must we let this new opportunity also go the same way? Must we, to our eternal disgrace in history, let the political fiasco of 1947 be repeated?
No, definitely not!
Even in 1947, we, the voters, as distinct from the opposition parties, did not let slip the opportunity presented to us by the general elections of that year. With our votes, we saw to it that the UNP was not returned in a majority Of the elected 95 seats, we saw to it that the UNP got only 41.
But the opposition parties did not clinch the chance that we had won for them at the polls. They held many conferences at "Yamuna', the house of H. Sri Nissanka, MP. They proposed, counter-proposed, discussed, criticised, haggled and scolded one another-but the result was nil. There was no unity among them to form a non-UNP government.
Mr. D. S. Senaniyake was called upon by Lord Soulbury to form the government. A number of independents rallied round him and he formed the government. The opposition was left gaping in despair.
This happened merely because the ranks of the opposition were as tragically gaping in their wretched disunity
And, consequently, all the votes so eagerly, so hopefully, so courageously cast by the people against the UNP were thrown to the winds on Galle Face
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Green where, as usual, we had the leftist meetings and the May day rallies.
Since that fiasco, four and a half years- no brief period this-have passed with greater sufferings for the people and more lessons in unity for the opposition parties.
That is why the opposition parties, if they have any sense of wisdom or responsibility, must not let the fiasco of 1947 be repeated. If they choose to reenact that shameful drama, we voters, we common people, will not forgive them.
For we have not forgotten that, in 1947, though we did not fail them, they failed us -and that too miserably.
In spite of the absence of unity now, we will next month vote in the mass against the UNP. If the UNP got only 41 seats last time, we will see to it that they get even less this time.
But will the opposition parties rally behind us, unite their forces and form a non-UNP government which can promote our interests?
Let them not offer sorry excuses for putting the UNP into the political saddle once again. Let them not for example, say like Dr. Colvin R de Silva in 1947, that they will not form a government as long as capitalism exists in Ceylon. Let them not say, like Dr. N.M. Perera in 1947 that they will run a government only if their own single party has an absolute majority in Parliament.
If they do so, they may well wind up their parties here and now without going through the rough and tumble of the hustings. That will be an action of self-respect; for, when we voters,we people are enraged, we shall respect neither parties nor persons.
So, whatever may happen among opposition parties between now and the elections, whether it is for greater unity or even disunity, we, the voters, will go into action on May 24.
Let the opposition parties be quick enough to follow us up and complete the route of the UNP which should have been kicked out as far back as 1947.
VICTORY TO THE PEOPLE UNITY TO THE OPPOSITION
ست
40 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

Friday, 9th May 1952
LET THE DEAD BURY THE DEAD
DESPITE the attempts of the kept press to divert public opinion to less important issues, the common people of Lanka have shown that in sanity and judgement they are far superior to the social vultures who administer the affairs of our country.
The immediate reaction to the death of Mr.D.S.Senanayake saw a natural softening of human hearts at the passing of a leader of the country. Unlike the hypocritical tears of the U.N.P. propagandists the people gave vent to genuine grief. But opportunist politicians and their daily press tried to transform a natural, spontaneous emotion into an eternal gloomy ritual for purely selfish political ends.
Now that the press has failed to keep up the tempo of mass hysteria which it so carefully built up, and reason has prevailed over whipped up sentiment, the results of all the tomfoolery appears to be so artificial to the masses. If it was the intention of the power politicians to spread an eternal pall of solemnity over the face of Lanka for all time on the apparent pretext of good taste, their plans have misfired and it has only revealed their bad judgement of the human race. Actions of this nature only expose the men behind the scenes as possessing no ordinary, human traits and confirm their inability to conduct themselves with dignity in a democratic set-up.
