A petition in a shoe decides freedom

By Amal Hewavissenti

High on the list of Sri Lanka’s national demands at the outset of the twentieth century was regaining custody of freedom and independence from British imperialism. The consequential struggle for independence (Swarajya Satana) showed the workings of national leaders such as F.R. Senanayake and E.W. Perera who somehow knocked the British administrators off-balance and forced the British Crown to put its decisions under the microscope.

Specially, E.W. Perera’s historic but risky expedition to England with a letter concealed in his shoe registered a memorable land mark in the struggle for independence for Sri Lanka. The letter he secretly carried was a petition to the British Crown against the ruthless harassment of Sri Lankan people by the representatives of British government.

F.R. Senanayake	E.W. Perera

The massive influence behind this patriotic operation was F.R. Senanayake who shouldered the responsibility of all expenses for Perera’s expedition. Though Sri Lanka seems to have regained freedom without effort, there has been a constant and serious struggle for it since the first half of the 19th century. The undiplomatic course of action that English rulers adopted in their bid to crush down Sinhala - Muslim riot in 1915 practically brought this struggle to a dramatic climax.

It was the midnight on 3 June 1915. F.R. Senanayake arrived at his Kewstok mansion accompanied by a young shoe mender from Kurunegala, a rather unusual guest at his place. He was soon brought into Senanayake’s study where he gave the shoe mender a pair of shoes together with vital instructions. A born expert in the trade of shoe mending, the young man deftly made a cavity in the shoe heel and tucked, inside it a letter given by F.R. Senanayake. This was a major task of patriotism, secrecy and adventure in operation. At the same time the unleashing of the repressed tension created within Sri Lankans.

The over-riding concern of most of Sri Lankan national leaders was to save innocent people from the iron grip of English rulers in Sri Lanka. The petition directed to King George V of Britain highlighted the widespread injustice to Sri Lankans subjected to killings and torture at the hand of British rulers. The shoe mender was further instructed to insert a copy of declaration of martial law imposed by the English in this country. This special plea was drafted by J.E. Gunasekera who was once a teacher at Ananda College and the Principal of Mahabodhi Vidyalaya - Maradana.

(He was later showered with honour for the part he played when the initial decision was made at Colombo Municipal Council to rename a part of Kinsey road as “J.E. Gunasekera Mawatha” on 15 Sept 1966).

At this time, the local administrators of British empire strictly inspected and imposed restrictions on the letters sent from Sri Lanka to Britain in order to keep the British Crown in the dark about their despotism and tyranny. Even the foreign tours by responsible people in Sri Lanka were increasingly restricted or sometimes, banned.

Background of riot

The British Crown never allowed the principle of killing people cold-bloodedly under martial law in any type of riot or insurgency. Instead, it demanded a person, only if convicted of a serious crime, should be given the death sentence. Yet the English administrators in this country flagrantly violated the British law which notably narrowed down the powers of the Governor to Pre-empt any injustice.Meanwhile, the first flames of the world war 1 were rampant and a riot between Sinhala people and Muslim people were breaking out. There was a high degree of danger for those going to England by sea as German had employed “Amerdon” a torpedo to destroy England-bound ships.

The Sinhala - Muslim conflict, which was an accidental expansion from a minor incident, suffered heavy suppression by Robert Charmers the Governor of Sri Lanka.

The rulers indiscriminately imprisoned both innocent people and those who were actively engaged in the riot. Some of the national leaders were killed but leaders such as F.R. Senanayake, D.S. Senanayake, Sir D.B. Jayathilaka, Ponnambalam Ramanathan, D.R. Wijewardana, Ponnambalam Arunachalam injected vitality to the struggle. Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people jointly created an organisation called “Lanka Jathika Sangamaya” to demand democratic rights for Sri Lankans.

The British rulers delayed granting of democratic rights for Sri Lankans on lame excuses and false grounds and argued that Sri Lankans were not educated enough to use “universal franchise.”

As the struggle for independence entered a decisive phase, E. W. Perera unhesitatingly accepted Senanayake’s request to take the momentous letter to England by ship. In all probabilities, E. W. Perera’s expedition involved the element of danger and high degree of risk against the backdrop of increasing tyranny by English administrators. Had the English rulers got the slightest notion of E. W. Perera’s motive behind the journey, he would definitely have been deemed not to go to England, but to the grave. The 1848 insurgency witnessed the most ruthless and brutal suppression of rebels by English rulers.

Purpose in disguise

The Governor Robert Charmers, completely neglecting the British law imprisoned and even killed many national leaders in their violent attempt to oppose the imperial rule in Sri Lanka. Under the situation, the letter (petition) contained a true picture of the dark atmosphere that pervaded.

Intimidations, imprisoning and killing of innocent people were a nation wide problem and specially imprisoning responsible leaders in the freedom struggle was a daily occurrence across the country. At this time Sri Lankan government officials were not allowed to travel to England except for an official duty or for educational pursuits. E. W. Perera obtained the legal permission for his England tour from Sri Anton Bertrom, the then attorney-general, under the guise of an official going for educational advancement.

In June 1915, he set out for England with the petition pressed tight in the shoe he was being shod. It look him virtually one month to reach England. Thanks to his sacrificial efforts, the national leaders who had been sentenced to death, were released on the order of British crown. History records that the politic course of action and discernment of F. R. Senanayake and E. W. Perera saved many people who were doomed to be killed cold bloodedly under martial law without any propertrial.

The first thing he did in England was to complain to British government about the illegalities of the martial law which accounted for a widespread carnage.

He earnestly appealed to the British crown to cancel out the tyranny and despotism by English rulers in Sri Lanka. Though the British crown did not, at first, appear to be credulous of what he said, he managed to offer concrete proof of English tyranny and obtained a strict order for the English administrators to stop unlawful killing of people.

E. W. Perera’s persistent protest in England was a perfect recipe for the violent and open charge made by Theodor Taylor in English Parliament against the British administrators in Sri Lanka and the turmoil they had created in the country. In the wake of Taylor’s charges against English rulers in Sri Lanka, the leading newspapers in England mounted a massive protect against the tyranny and created a public opinion against the despotic rule of English. The newspapers such as “London Daily News”, “Review of the Reviews”, “Globe”, “Nation” and some associations seized the opportunity to severely denounce the inhuman treatment of people in Sri Lanka.

The unmatched organiser behind all this was E. W. Perera who transformed the customary opinions of the British crown and who shouldered his responsibilities for the welfare of the nation and the country.

He stayed in England for almost four years creating the favourable atmosphere to make Sri Lanka a fully independent State and all his expenses were borne by F. R. Senanayake. Undoubtably, the moment has come to honours these great leaders was sacrificed all their personal objectives for a common cause and engaged in a life and death struggle to bring independence for the people of Sri Lanka.