Sri Lankan independence movement

The Sri Lankan independence movement was a peaceful political movement which was aimed at achieving independence and self-rule for the country of Sri Lanka, then British Ceylon, from the British Empire. The switch of powers was generally known as peaceful transfer of power from the British administration to Ceylon representatives, a phrase that implies considerable continuity with a colonial era that lasted 400 years. It was initiated around the turn of the 20th century and led mostly by the educated middle class. It succeeded when, on 4 February 1948, Ceylon was granted independence as the Dominion of Ceylon. Dominion status within the British Commonwealth was retained for the next 24 years until 22 May 1972 when it became a republic and was renamed the Republic of Sri Lanka.
British colonial rule.
The British Raj was dominant in Asia after the Battle of Assaye; following the Battle of Waterloo, the British Empire became more influential. Its prestige was only briefly dented by setbacks in India, Afghanistan and South Africa. It was virtually unchallenged until 1914. The British were very powerful during their rule in Sri Lanka and left more of a lasting impact than any other power.
The formation of the Batavian Republic in the Netherlands as an ally and of the French Directory, led to a British attack on Ceylon in 1795 as part of Britain's war against the French Republic. The Kandyan Kingdom collaborated with the British expeditionary forces against the Dutch, as it had with the Dutch against the Portuguese.
Once the Dutch had been evicted, their sovereignty ceded by the Treaty of Amiens and subsequent revolts in the low-country suppressed, the British began planning to capture the Kandyan Kingdom. The 1803 and 1804 invasions of the Kandyan provinces in the 1st Kandyan War were bloodily defeated by the Kandyan Sinhalese forces. In 1815, the British fomented a revolt by the Kandyan Sinhalese aristocracy against the last Kandyan monarch and marched into uplands to depose him in the 2nd Kandyan War.
The struggle against the colonial power began in 1817 with the Uva Rebellion when the same aristocracy rose against British rule in a rebellion in which their villagers participated. They were defeated by the occupiers. An attempt at rebellion sparked again briefly in 1830. The Kandy and Sinhalese peasantry were stripped of their lands by the Crown Lands (Encroachments) Ordinance No. 12 of 1840 (sometimes called the Crown Lands Ordinance or the Waste Lands Ordinance), a modern enclosure movement and reduced to penury.
In 1848 the abortive Matale Rebellion, led by Hennedige Francisco Fernando (Puran Appu) and Gongalegoda Banda was the first transitional step towards abandoning the feudal form of revolt, being fundamentally a peasant revolt. The masses were without the leadership of their native King (deposed in 1815) or their chiefs (either crushed after the Uva Rebellion or collaborating with the colonial power). The leadership passed for the first time in the Kandyan provinces into the hands of ordinary people, non-aristocrats. The leaders were yeomen-artisans, resembling the Levellers in England's Civil War period and mechanics such as Paul Revere and Tom Paine who were at the heart of the American Revolution. However, in the words of Colvin R. de Silva, 'it had leaders but no leadership. The old feudalists were crushed and powerless. No new class capable of leading the struggle and heading it towards power had yet arisen.'
Plantation economy.
Agriculture was the main source of revenue for the country and foreign exchanges. The land in Sri Lanka is very important because it has led to many different wars among different countries. In the 1830s, coffee was introduced into Sri Lanka, a crop which flourishes in high altitudes, and grown on the land taken from the peasants. The principal impetus to this development of capitalist production in Sri Lanka was the decline in coffee production in the West Indies, following the abolition of slavery there.
However, the dispossessed peasantry was not employed on the plantations: The Kandyan Sinhalese villagers refused to abandon their traditional subsistence holdings and become wage-workers in the harsh conditions that prevailed on these new estates, despite all the pressure exerted by the colonial state. The British therefore had to draw on its reserve army of labour in India, to man its lucrative new outpost to the south. An infamous system of contract labour was established, which transported hundreds of thousands of Tamil 'coolies' from southern India into Sri Lanka for the coffee estates. These Tamil labourers died in tens of thousands on the journey as well as on the plantations.