The U.N.P. and the daily press has attempted to prop up the myth that the control of the Government outside the Senanayake family will spell disaster. But the common people are advanced enough to discard such moth-eaten traditions which have long become extinct in the modern civilized world. It is granted of course that the Senanayake family has come to be recognised in recent times as symbolic of the interests of the landed aristocracy, whether Ceylonese or foreign. But this in no way fits into the pattern of thought of the vast majority of people.
Apart from the realisation that the late Mr.D.S. Senanayake had contributed in some measure towards the progress of Lanka in his earlier life, it is not
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understood how propagandists- mostly those of the parasitic gang that had clustered round him to serve their own selfish ends-could belittle our greatest patriots, both living and dead, by whose side Mr.D.S. Senanayake pales into insignificance.
It is the despicable rump of hangers-on on whose behalf the late Prime Minister lost most of his earlier prestige by shielding them from righteous justice, that now seek to perpetuate his memory and continue their nefarious deeds against the interests of the public.
These functionaries and corrupt office-holders may be drawn from the narrow circle of hereditary privilege but they are certainly out of touch with modern thought. As has been proved by the trend of current events these cannibals continue to dig up the ashes of the late Premier in their frenzy to continue the old order ofbureaucracy and unequal privilege. But the new force which is sweeping the country is more in keeping with the aspirations of our people and matches the time we live in.
With the general elections due in a fortnight, the people are being called upon to choose between the old way of life which the forces of reaction seek to prolong, and those of the new world which evolutionary progress has brought to ԱS.
The people can walk into the shadowy future with confidence if only commonsense and statesmanship prevails over personalities and narrow sectarianism.The leaders of the Opposition must meet, even at this eleventh hour and discuss, not their future, but ours.
Mr. D. S. Senanayake may be no more but his son and his privileged class still remain. We Join with the voice of the masses and appeal to the leaders of the opposition to unite now and place the defeat of the U.N.P. beyond doubt.
Let the Dead Bury the Dead.
ബ്ബ
142 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDITORIAL
Friday, 23rd May 1952
PATRIOTS OF LANKA GIVE THEM SHORT SHIFT
THE skirmishing is over. The battle will begin in earnest on Saturday. Happily the issue is no longer in doubt. Not all the tricks of Dudley, Oliver, J.R. and the rest of the Uncle Nephew Gang have availed to save the tottering edifice of Anglo-American power in this country.
The men who sold our country to Anglo-American imperialism for the enjoyment of personal power for a politically corrupt clique composed of themselves, their relatives and friends, stand unmasked and exposed in all their naked horror as perpetrators of an unashamed act of treachery to the nation.
The men who refuse to allow the use of our own national languages in order to maintain the predominance of a foreigntongue are arraigned before the bar of the nation as the base servitors and perpetuators of foreign rule masking themselves behind the cry of having secured "freedom'.
The men who refuse to Ceylonese trade and employment, and who liberally bestow citizenship rights on the bloodsucking Chettiar, Borah, Sindhi, American and European exploiters of our people, whilst denying the legitimate rights to our fellow Indian workers, are the men who cry out that they are saviours of the nation
The men who deny a living wage to Ceylonese public servants are the men who do not hesitate to pay an American head of the Central Bank of Ceylon the highest salary received by any public official in this country. The men who once clamoured that the public services should be manned exclusively by Ceylonese are the men who are foremost in filling every headship of every imaginable Government department with American, English, not to say Dane or Swede-anybody in fact with a white skin.
These UNP political charlatans are a shame not only to the people of Ceylon. They are a standing disgrace to the whole of Asia, indeed to the
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entire coloured peoples in every part of the world. In the objectives of their servile stooping, knee-bending, cringing, and prostration before their British and Yankee bosses, it would be hard to find their equal anywhere in the world. All their thunder, arrogance and bravado is reserved for the unemployed, the voiceless Indian creator of our wealth and the poor helpless public servants whom they have reduced to helplessness by a wage that leaves their energies sapped and breaks their spirit in the face of the misery and hardship that confront their wives and their families.
