Scholars and Gentlemen

(Excerpted from Selected Journalism by HAJ Hulugalle)

There are now a large number of scholarships for education abroad, including many given by foreign governments and institutions. Fifty years ago (this article was written in 1976) there were only two scholarships (before that, only one) awarded on the results of the Intermediate examination held in Colombo by the London University. If I remember correctly they were worth Stg. 400 per annum for three years.

Young people of those days were just as keen as their successors of today to travel and to study abroad. But, with some exceptions, they came back to pursue their careers at home. Rich parents sent the more promising among their progeny to Oxford and Cambridge, to medical schools in the United Kingdom, and to the Inns of Court in London so that they could become barristers who had the right to practise in Ceylon.

A poor boy had to win one of the university scholarships to study abroad. Recalling the names of scholarship winners of the past, one is impressed by the number who reached the top in the professions, government service and public life. They were an intellectual elite. Among the judges, for example, there were Thomas de Sampayo, M.T. Akbar, V. M. Fernando and Arthur Wijewardene, among doctors Marcus Fernando, Lucian de Zilwa and Frank Grenier; and among Civil Servants Ponnambalam Arunachalam, Paul E. Pieris, Edmund Rodrigo, Arthur Ranasinghe and L.J. Seneviratne, the last two being my contemporaries.

Earlier, the Civil Service examinations were held only in London. Later there was an examination held in Colombo. Doubtless the papers were corrected in London. The results of the London examination were in three categories, according to the order of merit. The top layer went into the Home Civil Service, the next to India and the last to the Colonies. But one could choose to step down.

The Indian Civil Service took from Ceylon L.H. Arndt, A M. G. Tampoe, Elmar Mack, Donald Ratnam and M. Ramalingam.

Vincent del Tufo was selected for the Home Civil Service, in which he distinguished himself, winding up his career as British High Commissioner in Malaya.

Ponnambalam Arunachalam and Paul Pieris were bright stars of the Ceylon Civil Service. They had many interests and wrote books. Arunachalam was not made a Government Agent because of the colour of his skin. Instead he was appointed Registrar-General, in which office he did much research and wrote valuable reports. He was nominated to the Legislative Council as an Official Member, and was also a member of the Governor’s Executive Council. His style was cramped even so, and on his retirement he took to politics. He was one of the pioneers of the Reform Movement and was the first president of the Ceylon National Congress. James Pieris, who followed him as president, was also a university scholar.

In the same year that Arunachalam became a member of the Ceylon Civil Service, Cecil John Reginald Le Mesurier came out to join the same service. His father was a Channel Islander and his mother a Greek. He was the author of the Manual of the Nuwara Eliya District, established a peasant colony called Demasuriyagama, and was the joint author with T.B. Panabokke of a translation into English of the “Niti-Niganduwa”.

Le Mesurier is, however, best remembered for a matrimonial jumble which lost him his job. He was sued for a separation by his wife, whereupon he became a Mohammedan to enable him to marry again. He adopted the name of Abdul Hamid while his second wife, Alice, called herself Quadra. The result is best told in his own words:-

“On the 19th December last, I got a letter from the Government Agent asking me to state distinctly whether I had embraced the Mohammedan faith, and whether I had married a lady according to Mohammedan rites. I wrote in reply to the inquiry what concern my religion was to the Ceylon Government, and how it affected my efficiency or character as a public servant, and what concern my domestic affairs were to the Ceylon Government. On the 8th of this month I got a letter to say that the Lieutenant-Governor, being satisfied, that I had purported to marry a lady by Mohammedan rites while I had a legal wife alive and not divorced her in pursuance of instructions from the Secretary of State dismissed me from the Ceylon Civil Service”.

In general, Civil Servants were regarded as very desirable sons-in-law. But Arunachalam’s brother Ramanathan, was determined to be a lawyer. In due course he became Solicitor-General and after his retirement entered the political scene. He was elected to the Legislative Council to represent the “educated Ceylonese”. In his old age he gave much of his time to religion and philosophy. The 125th anniversary of his birth falls on the 10th of this month (April 1976).

Ramanathan sat the advocates’ examination with Harold Creasy and Joseph Grenier. Creasy himself entered the Legislative Council as the “European Member” and took up the cause of many Sinhalese Buddhist leaders who were wrongfully imprisoned in 1915. His father, Sir Edward Creasy, the Chief Justice, travelled to Jaffna for the bi-annual sessions in a palanquin.

After the exam, according to Grenier, “we were asked to come back a week hence, which happened, I think, to be a Monday. At two o’clock, at the adjournment for lunch, Ramanathan and I were summoned to the Law Library, which was a small room with very few books in it, next to the Chief Justice’s chambers. Ramanathan was very calm and composed, as he always is even in the most trying circumstances, but I was in a considerable state of excitement as I felt that my future would depend on the announcement to be made within the next few minutes.

We saw at the doorway the huge, burly figure of the Chief Justice, with his leaning head and piercing eyes, and heard him say, in his sonorous voice: `Gentlemen, I am glad to say that all three of you have passed’…. Need I add that I was overjoyed? I said to myself: ‘You were a teacher barely three months ago drawing a salary of Rs.30 a month, and today you are an advocate of the Supreme Court with the possibility before you of making your thousands a year”.

Leading lawyers like Fredrick Dornhorst and H.J.C. Pereira spent years in England during their careers. “H.J.C- came from a brilliant family which produced Mr. Justice Walter Pereira and R.L. Pereira, among others. He was recognized as the lion of the Ceylon Bar, greatly respected by English Attorneys-General such as Sir Anton Bertram and Sir Henry Gollan. He was president of the Ceylon National Congress in 1921-23. He made a felicitous speech when Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, the Indian poet, visited Ceylon, calling her the sweet singing bird of India. His holidays in England were beneficial to the national movement of Ceylon because when some plea had to be made to the Secretary of State for the Colonies he was always available. All that was needed was a telegram from Colombo.

Ceylon is now not in a position to allow freedom of movement to all and sundry to travel and holiday abroad. The foreign exchange position does not permit it. But it is this very lack of freedom which makes so many professional men leave the country and work even where they may be second-class citizens.

The summary of the report of a sub-committee of the Cabinet recently published by the Press deals with the flight of talent from Ceylon. It would appear that last year over 300 professionally qualified persons left for employment abroad, bringing the total to well over 2,000 in the last five years. Around 700 doctors and 300 engineers have gone during this period. The trend continues despite certain concessions made by the Government in respect of leave facilities, use of exchange earned abroad and issue of passports for longer periods.

It is probable that the exodus is largely due to economic reasons. There is no easy solution to the problem. A young man has to think of his own career and a parent is not always the best person to advise him. I declare my interest in saying that. Three of my own children work abroad and visit me when they can. Life has to be enjoyed, not merely endured. There is a human problem in each case and it is only under dictatorships that it is completely ignored.

(This was first published in April 1976)