The coffee economy collapsed in the 1870s when coffee blight ravaged the plantations, but the economic system it had created survived intact into the era of its successor, tea, which was introduced on a wide scale from 1880 onwards. Tea was more capital-intensive and needed a higher volume of initial investment to be processed so that individual estate-owners were now supplanted by large English consolidated companies based either in London ('sterling firms') or Colombo ('rupee firms'). Monoculture was thus increasingly capped by monopoly within the plantation economy. The pattern thus created in the 19th century remained in existence down to 1972. The only significant modification to the colonial economy was the addition of a rubber sector in the mid-country areas.
The Buddhist resurgence and the 1915 riot.
A new body of urban capitalists was growing in the low country, around transport, shop-keeping, distillery, plantation, and wood-work industries. These entrepreneurs were from many castes and they strongly resented the historically unprecedented and unbuddhistic practice of 'caste discrimination' adopted by the Siam Nikaya in 1764, just 10 years after it had been established by a Thai monk. Around 1800 they organised the Amarapura Nikaya, which became hegemonic in the low-country by the mid-19th century.
Buddhism was enforced by kings and priests because they belonged to the Brahmin caste which allowed them to have the power to push what religion they wanted to practice. Buddhism practiced among higher castes (Brahmins) was further enforced by kings/ priest power, and their power increased and carried into the newly settled land. Since the higher caste individuals and those in power were enforcing Buddhism, it eventually became the established religion among the Sihlanese communities. It became very popular among all castes and practiced all over and in different land (areas). There was a practice that was known as Asoka in the Sihlanese kingdom and it is thought that Buddhism has many aspects that stemmed from Asoka. Similar to Asoka (Practice among the Sihlanese) "Such establishment of Buddhism in a country was evidently a departure in the history of that religion and seems to have been an innovation of Asoka".
The British attempt at giving a Protestant Christian education to the young men of the commercial classes backfired, as they transformed the Buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka into something resembling the non-conformist Protestant model. A series of debates against clergymen of the Methodist and the Anglican church was organised, culminating in the defeat of the latter at Panadura by modern logical argument. The Buddhist revival was aided by the Theosophists, led by American Col. Henry Steel Olcott, who helped establish Buddhist schools such as Ananda College, Colombo; Dharmaraja College, Kandy; Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala; Mahinda College, Galle; and Musaeus College, Colombo; at the same time injecting more modern secular western ideas into the 'Protestant' Buddhist thought-stream.
Dharmapala, 1915 and the Ceylon National Congress.
Sinhala Buddhist Revivalists such as Anagarika Dharmapala started linking 'Protestant' Buddhism to Sinhalese-ness, creating a "Sinhala-Buddhist" consciousness, linked to the temperance movement. This cut across the old barriers of caste and was the beginning of a pan-Sinhala Buddhist identity. It appealed in particular to small businessmen and yeomen, who now began to take centre stage against the Mudaliyars, an anglicised class of new elites created by the British rulers. The collaborationist compradore elements of the elite, led by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, F.R. Senanayake and D.S. Senanayake succeeded the populists led by Dharmapala from the leadership of the temperance movement.
A jolt was given to the British aura of invincibility by the German cruiser , which attacked the seaport of Penang in Malaya, sinking a Russian cruiser, bombarded Madras (now Chennai) and sailed unimpeded down the East coast of Sri Lanka. Such was its impact that, in Sri Lanka to this day, 'Emden' is the bogeyman that mothers scare their children with, and the term is still used to refer to a particularly obnoxious person. In a panic, the authorities jailed a Boer wildlife official, H. H. Engelbrecht, after accusing him falsely of having supplied meat to the cruiser. The British rebuff at Gallipoli, fighting Asian Turks, also dented the British white-supremacist sentiment.
In 1915 commercial-ethnic rivalry erupted into a riot in the Colombo against the Muslims, with Christians participating as much as Buddhists. The British reacted heavy-handedly, as the riot was also directed against them. Dharmapala had his legs broken and was confined to Jaffna; his brother died there. Captain D. E. Henry Pedris, a militia commander was shot for mutiny. Inspector-General of Police Herbert Dowbiggin became notorious for his methods. Hundreds of Sinhalese Buddhists were arrested by the British colonial government during the Riots of 1915. Those imprisoned without charges included future leaders of the independence movement; F.R. Senanayake, D. S. Senanayake, Anagarika Dharmapala, Dr C A Hewavitarne, Arthur V Dias, H. M. Amarasuriya, Dr. W. A. de Silva, Baron Jayatilaka, Edwin Wijeyeratne, A. E. Goonesinghe, John Silva, Piyadasa Sirisena and others.