This corrupt political gang is beneath contempt for language. They must be shown that treachery to a people cannot bring prosperity to the betrayers. That time has now come when the nation goes to the polls next Saturday. The choice before the electors is clear. Give the hated UNP and the ambitious and power seeking Dudley Senanayake, short shift
-O-
144 Peoples's Voice, 1951-1953

EDITORIAL
Friday, 27th June 1952
THE TRIUMPH OF FRAUD
THERE are strange devotees at the shrine of democracy these days. “Democracy” is perhaps the most abused term in our time.
This Sunday there is being held at Galle Face a rally to celebrate the alleged triumph of Democracy". Let us take a close look at these specimens who claim to be such staunch champions of democracy in its purest form.
The list is headed by none other than Mr. Dudley Senanayake who achieved his entry into politics in the first State Council elections by the very “democratic,” process of beating up and physically preventing the depressed caste supporters of his opponent from going to the polls.
This baptism into the “democratic way of life” has stood Dudley in good stead when he inherited the Premiership from his father. Basing himself on the same principle, he held an election at which more than 2 1/ 2 lacs of Indians who had voted against the UNP at the last elections were disenfranchised by a mere stroke of the pen-not to speak of nearly 60,000 youth who had become of age since 1950 as well as the countless numbers of Ceylon Tamil and Muslim names which even vaguely resembled Indian ՕՈՇS.
An even better exponent of the democratic process is the semi-fascist Leader of the House and propagandachief of the UNP, Sir John Kotelawela who was accused, during the recent Cabinet crisis, by 19 M.Ps of his own party with having suggested unconstitutional measure to solve the crisis. Sir John's addiction to democracy is too notorious to need comment.
Mr.J.R.Jayawardene's celebrated contribution to democracy was the clamping down of P.S.R 208 B on government servants.
Significantly enough these gentlemen are giving yet one more example
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of their adherence to democratic methods in the very organisation of this Rally-using the entire governmental machinery, including the running of special trains and the use of the police force, for party purposes.
The claim of being democratic comes ill from a Party whose election funds came from the coffers of foreign business firms and whose propaganda campaign was conducted by the American Embassy.
No. It is not Democracy that has triumphed in Ceylon at the last elections. It is the monopoly press, the American Embassy, the Catholic Church and a bunch of corrupt, anti-national traitors, financed by foreign firms and aided by some of the IIlost crooked election practices reminiscent of Tammany Hall, that has triumphed at these election.
It is a veritable Triumph of fraud.
一事一
-
MRS. N. WAKUNTHAWASAN THE MANAGER THE PEOPLE'S WOICE"
Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953
 

EDITORIAL
Friday 22nd May 1953
SIGNS OF REVOLT
WITH IN one week no less than four sections of wage earners in this country have sounded the clarion call of revolt against the on coming depression. The G.C.S.U., the Intercantile Union, the Colombo Municipal Employees Union and the Railway Station Masters and Clerks' Union sent out treIIhours which precede the economic earthquake. Counterposed to these indications are the homilies piously preached by the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and the Home Minister all around the country, preparing the people for the slashing of the already low standards of living of the masses.
It was the reduction of rice ration; increase in the price of sugar; later on it was the free midday meals at school; shortly it will be "social services" like "free" education and relief of distress and finally the food subsidy, that the people will have to forego to keep the corrupt Government which surreptiously crept back into the saddle through a multitude of falsehoods, above sinking level,
Not withstanding these dire financial circumstances, the UNPGowernment must necessarily maintain false standards by tallashas in England for the Coronation; must still fabulously equip the foreign embassies; and II List spend considerable sums in fireworks and other items of outward show.
Placed in this situation, every citizen worth his name in this country has a signal role to play. Workers of every description, wage earners of every category have to fight back to the wall' if they are to survive the days ahead. With food subsidies gone, with the depletion of the Government's external assets and the dwindling of the national income, every section of the people must tremble to consider their plight. The capitalist class, however, can now rest on their accumulated hoarding carried forward from the boom time now past; while the middle and working classes
 ̄ ܠ .
