{"id":111501,"date":"2021-02-09T17:04:19","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T00:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111501"},"modified":"2021-02-09T17:04:19","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T00:04:19","slug":"the-general-election-of-1956-part-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/09\/the-general-election-of-1956-part-6\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 1956 Part 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Peduru Hewage\nWilliam de Silva (1908-1988) was the only son of a wealthy professional family\nof Batapola, near Ambalangoda. William studied at the Buddhist Mixed School in Batapola,\nthen at St. John\u2019s, Panadura, later at Richmond College, Galle, and finally at\nAnanda College from which he entered Ceylon University College.  He had joined the Suriyamal movement when he\nwas a student at University College, Colombo.  <\/em>After one year, disenchanted\nand bored, he left University College and went abroad for higher studies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nwent to Oxford, then studied law in London and was called to the Bar in 1940. He was\nPresident of the Ceylon Students Union.He\njoined the India League<\/a> and a\nMarxist study group with other Ceylonese students in London. He was influenced by Laski and was attracted to Trotskyism.  In London\nWilliam associated closely with Krishna Menon, later Defence Minister of India\nand Jomo Kenyatta, later Prime Minister of Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He returned\nto Ceylon in 1940 and joined the Lanka Sama Samaja Party<\/a> (LSSP). He was leader\nof the All-Ceylon\nEstate Workers Union<\/a> and Vice-President of the All-Ceylon\nCongress of Samasamaja Youth Leagues<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was\narrested in 1943, for fomenting strikes, and spent the remaining years of the\nwar in prison.  He was held in Bogambara <\/a> and Badulla Prison<\/a>s from 1943\u201345. He funded the break out of the LSSP leaders\nfrom prison.  During the war when the\nLSSP was proscribed and the leaders had fled to India, he kept the underground\nmovement going   using his wealth.  The family estate and graphite mining business\nwhich his father had built up brought him the income he needed to engage in\nfull time politics, observed Bandu de Silva. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

P.H.William\nSilva represented Ambalangoda in Parliament from 1947-1960. He won the\n1947 election as a member of the Bolshevik Leninist Party of India (BLPI) led\nby Colvin R de Silva. In 1952 he won as nominee of the merged LSSP and BLPI. William\nSilva left the LSSP, In 1953  together\nwith a dissenting group and later joined the Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party<\/a>    (VLSSP)  where he  was made deputy leader. He won in 1956 on the MEP ticket. He later became Vice-President\nof the Sri Lanka Freedom Party<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Silva was appointed\nMinister of Industries and Fisheries in the 1956   MEP government (1956\u201359). His name is forgotten today,\nbut it was under William Silva, that the country saw the\nbeginnings of industrialization in Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were no local industries\nwhen MEP came to power in 1956, everything was\nimported. The country was importing everything, from a pin, comb, pencil,\nbiscuit to mammoties, water pumps, agriculture and industrial machinery,\nreported economists.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Silva   decided that in such a situation, the state\nhad to step in and provide a lead in developing industry. He   presented a\nWhite paper on Industrial policy. Budget 1957-58\nincluded various tax concessions for industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He introduced the\nState Industrial Corporations Act of 1957. ..\nCorporations were established under State Industrial Corporations Act 1957, as\nwell as special legislation. These corporations were provided with startup\ncapital in form of grants and loans, confirmed economist Saman Kelegama.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He saw the\nstate leading with a few basic industries whilst the rest were left to the\nprivate sector.The State with its limited resources had to promote private\nenterprise in industry by providing the infrastructure, credit and other\nincentives.  We are going to invite\npeople to invest in small scale industries. We are not only going to encourage\nthem, we are going to offer them inducements by way of tax concessions, tariff\nprotection, and so on, said William Silva. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