Sir James Peiris initiated and drafted a secret memorandum with the support of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan and E. W. Perera braved mine and submarine-infested seas (as well as the Police) to carry it in the soles of his shoes to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, pleading for the repeal of martial law and describing the atrocities committed by the Police led by Dowbiggin. The British government ordered the release of the leaders who were in detention. Several high officials were transferred. A new Governor, Sir John Anderson was sent to replace Sir Robert Chalmers with instructions to inquire and report to His Majesty's Government. Newspapers such as "The Morning Leader" played a vital role to mold public opinion.
In 1919 the Ceylon National Congress (CNC) was founded to agitate for greater autonomy. It did not seek independence, however, representing the comprador elite which opposed Dharmapala. This same elite vigorously opposed the grant of universal suffrage by the Donoughmore Constitutional Commission.
Dharmapala was hounded out of the country by a press campaign by the Lake House group of the press baron D. R. Wijewardena. His mantle fell on the next generation, epitomised by the likes of Walisinghe Harischandra, Gunapala Malalasekera, and L.H. Mettananda, who were radicalised by Dharmapala's words.
The Youth Leagues and the struggle for independence.
The young people who stepped into the shoes of Dharmapala organised themselves into Youth Leagues, seeking independence and justice for Sri Lanka. The first moves came not from Dharmapala's ethnic group, but from the Tamil youth of Jaffna. In 1924 The Jaffna Students’ Congress, later renamed the Jaffna Youth Congress (JYC) was founded. Influenced by the Indian Independence movement, it was secular and committed to Poorana Swaraj (Complete Self-Rule), national unity, and the eradication of inequalities imposed by caste. In 1927, the JYC invited the Indian independence movement leader Gandhi to visit Jaffna. The JYC led a successful boycott of the first State Council elections in Jaffna in 1931, arguing that the Donoughmore reforms did not concede enough self-government.
In the 1930s the Youth Leagues were formed in the South, around a core of intellectuals who had returned from education in Britain, influenced by leftist ideals. The Ministers of the CNC petitioned the colonial government to increase their powers, instead of demanding independence, or even dominion status. They were forced to withdraw their 'Ministers' Memorandum' after a vigorous campaign by the Youth Leagues.
The South Colombo Youth League became involved in a strike at the Wellawatte Spinning and weaving mills. It published an irregular journal in Sinhala, "Kamkaruwa" (The Worker).
Suriya-Mal movement.
In protest against the proceeds of poppy sales on Armistice Day (11 November) being used for the benefit of the British ex-servicemen to the detriment of Sri Lankan ex-servicemen, one of the latter, Aelian Perera, had started a rival sale of "Suriya" (Portia tree) flowers on this day, the proceeds of which were devoted to helping needy Ceylonese ex-servicemen.
In 1933 a British teacher Doreen Young Wickremasinghe, wrote an article, "The Battle of the Flowers" which appeared in the "Ceylon Daily News" and criticised the practice of forcing Sri Lankan schoolchildren to purchase poppies to help British veterans at the expense of their own, which caused her to be vilified by her compatriots.
The South Colombo Youth League now got involved in the Suriya-Mal Movement and revived it on a new anti-imperialist and anti-war basis. Yearly until the Second World War, young men and women sold Suriya flowers on the streets on Armistice Day in competition with the Poppy sellers. The purchasers of the Suriya Mal were generally from the poorer sections of society and the funds collected were not large. But the movement provided a rallying point for the anti-imperialist minded youth of the time. An attempt was made by the British colonial authorities to curb the movement's effectiveness through the 'Street Collection Regulation Ordinance'.
Doreen Young was elected the first president of the Suriya Mal movement at a meeting held at the residence of Wilmot Perera in Horana. Terence de Zilva and Robin Ratnam were elected Joint Secretaries, and Roy de Mel Treasurer.
Malaria epidemic and floods.