ܕ ܢܘ ܐ
People's Voice,951-1953 147

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have no such hoardings to fall back upon Their hoardings are a mountain of woes and worries which in the future will sky-rocket to unendurable
limits.
The task before these unfortunate people are centred round their inherent strength for collective action. No other weapon do they have. People are thoroughly disillusioned at the spectacle of the platform tactics of the left parties who talk of unity without ever uniting. The plight of the people should be the sole criterion and parties which do not take cogniZance of this need at this hour of dire peril, and which foist trivial differences as a bar to such unity, are just indulging in crass hypocrisy. It is to the united leadership of the progressive forces in this country that the oppressed people look up for remedial measures.
A. KRISHNAPILLA THE MANAGER THE PEOPLE'S PRESS"
42143
148 Peoples's Woice, 1951-1953
 

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BOOKS BY K. VAIKUNTHAWASAN
Year of Reduced TITLE Publication Price
1. Three Months in New China and Soviet Unior 1953 EOC)
2. EFTIGör EEGswİL ETIF Elfs:IT 1953 E3.OO
3.The Way out for the Tamil Speaking People - 1978 E1.00
Indo- Ceylon Federation
4.Tamil Ealam Nation and UNO 1978 E.OO
5.1982 ல் தமிழ் ஈழம் 1980 E.OO
6.The Way out for the Tamil Speaking People - 1984 E100
Indo- Ceylon Federation
7. Til at the UN 1992 5,O)
8 pg|ET is is flugpa (Second Edition) 1993 E4, OO
9. A Tamil voice in the UNO (Second Edition) 1994 E2. O}
10. Tamil Eelam 1982 £1.00
(by Eclaventhan & K, Waikunthavasan)
11:தமிழ் ஈழம் கோரி ஐநா பொது மன்றத்தில் முழக்கம் 198O E3.OO
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PEOPLE'S VOICE Weekly (1951-53)
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Page 79
T
Mr. K. Vaikunt of the now 25 in Ceylon - T a Joint Secre Middle Class the years 194
Mr. Vaikuntha paper People 1951-53. It W ited China an gates from C N. N. Conference Conference held in Vienna both in 1952. Months in New China and Soviet Unions p published. It carried a Foreword by Prof the World Peace Council.
In 1960 Mr. VaikunthaVasan WaS Called ti Advocate of the Supreme Court of Ceylo Advocate of the Madras High Court from
He contested without Success the Kank Parliament in 1965 as the official candidat from it following the Front's anti-Tamil star
For six years from 1971-77 he worked i Resident Magistrate, and Registrar of the
He represented Zambia as an official deleg Conferences, the first one in Nairobi in AL in August 1975.
In August 1978, in his capacity as a practi. ed in the American Bar ASSOCiation Cente British guest.
While Still there on 5th October 19 General Assembly on the Tamil National C
06th September 1997
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HE AUTHOR
havasan is a former Secretary General ,000 strong public service Trade Union he GCSU. He also organised and was atary of the 100,000 strong All-Island and Public Service Trade Unions during 7-50.
Vasan edited the English Weekly newsl's Voice in Ceylon during the years as the only Weekly at the time. He visid SOViet Union With his Wife aS delleeylon to the Asian and Pacific Peace held in Peking and the World Peace Subsequently he wrote the book Three ublished 1953. A Tamil edition also was . J. D. Bernal FRS, a vice President of
O the English Bar and practised as an n for ten years till 1971. He is also an 1962.
(eSanturai Constituency in the Ceylon te of the United Left Front but resigned .Clך
in Zambia as a District Judge (Senior High Court.
gate at two Commonwealth Magistrates Igust 1973 and again in Kuala Lumpur
sing Barrister in England, he participatnnial Convention held in New York as a
78 he addressed the United Nations risis.
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