Articles from Time prior to 1964 with the word Ceylon

May 23, 1946

Nearby, strategic Ceylon also moved closer to independence last week.

Feb 02, 1948

63-year-old Prime Minister Don Stephen ("Jungle John") Senanayake hauled the old Lion flag to its place atop the Temple of the Tooth

Aug 09, 1948

The SacredBo Tree

Oct 17, 1951

Ablest Asian spokesman at the conference was Ceylon's delegate, Finance Minister J. R. Jayewardene, a slim, soft-spoken man with a razor-like tongue. It was interesting, said Jayewardene, that Russia wanted to "insure the people of Japan the fundamental freedoms of expression, of press, religious worship—freedoms," he added acidly, "which the people of the Soviet Union would clearly love to possess and enjoy."

Mar 03, 1952

Don Stephen Senanayake, 67, Prime Minister of the four-year-old Dominion of Ceylon, had been seriously injured in a freak accident.

Aug 18, 1952

Pulling off his shoes and socks, he stepped on the coals, walked the length of the burning pit himself. The doctor's verdict: severe burns on the feet, which confined Missionary Robinson to his bed for a week.

Oct 13, 1952

The World & the Self. Speaking for the continental Buddhists, Dr. Malalasekera told his hosts: "If Japan is to rehabilitate herself, she must again seek her inspiration in Buddhism . . . Her people must renounce the easy, attractive ways of imitation . . . Will Japan be prepared to abandon her false friends, who will use her difficulties to promote their own interests, or join [the Buddhist nations] who are her spiritual kindred?""
This advice seemed a little too political for the self-effacing philosophy of classic Buddhism.
Delegates took more kindly to a message from Dr. Daisetz Suzuki, Japan's great Buddhist scholar, now teaching at Columbia University. He wrote: "We know that the [world] situation is beyond our immediate control . . . But let us try to reserve a small corner somewhere on the surface of the earth where we Buddhists can form a nucleus for world survival . .

Nov 03, 1952

"If we try to get close to Russia," said Ceylon's late, respected Premier Don Stephen Senanayake, "we would be embracing danger, we would be embracing the bear."
Last week Ceylon (whose Prime Minister is Don Stephen's son Dudley) was hugging Russia's partner in crime, Red China. Occasion for the dangerous embrace: a chance to do some trading in rubber and rice.

Nov 11 09, 1953

Miss World of 1953: Miss Ceylon discomfited the contest director by proving, on arrival, to be Mrs. Ceylon. The director wouldn't even let Mr. Ceylon into the hotel. "If I broke the rule in her case," he explained, "I'd have to break the rule for all."
n.b. 4th Runner up Manel Illangakoon

Dec 09, 1953

Ceylon, smallest of the dominions, decided not to fly the British Union Jack or to play God Save the Queen at official functions. Ceylonese have a flag of their own and their own Anthem, Namo Namo Matha (Hail, Hail, Mother):

Dec 12, 1953

New Premier Sir John Kotalawala made clear that the Communists are welcome in Ceylon's counting room, but not in its parlor.

May 10, 1954

Ceylon's tactful Kotalawala steered the Prime Ministers back to Indo-China.
Ceylon's Kotalawala proposed a twin vote of censure against colonialism and "aggressive Communism." in place of Nehru's resolution. Nehru, who has always fought Communism at home, angrily retorted that Asians should not disturb external relations "with friendly powers." Once more Pakistan's Ali lashed at Nehru: "We can rid ourselves of colonialism," he said, "but any country that is overrun by Communism may be lost forever."

Aug 30, 1954

Burma:U Nu, son of a merchant who sold religious articles, brought sacred Buddhist relics back from Ceylon and sent them on a 20-city tour of Burma;

Jan 10, 1955

Five men who speak for nearly a fourth of the people in the world gathered inside an old palace in the Indonesian resort town of Bogor last week. The Prime Ministers of India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma and Indonesia—the so-called Colombo Powers

Feb 02, 1955

Scruples & Swaps. Gingerly, the other ministers explored Nehru's views on Formosa. It was soon apparent that Nehru, with milder backing from Ceylon's Sir John Kotelawala, simply thought that the U.S. should abandon the Nationalists. The others, with some individual variants, favored Eden's plan, which would swap the offshore islands and U.N. recognition of Red China for a cease-fire and Communist acceptance of a neutralized Formosa.

