GENERAL MACDONALD.

Evening Star, Issue 11863, 17 April 1903, Page 4

GENERAL MACDONALD.

WORDS THAT LEAVE LITTLE DOUBT. /

“THE UNHAPPY DECEASED."

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright,

PERTH, April 17. (Received April 17, at 2.12 p.m.) The ‘Ceylon Observer,’ received by the mail just to hand, in an article on the General Macdonald case, says: “It is easy to bo wise after the event. Had the catastrophe in Paris been anticipated there would indeed have been reason for the public statement that was made in answer to a qnestibn (alre'ady published) in the local Legislative Council; but it must be remembered that the public intimation from England that General Macdonald had made up his mind to return to Ceylon and face a court-martial, with all the public scandal it involved, had made- it absolutely necessary that some official information as to his exact position should be given, in order to allay public excitement. “ Major Rasch and other critics may take our word that a scandal of this kind occurring in India and Ceylon involves much greatet. consequences, alfcbting the prestige of the ruling race and of the Government, than would be caused in the United Kingdom;

“ The more the facts are known the more must Sir J. W. Ridgeway’s conduct from first to last bo the subject of praise rathei than of condemnation. He saved the situation locally by persuading the unhappy deceased to leave the island at the earliest moment. Had wiser counsels prevailed it never would have been thought that then-, was any use to return to Ceylon, whatever other course might have been adopted.

“Much had been made of the fact that the unhappy deceased vras seen perusing a Paris edition of the ‘New York Herald’ with Governor Ridgeway’s remarks immediately before he took his life, but we fail to see that there was any faot in those remarks which was not known to the reader already. “ Both the Press and public had behaved under the extraordinary circumstances with the greatest possible restraint in view of Reuter’s surprising telegram of March 22 conveying the news of General Macdonald’s determination to return to the island. “ Apart from the fact that the public had a right to know the exact position regarding so high an official as the major-general commanding the forces, the silence of the Government would have bred suspicion, controversy, and excitement, calculated to do more harm than the simple and considerate statement made in the Legislature. ”