There had been a drought in 1934 which caused a shortage of rice, estimated at 3 million bushels. From October on there were floods, followed by a malaria epidemic in 1934–35, during which 1,000,000 people were affected and at least 125,000 died. The Suriya-Mal Movement was honed by volunteer work among the poor during the malaria epidemic and the floods. The volunteers found that there was widespread malnutrition, which was aggravated by the shortage of rice, and which reduced resistance to the disease. They helped fight the epidemic by making pills of 'Marmite' yeast extract. Philip Gunawardena and N. M. Perera came to be known as "Avissawelle Pilippuwa" (Philip from Avissawella) and "Parippuwa Mahathaya" ('Mr. Dhal') because of the lentils he distributed as dry rations to the people affected in those days.
As "Sybil" described in "Forward: The Progressive Weekly" many years later: 'Work in connection with malaria relief was an eye-opener to many of these people who were just getting to know the peasant masses. The poverty was incredible, the overcrowding even more so, fifteen, twenty or more people crammed into tiny huts, dying like flies. This was what colonial exploitation meant: worse than the worst that prevailed in Britain when Marx and Engels analysed the conditions of the working classes. This was what had to be fought.'
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is formed.
The Marxist Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), which grew out of the Youth Leagues in 1935, was the first party to demand independence. The first manifesto of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party declared that its aims were the achievement of complete national independence, the nationalisation of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and the abolition of inequalities arising from differences of race, caste, creed or gender.
Its deputies in the State Council after the 1936 general election, N. M. Perera and Philip Gunawardena and the other leaders Leslie Goonewardene and Colvin R. de Silva were aided in this struggle by not quite so radical members like Don Alwin Rajapaksa of Ruhuna and K. Natesa Iyer of the Indian Tamils. Others who supported them from time to time were George E. de Silva of Kandy, B. H. Aluwihare of Matale, D. P. Jayasuriya of Gampaha, A. Ratnayake of Dumbara and Susantha de Fonseka, Deputy Speaker. They also demanded the replacement of English as the official language by Sinhala and Tamil. In November 1936, motions that 'in the Municipal and Police Courts of the Island the proceedings should be in the vernacular' and that 'entries in police stations should be recorded in the language in which they are originally stated' were passed by the State Council and referred to the Legal Secretary, but nothing was done about these matters and English continued to be the language of the rule until 1956.
Fraternal relations were established between the LSSP and the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) of India and an LSSP delegation attended the Faizpur Sessions of the Indian National Congress in 1936. In April 1937 Kamaladevi Chattopadyaya, a leader of the CSP addressed a large number of meetings in various parts of the country on a national tour organised by the LSSP. This helped to establish the indivisibility of the fights for the independence of Sri Lanka and India. In Jaffna, where Kamaladevi also spoke, the left movement found consistent and loyal supporters from among one-time members of the JYC.
Bracegirdle.
On 28 November 1936, at a meeting in Colombo, the president of the LSSP, Dr. Inusha de Silva, introduced Mark Anthony Bracegirdle, a British/Australian former planter saying: 'This is the first time a white comrade has ever attended a party meeting held at a street corner.' He made his first public speech in Sri Lanka, warning that the capitalists were trying to split the workers of Sri Lanka and put one against the other. He took an active part in organising a public meeting called by the LSSP on Galle Face Green in Colombo on 10 January 1937 to celebrate Sir Herbert Dowbiggin's departure from the island and to protest against the atrocities during his tenure as Inspector General of Police. In March, he was co-opted to serve on the executive committee.
He was employed by Natesa Iyer, Member of the State Council for the Hatton constituency, to 'organise an Estate Labour Federation in Nawalapitiya or Hatton, with an idea that he may be a proper candidate to be the future Secretary of the Labour Federation.'
On 3 April, at a meeting at Nawalapitiya attended by two thousand estate workers, at which Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya spoke, Dr. N. M. Perera said: 'Comrades, I have an announcement to make. You know we have a white comrade (applause) ... He has generously consented to address you. I call upon Comrade Bracegirdle to address you.' Bracegirdle rose to speak amid tumultuous applause and shouts of 'Samy, Samy' (master, master).