Mar 07, 1955

But Britain was anxious that SEATO countries should not get something that Colombo powers (India, Ceylon, Burma) did not, and the U.S. did not want any overlaps with its existing bilateral aid programs. A little sadly, the three Asian members—Thailand, the Philippines and Pakistan—accepted an advisory committee, which would recommend economic aid only when SEATO military commitments had a direct result on the country's economy.

May 02, 1955

SIR JOHN KOTELAWALA, 58, Ceylon's Prime Minister, is a man Nehru tends to patronize, and others to underrate. A neutralist, he first conceived the idea of the Colombo Powers (India, Pakistan, Burma, Indonesia and Ceylon), the group of ex-colonies who won their independence after World War II and banded together this year to sponsor the conference at Bandung. Though he opposes SEATO and wishes Chiang Kai-shek would exile himself from Formosa, Sir John insists that "there is no purpose in standing neutral for the benefit of the wrong party.''

May 02, 1955

The Man from Ceylon. Nehru's greatest irritant came from a restive member of his own Colombo powers, Ceylon's Sir John Kotelawala. While Nehru debated how to approach Chou over the Formosa question, Sir John plunged ahead on his own. Meeting Chou early in the week, he demanded cheerily: "Why don't we try to settle this Formosa problem?" Three times Kotelawala set up a luncheon meeting for Chou to discuss Formosa with the five Colombo powers and Romulo and Prince Wan. Chou begged off, once was whisked off to a dinner given by Nehru to which Sir John was not invited. Sir John lost patience.
Stomping into the conference room in his black coat and jodhpurs, he announced his own plan: withdrawal of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, abandonment of Quemoy and Matsu, a trusteeship for Formosa either under the U.N. or the Colombo powers.
Nehru was scornful. "Why under the United Nations?" he asked with heavy sarcasm. "I should think Ceylon would be quite enough."
Annoyed, Sir John furiously delivered himself of the conference's plainest talk. If Chou really believed in coexistence, said Sir John, why did he not call off the subversive activities of the Communist parties throughout Asia? (see box next page). From that moment on, any move at Bandung to denounce "Western colonialism" while ignoring Communist imperialism was doomed to failure.
Nehru, his carefully fostered illusions of coexistence rudely shattered, was furious. "Bloody fool," spluttered Krishna Menon. Demanded Nehru: "Why didn't you ask me before you did a thing like this?" Retorted Sir John: "Do you ask me for permission before you make a move?" Scowling, China's Chou rose and demanded an opportunity to reply.

Aug 01, 1955

1934: US 5.8 deaths per 100,000 persons
U.S. homicide rate is three times that of Scotland, six times that of England, Ireland and Wales. Among the more violent homicidal nations: the Dominican Republic (7.5 per 100,000), Guatemala (4.2), Ceylon (3.9), Finland (3.3)
n.b. 2008 Homicide rates, US 5.7, Sri Lanka 6.69: I guess we are doing better now

Oct 31, 1955

Two Japanese rice physiologists are scattering seed in Ceylon.

Nov 21, 1955

UN: Russia promised not to veto the West's list: Austria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Ireland,

Dec 19, 1955

Clem Attlee resigned : It was his personal decisions that gave India, Burma and Ceylon their freedom,

Feb 20, 1956

Approved a significant $5,000,000 aid program to Ceylon, hitherto denied U.S. economic assistance because of its refusal to end sales of rubber to Red China

Apr 16, 1956

At the Bandung conference of Afro-Asian nations last year, Ceylon's Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawala earned the free world's gratitude by angrily and eloquently insisting that any denunciations of colonialism should include a denunciation of the one real imperialism in the world today—Communist Russia's. India's Nehru, who had hoped to introduce his friend, Communist China's Chou Enlai, to his fellow Asians in a benevolent atmosphere, was outraged (TIME, May 2). What gave Sir John's words added weight was that he was himself a neutrlalist, opposed to SEATO though devoted to the British Commonwealth.
Sir John surprised the world then. Last week his own countrymen surprised him. When Sir John recently dissolved Parliament and ordered new elections, no one expected real trouble. His United National Party had been in power for 25 years, held a comfortable 54 seats in the 95-member Parliament. Chief opposition to his United National Party was an unlikely coalition called the People's United Front, comprised of such uneasy partners as a Buddhist party, a Trotskyite group and the supernationalist Ceylon Freedom Party.
......
The Unwild Men. The new government will probably be headed by a man impressively named Solomon West Ridgway Diaz Bandaranaike, a rich landowner who was a student with Sir Anthony Eden at Oxford. Once a member of Sir John's Cabinet, he broke away to form the Freedom Party. His program includes establishment of diplomatic relations with Red China and Russia, avoidance of "power blocs" and friendship for "all" nations, on the Nehru plan.
......
Bandaranaike declared that their evacuation seemed "rather crucial," but added: "We are not wild men. We are not antiWestern, and we are not hostile to the U.S. How could I be hostile to a country that produced Mark Twain?"

