Simon’s Thomia: For School and Country - II

Simon’s writing highlights the events in Ceylon which was often referred to as the model colony, and enjoyed imperial prestige as one of the most prosperous, stable and strategic possessions in the British Empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Colombo had developed as one of the busiest export posts in Asia, as Ceylon Tea became world famous.

- BY SHAVINDRA FERNANDO

Miller-Chapman and Copleston-Claughton Houses

The Port of Trincomalee, one of the three largest natural deep-water harbours in the world, was the most strategically located port of western defence in the East.

HMS Trincomalee from the times of the Napoleonic Wars is to date the centrepiece of the National Museum of the Royal Navy. It was named to mark The Battle of Trincomalee of 1782 when the British first defeated the French, and then the Dutch in 1796 to take control, to colonise strategic Ceylon. HMS Trincomalee indicates how deeply Trincomalee was ingrained in the western defence psyche.

By 1944 the Soulbury Commission for constitutional reform in Ceylon was appointed. When the commission withdrew to London in 1945 to prepare the final report, D.S.Senanayake followed them to London, determined to gain the outcome he sought, by all means available.

Ceylon was already a mature democracy under its Donoughmore Constitution. With universal suffrage for women in Britain in 1928, followed by Ceylon in 1931, it was a first in Asia. Politically, Ceylon was heading to be the first in Asia to nurture a Westminster style parliamentary democracy.

Senanayake arrived in London amid an unexpected change in Whitehall, with the sudden collapse of Nazi power in Europe. Victory for the allies was imminent. Senanayake knew his representations had been well received. For the first time after five hundred years of colonisation by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British, a Sinhala leader had succeeded with foreign help, in bringing the people of Sri Lanka together.

On February 4th 1948, D.S Senanayake led the country to independence.

Senanayake was Ceylon’s first Prime-Minister. Dr.N.M.Perera, a Trotskyite tutored by Harold Laski at the London School of Economics (LSE), was Leader of the Opposition. It was the first time anywhere in the world that a Trotskyite was in the corridors of power.