Letter

Some Corrections

Dear Editor

My congratulations to the team that produced the Ceylon issue of Revolutionary History! However, there are some howlers that need correction.

Page 74, note 2: Don Stephen Senanayaka was not leader of the House of Representatives and Vice-President in 1942. The House of Representatives was set up in 1947, and Senanayaka was Prime Minister from 1947 to 1952.

Page 75, note 3: Doric de Souza was not the MP for Wellawatte North, he was a member of the Colombo Municipal Council representing Wellawatte North, a suburb of Colombo. He was not Minister of Plantation Industries in Mrs Bandaranaike’s government. He was Secretary of the Ministry of Plantations (the word ‘Permanent’ was dropped from the title during this period). The reference to ‘G.V.D.S. de Silva’ should read G.V.S. de Silva. De Silva, a member of the Communist Party of Ceylon until the early 1950s, was Philip Gunawardena’s private secretary when he was Minister of Agriculture and Food under S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, and continued to work for Bandaranaike’s government after Philip’s dismissal from it.

Page 84: The reference to Reggie Perera representing the LSSP in the Senate in 1962 is incorrect. He left the LSSP in the split of 1953 along with William Silva and T.B. Subasinghe, and subsequently joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He became Ambassador to Egypt after Sirima Bandaranaike abolished the Senate.

Sincerely

Clifton Bocks