Apr 23, 1956

Bandaranaike's upset victory over Sir John Kotelawala (TIME. April 16) was apt to prove much more than a change of clothes. Sir John's pro-Western government, it now seemed clear, had been defeated mainly by domestic issues, e.g., a rise in rice prices, failure to please Ceylon's militant Buddhist majority.

May 21, 1956

Throughout the villages and cities of Southeast Asia, millions are preparing this week for a celebration that will be a landmark in their lives — the 2,500th anniversary of the death of the Buddha, founder of a religion followed by perhaps a fifth of the world's population.*

Jul 16, 1956

Wish to Continue. The only specific agreement reached at the conference reflected this fact. Britain agreed to transfer its fine Trincomalee naval anchorage and R.A.F. base at Katunayaka to Ceylon. In return, Ceylon offered to maintain there for the British "certain facilities enjoyed at present for communications, movements and storage." Britain offered to help Ceylon train its armed forces, and Ceylon accepted. For the British, this constituted a graceful retreat.

Jul 30, 1956

The Humane Alternative. Not long ago U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas predicted that "the Big Six of the last half of the 20th century" would be Russia, China, Japan, Germany, the U.S.—and India. Whether or not Douglas' prophecy is borne out, India is already one of the world's pivotal powers, important less for demonstrated strength or wisdom or stability than as a bellwether, however uncertain of place and leadership, for the rest of Asia.

Aug 12, 1957

He embarrassed the Administration, set off horselaughs and snorts of indignation in the U.S. press, sorely annoyed the Ceylonese, and indelibly marked himself as durable headline material. What was Gluck's offense? He admitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in secret session, that he could not pronounce the name of India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal (Jah-wah-har-lahl) Nehru or rattle off the name of Ceylon's Prime Minister (Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike).

Oct 14, 1957

Gluck replied with aplomb: "You may be surprised, sir, but I agree with you." But Dahanayake was not to be stopped. "I have not had assistance from a single embassy here," he declared, "and I do not propose to go to them with a begging bowl." Gluck diplomatically refrained from reminding Dahanayake that Ceylon's educational system has in fact received upward of $1,000,000 from the U.S. Government during the past 18 months.

Oct 28, 1957

"This fear of Communism," says the Prime Minister, "is terribly overdone." Retorts Agriculture Minister Gunawardena: "Ceylon will be all left within the next five years."

Oct 28, 1957

In Ceylon, for example, the death rate has tumbled 34% in one year, 70% in ten years. Populations promptly shot up, since birth rates in most of these nations remain at their traditionally high level.

Jan 27, 1958

Religious dancing has all but died out in the Christian West—probably the last to use it regularly are the all-but-extinct Shakers. like Ceylon's Devil dancers, the worshipers of the East continue Siva's sacred swaying.

Feb 10, 1958

Twenty-two months ago, "Banda" led a coalition of socialists to power in the land of star sapphires, tea terraces, umbrella-shaped shrines, and the world's most luxuriant greenery. In the process, he all but destroyed the island's only pro-Western party, the United National Party of Sir John Kotelawala. Today the chief opposition party is Trotskyite, and headed by a rabble-rousing double doctor (philosophy, science) of the University of London.
Unlike his fellow neutralist Nehru, who abominates home-grown Communists, Banda gave the full scope and support of his office to the island's most militant Marxist, shock-haired Agriculture Minister Philip Gunawardena, 58. A shouting, sarong-clad union boss who learned his leftism in the U.S.—at the University of Wisconsin and in Manhattan's Union Square—Gunawardena built his power month after month.

Jun 16, 1958

It was language. Even after independence in 1948, the official language of Ceylon remained English. In their homes and at work, the people of Ceylon speak either Sinhalese, the language of some 6,000,000 Buddhists on the island, or Tamil, spoken by about 2,000,000 Hindus, the descendants of migrants to Ceylon from India over the centuries.
When challenged by the Tamil leadership, the Premier conceded that Tamil could be recognized as the language of a "national minority." This roused the fury of the powerful Buddhist monks, who left off praying to the Sacred Tooth of Buddha to demand that the Sinhalese language be reinstated as the sole national tongue.

