How We Lost a Friend
DESILVA, M. A.
The Shift in Ceylon how we lost a friend By M. A. de Silva Colombo Within the brief period of a year and a half, Ceylon's foreign policy has completely changed from pro-Western neutralism to...
...At the same time, Britain took precautions to insure that the power she was surrendering would not fall into the wrong hands...
...We must set about, here and now, raising the living conditions of the people of the underdeveloped countries...
...D. S. Senanayake's foreign policy was born of his hatred of Communism...
...Ceylon's strategic position, as well as her development from colonialism to independence by constitutional means, give her a special significance in Asian politics...
...In April 1956, his party suffered a stunning electoral defeat...
...He added that Ceylon had not received a penny in aid from the United States even though she was Asia's stoutest foe of Communism...
...of waiting until mass pressure forced her to leave...
...Bandaranaike's foreign policy (which he has described as "dynamic neutralism") flows from his attitude toward Communism...
...it returned from the polls with only 8. Kotelawala was succeeded as Prime Minister by Solomon Bandaranaike, and the United National party by the People's United party, which had obtained an absolute majority in the election...
...Moreover, the Ceylon-ese national leaders at that time were, from her point of view, the best to whom she could hand over power...
...No sooner had he come to power than he demanded the return of British bases on Ceylonese territory...
...Addressing the National Press Club in Washington, he declared: "I must repeat what I have so often said, that Communism does not flourish on a full stomach...
...Unlike India, Ceylon did not achieve independence from the British through any mass movement...
...The form of that society, he believes, will be shaped by the contest between Communism and Jemocracy...
...In Asia, politics is food and food is politics...
...Britain unquestionably expected the UNP to stabilize itself and remain in power for many years to come...
...There would be many defections from the free world, and democracy would have met its Waterloo in Asia...
...Addressing the 0verseas Press Club ill New York...
...had to accede...
...The ban on travel to the Communist world which was enforced by the UNP governments has been lifted...
...In foreign policy, though he paid lip-service to neutrality and non-involvement, he left no doubt that he was a consistent opponent of the Soviet Union and other Communist states...
...By and large, the Ceylonese regard as friends those countries which help them economically, regardless of ideology...
...In November-December 1954, he visited the United States to seek assistance...
...Meanwhile, offers of economic aid have come not only from Russia and China but from Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany and Yugoslavia...
...Next year, Prime Minister Bandaranaike is scheduled to visit China...
...Bandaranaike takes a neutral attitude toward Communism, but his government contains several avowed Marxists and he regards himself as a midwife helping to deliver a new society...
...But the U. S. neither fulfilled these hopes nor offered substantial aid in any other form...
...When Chou En-lai visited Ceylon last February, he was given a tumultuous welcome...
...Thus, for want of foreign assistance, the Ceylonese economy stagnated while the population increased at a rate faster than that of most other Asian countries...
...Despite the agreement, however...
...The offer from Peking came at a time when there was a United Nations ban on exports to China...
...Rubber is a major export on which Ceylon depends heavily, and the Senanayake Government looked to the United States for a stable price above that prevailing in the world market...
...First, she made it known that she was prepared to hand over power to the Ceylonese and was negotiating with D. S. Senanayake for that purpose...
...In the space of about 25 years, Ceylon passed from the status of a British colony, in which the entire legislature was nominated by a Governor in whom all executive power was vested, to that of a fully self-governing dominion within the Commonwealth, with the right of secession...
...This meant that the Senanayake Government had to depend entirely on the democratic countries for both trade and aid...
...I say here and now because I want to remind you of something which may have escaped your attention...
...Ceylon's shift from a strongly pro-American stand to one of friendliness toward the Communist world shows that the mass of people in an underdeveloped country judge their government's foreign policy on the basis of the material benefits it brings...
...Dudley Senanayake, however, faced the same problems of a stagnant economy and a rigidly pro-Western policy which yielded few tangible results...
...The last stage in this evolution was accelerated by the last war, events in Southeast Asia, and the mass movements for national independence, particularly in India and Burma...
...Britain probably felt that her best course in Ceylon was to abdicate power voluntarily instead M. A. DESlLVA is managing editor of the Sinhalese-language newspaper Dinamina, Ceylon's largest daily...
...Britain, under the agreement she had signed with D. S. Senanayake...
