Page Four

Life In Lenka—Part IX

IISIIEI‘VIGWS Ceylon se Eietlittu
As Nation Choosetﬁﬂeiumeul

by Al rislicr

If this article is posted by
tomorrow (March a) and reach.
es Grinnell by air mail in time
for thc‘March 13 issue of the
Scarlet and slack, then you will
be reading it Friday evening,
which will be Saturday morning
here. The polls will already be
open, the voters queued up and
the “most crucial (general elcce
tion) in the political history at
the country” (Ceylon) will be
undeiway.

When you awake Saturday
morning, the counting oi the
ballots will have begun, and
all Ceylon and many capitals
of the world will have their
radios tuned to Radio Ceylon,
eagerly awaiting to hcarwhom
Ceylon’s 3V.- million voters
have returned to power to
govern them tor the next ﬁve
years Throughout the night
Radio Ceylon will remain on
the air until the complete re»
sults are known.

All Ceylon realizes the im-
portance of this election in der
eiding the tuture course of gov.
ernment on this island. There
Seems to be no middle way in
this election. The decision will
be between the UNP. (127).
L.P,P. (98) and S.L.F.P. (103)
on the right and the Maritist
parties, M.E.P. (89) and L.s.s,P,
(101), and the Communist party
(53) on the left. (The numbers
in parenthescs indicate the numr
ber of candidates in each party.)

The most popular guessing
game in Ceylon today is: “Who
will form the next government
after the general election?" In
fact,‘ the newspapers have been,
holding a competition, printing
a coupon in each edition for
over a month now, To win the
attractive cash prizes, one must
predict "the three parties which
will win the largest, the second
largest and the third largest
nuinbcr oi seats at the forthr
coming general election and the
number of seats each of them
will win."

The popular feeling at the
present is that a coalition
government will have to be
formed alter tlle‘elcction be-
cause no party will have a
clear majority. It will take 73
seats [or a majority, with 145 1
of the 151 oi the new parlia-
ment being elective. The Ten
maining six seats are nominat-
ed but are usually of the mac
jority party.

In my last article. changes in
election and campaign procedure
were mentioned. 1 also tried to
paint a simplt: picture tor you
by describing the election symr
bols and colors. In this article I
would like to share what i feel
and see aiter the past two

months oi campaigning.

The possibility of a general
election ﬁrst came to mind on
Sept. 25 when the late prime
minister, S. w. R. D, Bandara-
naika died irom injuries incui»
red from a revolver ﬁred at
poilitrblank range by a Buddhist
monk the morning before at his
residence. The late prime minis-
ter. a great orator, was to have
lcit on Sept. 28 to speak betorc
the United Nations General As-
scmbly.

He had already allocated his
various duties and functions
among three oi his cabinet
members, all membcis of the
Sri Lanka Freedom party
(S.L.F.P.> which had come
i to power as a coalition with
, v.L.s S.P., Philip Gunawar-
den being its leader. The
coal ion had been called the
bum. (People's Front).

Gunawardena, however, was
an avid Marxist, and his politi-
cal leanings grew into conﬂict
when he was food minister and
was forced to resign from the
Bandaranaike cabinet last May
in what is referred to as the
cabinet crisis of May 1959. HI:
then joined the opposition with
members of his V.L.S,S.P.
Remember also that the MEP.
victory was greatly assisted by
the active campaigning of over
10,000 Buddhist monks and the
[communal cry for “Sinhalese
only," Sinhalese had been made
the otTieial language; but Bolus
munal dlflel’enccs ampliﬁed, and
in May 1958, the horrible c
munal iots took over 1500 Iiy s
and wiped out years or harmony
between the Sinhalese and Tamil
people.

Then the assassination oi
Bandaranaike shocked and
shook this island as had the
actuality oi the communal
riots. The alleged assassin, Son
marnnia There, in serious cane
dition sullering train a bullet
wound in his thigh and 1mm
being beaten by enraged per-
sui present at the late prime
ini ister's residence, was not
taken directly to the hospital
but to the port for identiﬁca-
tion, because the police dens
iity inspector thought he was
one of Gunnwardelm’s poi-t
workers disguised in yellow
robes.

But now back to Sept 26.
when the S.L.F,F. had to decide
who was to become prinic minr
istcr. The speaker oi the house,
who normally should be ﬁrst in
line. was hospitalized in London
for nervous disorders. He had
lost his voice suddenly when
taken ill during debate in the
house of representatives It is
believed that he received a poi.
soned glass oi milk which had

 

been meant for the late prime

S RLET AND BLACK

Tiio weeks ago two politibliit
science students, Bcluamlu Batu
her and Jerry Vooi-nis. pulled the
student body on seven mayor
questions of dcicnse and ioroign

policy.

or the 1.000 questionnaires
which were distributed, 303
were returned. Questionnaires
were also placed in wt] ineulty

1.