Apr 06, 1959

Little Outbreak. There seems to be no hint in Ceylon of last year's bestial communal riots between Hindu Tamils and Buddhist Sinhalese, in which an estimated 1,000 died—some of them soaked with kerosene and burned alive (TIME, June 16, 1958). Premier Bandaranaike now refers to the riots, largely caused by his own ineptitude, as "one of those little outbreaks." In addition to the riots, "Banda" has buoyantly survived incessant strikes, a rising cost of living, unemployment, a flight of capital, floods, drought and hysterical politics

Jun 01, 1959

A University of Wisconsin-trained Soviet apologist, Gunawardena used his powerful position to force nationalization of Colombo's port and bus systems and collectivization of many of the island's fertile paddy fields. Now he was setting up an island-wide system of cooperatives frankly dedicated to his declared objective: "All private enterprise must totally disappear."

Aug 24, 1959

the Atomic Energy Commission has long experimented at such places as Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, with new liquid reactor fuels

Aug 31, 1959

The terror began when one of the 100 elephants in the procession stepped on some live coals dropped by accident from a torch. Trumpeting with pain, the huge beast charged its keeper,

Oct 05, 1959

One morning last week, soon after new U.S. Ambassador Bernard Gufler* had left the bungalow, a monk in saffron robes approached the Prime Minister on the veranda. While Banda bowed low in the Buddhist greeting, another man in monk's robes drew near and whipped out a .45 pistol. As the Prime Minister cried out his wife's name, "Sirima! Sirima!" his assailant fired again and again.

Dec 14, 1959

Hardly had Bandaranaike been buried when dark rumors spread that colleagues of "Daha" himself had plotted the killing. Daha's Finance Minister was under a cloud, and his glamorous female Minister of Housing and Local Government was jailed on charges of complicity in the assassination.

Jan 11, 1960

Resistance to the idea of birth control is often a complex of emotional, moral, philosophical and economic attitudes. In Latin America, the Philippines, South Viet Nam and Ceylon, the Roman Catholic prohibition of contraception is felt. India still echoes to the sexual dictum of Gandhi that "union is a crime when desire for progeny is absent."

May 02, 1960

The Sri Lanka Party paraded Bandaranaike's weeping widow all over Ceylon, garnered enough sympathy to split the conservative vote, almost match (50 to 46) the U.N.P. in total seats.

Aug 01, 1960

Ceylon's Governor General Sir Oliver Goonetilleke last week swore in history's first female Prime Minister of an independent country.
Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike. 44, stepped to the balcony to give a pressed-palm salute to the crowd below, and then, predictably, burst into tears. That was just how she had won last week's election.

Aug 29, 1960

With the oil industry in the midst of a major world oil glut, the new Mideast posted price cuts will probably not be the last. Actually, they are only about half the 30¢-per-bbl. discount that Western oil companies have been offering some customers.

Mar 28, 1960

In national elections, Ceylon's conservatives, hitting hard at Marxist China's treatment of Buddhist Tibet, soundly trounced Ceylon's motley leftist parties, which range from doctrinaire Marxists and Trotsky partisans to avowed Communists.

Mar 03, 1961

Helpful Nephew. With no experience and little interest in the mechanics of government, the Prime Minister relies heavily on her heavy-set nephew, Felix Dias Bandaranaike, 30, who is Minister of Finance and Parliamentary Secretary. Arrogant and bluntspoken, Nephew Felix strongly supports his aunt's school and language policies—even though he himself is a Christian and grew up speaking English (he is now being feverishly tutored in Singhalese).

May 05, 1961

But it was clear that the widow's chief concern was for the views of the Singhalese majority, whose votes had elected her, and who, through the years of British dominion, had been eclipsed by the better-educated Christians and the more industrious Tamils. And those who had mistaken the widow's campaigning tears for womanly weakness were having dry-eyed second thoughts.

May 19, 1961

Disregarding "Banda's" dying wish, a Ceylon judge last week sentenced Tal-duwe Somarama, 45, to death. But the trial had proved that Somarama had been only the triggerman; the instigator and chief plotter had been Mapitigama Buddharakitha, 41, high priest of the Kelaniya temple outside Colombo.

Aug 03, 1962

Ceylon, which is famed for such exotic birds as the grey-headed babbler, red-faced malkoha and Legge's flowerpecker, also boasts two even rarer aves: the world's only female Prime Minister and the only female U.S. ambassador currently on duty.

