CRISIS FACES CEYLON

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28897, 18 May 1959, Page 11

CRISIS FACES CEYLON

Premier Drops Minister

(Rec. 11 p.m.) COLOMBO (Ceylon), May 16. The fate of Ceylon’s Coalition Government hung in the balance last night after the Prime Minister, Mr Solomon Bandaranaike, announced a general readjustment of Ministerial duties designed to end the 10-day-old Cabinet crisis. Mr Bandaranaike haa decided to take over himself the Departments of Co-operatives and Food from the Marxist Minister, Mr Philip Gunawardene, who has been accused of seeking to introduce communism into Ceylon. Mr Gunawardene, who told the Prime Minister earlier that he would have to reconsider his position in the Cabinet if his responsibilities were curtailed, must now either accept Mr Bandaranaike’s decision or leave the Cabinet. He is still discussing his course of action with his followers. Mr Gunawardene commands the support of at least seven members of Parliament and his withdrawal from the Government would leave the coalition without- a majority. The Right-wing Socialist Ministers of Mr Bandaranaike’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party, who pressed for Mr Gunawardene’s expulsion from the Government expressed their satisfaction with the Ministerial readjustment