...The previous regime had, under various pretexts, rebuffed Soviet and Red Chinese bids for diplomatic relations...
...China has improved her economic standards considerably in a few years of Communism, while her neighbors are yet lagging behind...
...The freedom movement was confined to a few political leaders whose methods were those of negotiation for progressive constitutional advance...
...Moscow and Peking have offered not only to buy Ceylon's rubber but to provide capital for further industrial expansion...
...Sir John Kotelawala, who succeeded Senanayake as Prime Minister, continued the same foreign and domestic policies but with even greater emphasis on rapid economic development...
...This served to maintain immediate political stability but could not solve the long-term economic problems...
...Though tied to the United States in foreign affairs, Ceylon still received no aid from that quarter...
...When the UNP decided to go to the country, it had 76 of the 101 seats in the House of Representatives...
...The most powerful figure in Ceylon then was the late D. S. Senanayake, who proudly boasted that he was Britain's best friend...
...If therefore the poorer countries of Asia are not assisted to their feet by the richer countries of the world, and assisted with the least possible delay, the spectacle and example of China would simply be disastrous...
...To relieve the pressure, Dudley Senanayake concluded a five-year trade agreement with Communist China by which China paid more than the world price for Ceylonese rubber and Ceylon got Chinese rice at less than the world price...
...Bandaranaike also established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and Communist China, both of which now have well-staffed embassies in Ceylon...
...Thereupon, Senanayake and his newly formed United National party emerged from the first Parliamentary elections, in August-September 1947, as the largest single party, though without an absolute majority...
...One of the agreements provided that Britain would retain her naval and air bases in Ceylon with the consent of the Ceylonese Government...
...Continued leasing of the bases, he contended, would mean their use by the United States, and hence Ceylon's involvement in the cold war and any future world war...
...And without external aid no Ceylonese government at that time could have faced up to its biggest task—developing the country's economy and raising popular living standards...
...He even remarked that as a Buddhist he believed in reincarnation and hoped that every time he was born he would have an opportunity to fight Communism...
...Kotelawala said that, if the United States aided Asian countries, she could safely leave to Asia the job of defending itself against Communism...
...Her resources were dwindling and her social services consequently threatened...
...The price of rice shot up more than 200 per cent, producing such a violent popular reaction that Senanayake resigned his office...
...Senanayake tried to stave off rising discontent by expanding social services, the funds for which came partly from external assets accumulated in the war years...
...The terms were so attractive, Ceylon's economic difficulties were so acute and the prospects of aid from the West were so remote that Senanayake had no alternative but to accept, even though it ran counter to his foreign policy and risked antagonizing the United States...
...In the past year, a host of Ceylonese good-will missions—parliamentarians...
...The present government's foreign and trade policies have been enthusiastically supported by the Ceylonese Communist party...
...He described Soviet policy as an attempt to enslave the world and declared that Ceylon had nothing in common with the Kremlin...
...Hence, a study of the factors behind the recent turnabout should provide some insight into the forces determining foreign policy in underdeveloped countries...
...The Commonwealth nations made an effort to promote the economic development of Ceylon, as well as other countries in Southeast Asia, through the Colombo Plan, but what they could give was not enough to make a substantial impact on the economy...
...The cure for Communism is therefore obvious...
...No sooner was the UNP installed in power than the British signed three agreements with the newly formed Ceylonese Government, and Ceylon became an independent country in February 1948...
...Ceylon was not then a member of the UN...
...The Shift in Ceylon how we lost a friend By M. A. de Silva Colombo Within the brief period of a year and a half, Ceylon's foreign policy has completely changed from pro-Western neutralism to pro-Communist neutralism...
...Ceylon's economy continued to deteriorate, and in 1953 the Government adopted a drastic measure by cutting the state subsidy on rice, the nation's staple food...
...Before this situation could be changed, however, Kotelawala had fallen from power...
...trade-unionists, teachers, students, women and others — have visited the Communist countries and returned full of praise...
...The latter went to the polls two months later and was returned with an overwhelming majority on the wave of emotion that swept the country following the death of his father...
...On his death in 1952, Senanayake was succeeded as Prime Minister by his son, Dudley...
...On several occasions, he declared that he was staying in politics despite advancing years (he died in an accident in 1952 at the age of 63) only to protect Ceylon from Communism...
Vol. 40 • November 1957 • No. 45
