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dated June 21, 1957: Bandaranaike’s assurance

The Ceylon Prime Minister, Mr. Solomon Bandaranaike, reiterated on June 19 his four-point formula for solving the language controversy in the country. He said it was not the intention of his Government to suppress the Tamil language or the Tamil people. While maintaining Sinhalese as the official language, the Government intended to secure for the Tamil people reasonable use of their language. The Prime Minister, who was replying to the three-day debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor-General for his address to the new Parliament, appealed to the Federal Party of the Tamil-speaking northern and eastern provinces not to plunge the country into chaos by its proposed civil disobedience movement for a federal form of Government. He said it would be possible to have discussions and come to an honourable agreement on the official language issue, which even if not entirely satisfactory to all concerned, would go a long way in maintaining peace and amity in the country. The language issue following the Act declaring Sinhalese as the sole official language has created tension between the Tamil and Sinhalese communities.

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