Number
I30
146
84

Perl),
19%
47%
27%

112
166

39%
54%

32%
27%
30%

8%

98
84
91
25

58
247

19%
30%

104
MG
34

34%
47%
11%

176
123

58%
40%

165
133

54%
45%
“don

to written in

iSIudenI’s Would Bag

. Do you

Friday. March I8. I960

Atom lesils, Allmil China

on 01' Red 1

tense spending.
oi the I

ln coilti'u~t, or uiosc who here
lagainst the c’ll‘lrﬁiaalon o1 Red
China and against abolition oi
thc ban, no one invoice total dis—
armamcnt. Only 18 percent were
dcieiisc spending, 13 percent “for a decrease in deleiisc Spend~
were ioi- deleiisc spending .it Hug, whereas 391’, FM approved

ol detcnse spending at present
”‘9 "”5““ ‘eve‘t ““1 13 PC" levels, and 43 percent favored an
cent favored an increase in den increase.

kvoi-cd lioth ml!"
China and abolition
(Ii-alt, 25 percent iarorcd no (lea
tense spending (total flisurmdr
ment), 47 iiivoi-ed deer-cased

think the U. S. government has
too many concessions in disarmament negotiations?
adequate concessions in disarmament negotiations?
too iew concessions in disarmament negotiations-7
think the Pentagon and the AEC

have supported disarmament negotiations?

have hindered disarmament negotiations?

Do you
made
made
made

. Do you favor

an increase in defense Spending?
defense spending at the present level?

a decrease in defense spendingv (moderate disarmament)
no defense spending? (total disarmament)

. Do you favor

a renewal of nuclcar bomb testing?
an extension 101' the present ban on nuclear bomb testing?

. Do you think the Armed Forces

have too much control over American policy making?
have adequate control over American policy making?
have too little control over American policy making?

. Do you think the draft

should be maintained?
shou1d be abolished?

. DO you think

Red China should be admitted to the United_ Nations?
Red China should not be admitted to the United Nations?

Note! the diffcl‘tsnce between 100% and the total percentages of each question is due

't know” answers.)

 

boxes, but only 22 iaeulty
members responded, making
statistical tabulation of faculty
returns impossible. I

According to the two students,
several of the results were “In-
tei-esting it not somewhat un~
expected.” Fiftyrr’our percent ofl
those answering iavored admis»
sion of Red China to the UN.
80 percent were in tavor of an
extension of the prescnt ban on
nuclear bomb testing and 40 per-I
cent favored abolition of the
draft. i

In corrciatiug the question»‘
naires, some or ihe rolloWing‘
trends or thought were breughtl
to light. Of those who layered,
both admission or Red China and;
an extension of the tcsting han,i
57 percent iavorcd abolition of}
the draft, while or those who o)-i
poscd both admission ofRed Chi.,
na and extension oi the ban, only;
‘25 percent favored abolition oft
illie di-ait, whilc 75 percent ap.
proved its extension.

Furthermore, or those

who i

minister.

Therefore, it was not clear
who would gct the job The pie—r
miership was then offered to WI
Dahanayake, the nnnister oi ed»
ueaiion, ioi-iner schoolmaster and
one of the three to whom Ban-
daranaike had allotted some oi
_his duties,

The country and press were
sympathetic toward Dahanar
yake, Ior all knew the difﬁ-
cult task that lay ahead. The
ILANKA
ICont. p. 3, col. 1

 

 

BATES FLOWERS .

Has a complele line of corsuges for The
Spring Formal. See your Campus Representa-

live.

CLARK . ., ...
DIBBLE

COWLES
RAWSON
SMITH

SOUTH CAMPUS . .
OFF CAMPUS

BATESV'VHF'lowER

. Joe Owens

. . Gary Knamiller
, Hal Goldberg

GATES

Bob Woito LANGAN

Dick Yaki

N. YOUNKER
S. YOUNKER

,. Dick Hendricksen
Darrell Kruse
Dave Draegerr

Paul Tarno

Linda Newman

Jim Lowry

S

Burma Writes
On US. Youth

John H. Burma (sociology)
is the author of a chapter in
"The Nation's Children," just
published by the Columbia uni
vcrsity press in anticipation of
the iorthcoming white House'
Conteiencc on Children and
Youth. Burma's contribution is
titled “Spanish-Speaking Chil—
drcn,”

LAST MINUTE
. REQUIREMENTS
FOR FORMALS

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S .55 - $1.50

Black or Blue
Bow Ties

$1.00

NInWII—Ball ’ Tux Rentals
Se+ For April . Coot 55.00

i Coal' and Pants
Military B1111 will he held in‘

$8.00
Darby gyin Saturday, April 30.1

, I
and will feature the Al Hudsoni , .
band.

The dance will be a “no
flowci‘Y affair,

The ninth annual AFROTC,‘

 

 

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