REPUBLIC IN CEYLON

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27993, 13 June 1956, Page 13

REPUBLIC IN CEYLON

Proclamation In Year Likely

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON. June 12. The Prime Minister of Ceylon (Mr Soloman Bandaranaike) expects to be able to inform Sir Anthony Eden at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ conference that a republic will be proclaimed in about a year, says the Colombo correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” No firm decision has yet been reached, but there is the strongest indication that the new republic will elect to stay in the Commonwealth. he says. Elaborating his statement on Ceylon’s attitude to British bases on the island. Mr Bandaranaike said an agreement existed between Britain and Ceylon on defence signed simultaneously with the grant of Dominion status. In it both countries expressed willingness to co-operate in matters of defence, but it left the method of co-operation entirely to their discretion and ■ said nothing whatever about bases. There was nothing explicit or implicit in the agreement about any such question. “I cannot discover any document whatsoever relating to the terms or conditions under which Britain has been permitted to use Trincomalee and Negombo,” he said.

“The whole of this transaction appears to be veiled in mystery. There no bases as such so far as I am aware. Nevertheless I think we can settle the matter in a friendly way. As I have already made clear, we are opposed to the existence of bases in Ceylon for the reason that they tend to range us militarily on the side of a certain Power bloc. We are not hostile to Britain, but whether any agreement short of bases can be arrived at remains to be seen.”