The authorities were on hand to note his speech:
'the most noteworthy feature of this meeting ... was the presence of Bracegirdle and his attack on the planters. He claimed unrivaled knowledge of the misdeeds of the planters and promised scandalous exposures. His delivery, facial appearance, his posture were all very threatening ... Every sentence was punctuated with cries of samy, samy from the labourers. Labourers were heard to remark that Mr. Bracegirdle has correctly said that they should not allow planters to break labour laws and they must in future not take things lying down.' (T. Perera, "The Bracegirdle Saga: 60 Years After", 'What Next', No 5 1997.)
The British planters were angry that their prestige was being harmed by a fellow white man. They prevailed upon the British Colonial Governor Sir Reginald Stubbs to deport him. Bracegirdle was served with the order of deportation on 22 April and given 48 hours to leave on the SS Mooltan, on which a passage had been booked for him by the Government.
The LSSP with Bracegirdle's assent decided that the order should be defied. Bracegirdle went into hiding and the Colonial Government began an unsuccessful manhunt. LSSP started a campaign to defend him. At that year's May Day rally at Price Park, placards declaring 'We want Bracegirdle – Deport Stubbs' were displayed, and a resolution was passed condemning Stubbs, demanding his removal and the withdrawal of the deportation order.
On 5 May, in the State Council, NM Perera and Philip Gunawardena moved a vote of censure on the Governor for having ordered the deportation of Bracegirdle without the advice of the acting Home Minister. Even the Board of Ministers had started feeling the heat of public opinion and the vote was passed by 34 votes to 7.
On the same day, there was a 50,000-strong rally at Galle Face Green, which was presided over by Colvin R de Silva and addressed by Dr. N.M. Perera, Philip Gunawardena, Leslie Goonewardene, A. E. Goonesinha, George E. de Silva, D. M. Rajapakse, Siripala Samarakkody, Vernon Gunasekera, Handy Perimbanayagam, Mrs. K. Natesa Iyer and S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike. Bracegirdle made a dramatic appearance on the platform at this rally, but the police were powerless to arrest him.
However, the police managed to arrest him a couple of days later at the Hulftsdorp residence of Vernon Gunasekera, the Secretary of the LSSP. However, the necessary legal preparations had been made. A writ of habeas corpus was served and the case was called before a bench of three Supreme Court judges presided over by Chief Justice Sir Sidney Abrahams. H. V. Perera, the county's leading civil lawyer, volunteered his services free on behalf of Bracegirdle; he was made a Queen's Counsel (QC) on the day that Bracegirdle appeared in court. On 18 May order was made that he could not be deported for exercising his right to free speech, and Bracegirdle was a free man.
Second World War.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, the independence agitators turned to opposition to the Ministers' support for the British war effort. The Ministers brought motions gifting the Sri Lankan taxpayers' money to the British war machine, which were opposed by the pro-independence members of the state council. There was considerable opposition to the war in Sri Lanka, particularly among the workers and the nationalists, many of the latter of whom hoped for a German victory. Among Buddhists, there was disgust that Buddhist monks of German origin were interned as 'enemy aliens' whereas Italian and German Roman Catholic priests were not.
Two members of the Governing Party, Junius Richard Jayawardene and Dudley Senanayake, held discussions with the Japanese with a view to collaboration to oust the British.
Estate strike wave.
Starting in November 1939 and during the first half of 1940 there was a wave of spontaneous strikes in the British-owned plantations, basically aimed at winning the right of organisation. There were two main plantation unions, Iyer's Ceylon Indian Congress and the All-Ceylon Estate Workers Union (later the Lanka Estate Workers Union, LEWU) led by the Samasamajists.
In the Central Province the strike wave reached its zenith in the Mool Oya Estate strike, which was led by Samasamajists including Veluchamy, Secretary of the Estate Workers Union. In this strike, on 19 January 1940, the worker Govindan was shot and killed by the police. As a result of agitation both within the State Council and outside, the Government was compelled to appoint a Commission of Inquiry. Colvin R. de Silva appeared for the widow of Govindan and exposed the combined role of the police and employers in the white plantation raj.