Dec 28, 1962

Out of all this came a steady increase m U.S. investment around the globe (see map). Singer Manufacturing, the sewing machine maker that rings up 57% of its $640 million annual sales abroad, last year opened new plants in Nigeria and Ceylon.

Jan 18, 1963

In Red China last week, Ceylon's visiting Prime Minister, Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, sniffed incense, was wined and dined by Premier Chou Enlai, and was even taken to see a relic of Buddha's tooth.

Mar 29, 1963

The U.S. Congress last year wrote the Hickenlooper Amendment into the Foreign Assistance Act to cut off foreign aid to any country that expropriates U.S. properties without compensation. Ceylon was the first to be hurt, losing out on U.S. aid because it neglected to pay for the U.S.-owned gasoline stations and oil depots that it grabbed a year ago.

May 10, 1963

Climaxing a two-year investigation, a commission of inquiry in Colombo accused 22 Ceylonese navy officers—the cream of the top naval leadership—of conspiring to smuggle a treasure-trove of contraband into the country.

May 24, 1963

Dutch East India Company pioneers married Hottentots, imported female slaves from equatorial Africa, and spiced the melting pot by shipping native girls from such far-off breeding grounds as Dutch-ruled Java and Ceylon.

Aug 23, 1963

Crusader & Yogi. In many Western eyes, Buddhism is socially useless. It has only a limited tradition of good works; the chief duty of monks and nuns is contemplation. In The Lotus and the Robot, Arthur Koestler says of Oriental mysticism in general: "The messianic arrogance of the Christian crusader is matched by the Yogi's arrogant attitude of detachment towards human suffering."
Actually, Buddhists are quite capable of the crusading spirit. In Ceylon during the 2nd century B.C., a king led his army against Indian invaders with a relic of Buddha in his spear. In Viet Nam and elsewhere, Buddhists often took an active part in fighting against colonial powers.

Oct 18, 1963

Neutralist Ceylon's Ambassador Sir Senerat Gunewardene, neglecting to note that his own government has nationalized Roman Catholic schools and is forcing out Christian missionaries, charged Catholic President Diem with depriving the Buddhists of "life, liberty and security."

Nov 22, 1963

In the Far East, where Communism threatens from Korea's 38th Parallel to the Himalayas, the first formal barrier erected against Red encroachment is a half-forgotten organization called the Colombo Plan. Originated in 1950 by a group of British Commonwealth nations meeting in the capital of Ceylon, the plan was designed as a loosely knit club in which industrial nations and needy Asian countries could negotiate bilateral aid agreements. The club has since grown from eleven to 20 members —frankly, if unofficially, referred to as six donors and 14 recipients.* Last week in Bangkok, at the organization's annual Consultative Committee conference, 300-odd delegates met to assess the plan's achievements to date.

Jan 17, 1964

"Nothing happens," a British governor of Ceylon once complained: "The sun shines in the morning, and sometimes it rains in the evening." Those days are gone forever. Currently, a lot is happening in Ceylon, most of it ruinous. Declared a top government economist: "We've always lived well and without worry. Even the more humble people could pick a pineapple or coconut and catch a few fish. But now we're in real trouble."

Aug 09, 1948

But Ceylon's Prime Minister saved her serious words for Chou himself. As a self-designated peacemaker, she thought she only had to say a few properly persuasive words to Chou and China would hasten to patch up its quarrel with India. Blithely, the Ceylonese press reported that Mrs. Bandaranaike had persuaded Chou to fly right to India for peace talks. But Chou was inscrutable, and India downright hostile to the idea.

Jul 17, 1964

Nor is Burma's treatment of its Indian minority an isolated case. In Ceylon, where nearly 700,000 Indian plantation workers and tradesmen live as "stateless persons," the regime has launched a "Ceylonization of trade" campaign. And what that might very well mean is yet another mass exodus of Indians.

Sep 18, 1964

Woolf (Leonard) , son of an Anglicized, middle-class Jewish family, was back on leave from seven years' civil service in Ceylon when he chucked his career to become her combination lover (they decided against children because of her health), high priest and nurse.

Dec 11, 1964

New Threat. In Ceylon, the tenuous, left-wing coalition government has for weeks been at the capricious mercy of the Buddhist clergy; last week the Prime Minister, Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, lost a vote of confidence and dissolved Parliament, requiring new elections that are sure to be tumultuous.