William\nSilva thought that the state    should\nundertake   \u2018large\u2019 industry, such as\ncement, steel and machinery.  He drew up\nthree lists of industries.  The first\nlist consisted of items reserved for the state. They included iron and steel,\ncement, chemicals, fertilizer, salt, mineral sands sugar, power alcohol and\nrayon.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsecond list had industries which were open to both state and private sectors.\nThey included textiles, tyres and  tubes,\ntiles, asbestos products, bicycles, industrial alcohol, acetic acid,   sugar, vegetable oil, ceramic ware, glass\nware, leather products, plywood, paper, electric bubs, dry cell batteries,\naccumulators, barbed wire, lumber, agricultural implements, wood working,\nfurniture and cabinetry,  and concrete\nproducts.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nwas a third list of 82 industries ranging from motor car assembly to activated\ncharcoal, reserved exclusively for the private sector.  Persons embarking on these industries would\nreceive tax concessions and tariff protection.\nMeegama observed that this period therefore saw the beginning of a\nprivate sector in industry with government encouragement. Industrialists\npromptly asked the government to stop imports in the goods they are\nproducing.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfirst industrial estate was established at Ekala, with a grant from the US, giving facilities for the small\nindustrialist, so that he could avoid the expenses for land, building and\nprovision of water and electricity. Ekala started to operate in 1960.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmain obstacle to the creation of local industry when the country became\nindependent was the lack of credit. World Bank Survey of 1951 reported that the\nbanks operating in Ceylon did not support local industry. Development\nof private industry was retarded by inadequate facilities for medium and\nlong-term credit, it said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Agricultural and Credit Corporation\n(est.  1943)  for the express purpose of Providing such\ncredit had not done so. Those who went there found it impossible to arrange\nacceptable security. The British and Indian commercial banks present in the\ncountry, only lent for    short term\nimport export transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bank\nof Ceylon did not help either. Mortgages had to be secured by personal assets\nof borrowers. Bank of Ceylon did not give loans on new enterprises unless the\nbank officials knew the person.  The\nlocal moneyed class was also not prepared to invest in industry. William Silva\nobserved that when a local person made money, he preferred to buy an estate and\nget a quick return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

William\nSilva needed to find funds for the state industries. World Bank had refused to finance\nlocal industry when the earlier government had asked them, so this time William\nturned to Russia. Russia gave money to\nstart the steel factory at Oruwala, tyre factory at Kelaniya, cement factory at\nPuttalam and the State Flour Milling factory. \nA Ceramic Corporation, Leather corporation, Plywood corporation and\nCaustic soda project were set up by the MEP government later on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nMineral Sands Corporation was started by William Silva. William Silva was aware\nof the value of these mineral sands.  It\ncontains  titanium oxide, rutile,  and zircon, he told Parliament . He was\nhoping to process them with the limited technical knowledge we possess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 He  also\ntook note of the Monazite available. There is monazite washed up by the tide.\nIt is there on the shore. We can collect about a thousand tons for nothing, he\nsaid.   Having collected it, you separate\nby magnetic operation, the monazite from the sand. Monazite is radioactive. We\nwill not sell it. We will stockpile pile it, so that we can use it someday in\nan atomic programme for peaceful purposes said William Silva hopefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William\nSilva set up a National Textiles Corporation and a new spinning and weaving\nmill at Veyangoda. He encouraged handloom weaving  by supplying yarn at a reasonable price.  He stopped the import of Indian handlooms to\ngive a boost to the local handloom industry. It was on the foundation laid by\nhim that the industry forged ahead and tens of thousands of rural girls found\nemployment or self employment, said Bandu de Silva. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1956,\nLakshman Rajapaksa, MP for Hambantota and Deputy Minister for Commerce and\nTrade set up a cotton processing factory at Mirijjawila near Hambantota to\nencourage cotton cultivators in Hambantota and Monaragala. During this period\ncotton was a popular crop in the Eastern part of Hambantota and Monaragala, and\ncotton was cultivated under rain-fed conditions. This factory functioned\nsatisfactorily and it started processing their home grown cotton. It was set on\nfire  by the JVP in 1971. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Silva was responsible for the mechanisation of\nthe deep sea fishing industry. This was a far reaching change. Till then deep sea\nfishing was done in the traditional   35\nfoot oruwa. This was replaced in 1958, by a locally built 27 ft, three and half\nton mechanized boat with a 25 horse power engine, built with Japanese aid. The catch increased,\nand fish landing doubled in 1964 and trebled in 1969. A cold room was installed\nat Mutwal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Silva\nhe not only gave a boost to the industry but also improved the living\nconditions of fishermen throughout the island especially by providing them\nhousing, said Bandu de Silva. William Silva also promoted inland fisheries by breeding\ntilapia and gourami. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Silva was a close friend\nand a comrade of Philip Gunawardena. He was   a calm personality and a glutton for\nsustained hard work like Philip, said Meegama. \nIn 1959 the two of them resigned from the MEP Cabinet, due to\npressure from other Cabinet members. William Silva,\nusually mild, was angry and showed it in his resignation speech.  He never held cabinet office again .  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1970, he became the Ceylon High\nCommissioner to Canada. He was also Chairman of the Press Council,  1974-77.  Sri Lanka commemorated the hundredth Birth\nAnniversary of P.H. William de Silva with the issue of a new Stamp and a First\nDay Cover in 2008. (continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Peduru Hewage William de Silva (1908-1988) was the only son of a wealthy professional family of Batapola, near Ambalangoda. William studied at the Buddhist Mixed School in Batapola, then at St. John\u2019s, Panadura, later at Richmond College, Galle, and finally at Ananda College from which he entered Ceylon University College.  He had joined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}