STATESMAN’S FATE

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29766, 8 March 1962, Page 20

STATESMAN’S FATE

Goonetilleke May Flee (KZ. Press Assn.—Copyripltt) LONDON, March 6. Friends of Sir Oliver Gooaetilleke yesterday arranged for him to fly out of Ceylon on Wednesday—if he was not already under arrest—according to the “Daily Express.” The newspaper reported from Colombo that Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, the former Governor-General, planned to travel in a British airliner to Frankfurt, move later to Paris and then go on to a secret destination. The decision of the 69-year-old statesman to leave his homeland was the climax to weeks of fierce controversy—and a new act of Parliament which savoured of a police state, said the newspaper. The ‘•Daily Express” said that for years Sir Oliver Goonetilleke had been opposed by Mr Felix Dias Bandaranaike, the 32-year-old Minister of Finance and nephew of Ceylon’s Prime Minister, Mrs Baadaranaike. His chance to oust Sir Oliver Goonetilleke came with an attempted seizure of power in January and the arrest of the plotters. A colonel was alleged to have confessed that the aim of the coup was to put Sir Oliver Goonetilleke in charge of the Government. The GovernorGeneral agreed to be questioned.

The “Daily Express” said that Ceylon’s new Criminal Law Amendments Bill now came menacingly into the picture. This bill made any act calculated to overthrow the Government punishable by death. It was espected to be put on the statute-book tomorrow, and made retrospective. Sir Oliver Goonetilleke might get out of Ceylon on Wednesday as planned, but he might also be arrested as soon as he left for the airport, said the "Daily Express.”