After Mool Oya, the strike wave spread southward towards Uva, and the strikes became more prolonged and the workers began more and more to seek the militant leadership of the Sama samajists. In Uva, Samasamajists including Willie Jayatilleke, Edmund Samarakkody and V. Sittampalam were in the leadership. The plantation-raj got the Badulla Magistrate to issue a ban on meetings. N. M. Perera broke the ban and addressed a large meeting in Badulla on 12 May, and the police were powerless to act. At Wewessa Estate the workers set up an elected council and the Superintendent agreed to act in consultation with the Workers' Council. An armed police party that went to restore 'law and order' was disarmed by the workers.
The strike wave was finally beaten back by a wave of violence by the police, aided by floods which cut Uva off from the rest of the country for over a week. But the colonial authorities realised that the independence struggle had become too powerful to ignore.
Underground struggle.
After Dunkirk, the British colonial authorities reacted in panic (as revealed in secret files released many decades later) and N. M. Perera, Philip Gunawardena and Colvin R. de Silva were arrested on 18 June 1940 and Edmund Samarakkody on 19 June. The LSSP press was raided and sealed. Regulations were promulgated which made open party work practically impossible.
However, the experience gained in hiding Bracegirdle now paid off. The cover organisation of the LSSP, of which Doric de Souza and Reggie Senanayake were in charge, had been active for some months. Detention orders had been issued on Leslie Goonewardene but he evaded arrest and went underground. The LSSP was involved in a strike wave which commenced in May 1941 affecting the workers of the Colombo Harbour, Granaries, Wellawatta Mills, Gas Company, Colombo Municipality and the Fort Mt-Lavinia bus route.
With Japan's entry into the war, and especially after the fall of Singapore, Sri Lanka became a front-line British base against the Japanese. On 5 April 1942, The Japanese Navy bombed Colombo. That evening, in the confusion following the attack, the LSSP leaders were able to escape, with the help of one of their guards. Several of them fled to India, where they participated in the independence movement there. However, a sizeable contingent remained, led by Robert Gunawardena, Philip's brother. In 1942 and 1944 the LSSP gave leadership to several other strikes and in the process was able to capture the leadership of Government workers’ unions in Colombo.
Cocos Islands mutiny.
The fall of Singapore and the subsequent defeat and sinking of the battleship and the battle cruiser , punctured the propaganda of British invincibility. The credibility & prestige of the British was further damaged by the sinking of the aircraft carrier and the cruisers and off Sri Lanka in early April 1942; accompanied at the same time by the virtually unopposed bombing of mainly the British colonial bases in the island and bombardment of Madras (Chennai). Such was the panic amongst the British in Sri Lanka that a large turtle which came ashore was reported by an Australian unit as a number of Japanese amphibious vehicles.
The Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands mutinied on the night of 8/9 May, intending to hand the islands over to the Japanese. The mutiny took place partly because of the agitation by the LSSP. The mutiny was suppressed and three of the mutineers were the only British Commonwealth troops to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War. Gratien Fernando, the leader of the mutiny, was defiant to the end.
No Sri Lankan combat regiment was deployed by the British in a combat situation after the Cocos Islands Mutiny. The defenses of Sri Lanka were beefed up to three British army divisions because the island was strategically important, holding almost all the British Empire's resources of rubber. Rationing was instituted so that Sri Lankans were comparatively better fed than their Indian neighbours, in order to prevent disaffection among the natives.
Lanka Regiment and Hikari Kikan.
Sinhalese and Tamils in Singapore and Malaysia formed the 'Lanka Regiment' of the Indian National Army, directly under Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. A plan was made to transport them to British occupied Ceylon by submarine, to begin an independence uprising, but this was aborted.
The Hikari Kikan, the Japanese liaison office for South Asia, recruited Sinhalese, Tamils, Indians and other south Asians domiciled in Malaya and Singapore for spying missions against the Allies. Four of them were to be landed by submarine at Kirinda, on the south coast of Sri Lanka, to operate a secret radio transmitter to report on South East Asia Command activities. However, they were dropped in error on the Tamil Nadu coast, where they were caught and executed.
Free Lanka Bill.
Public opposition to British colonial rule continued to grow. Among the elite there was irritation at the colour-bar practised by the leading clubs. Sir Oliver Ernest Goonetilleke, the Civil Defence Commissioner complained that the British commander of Ceylon, Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton called him a 'black bastard'.
The CNC agreed to accept the Communists, who had been expelled by the Trotskyists in the Sama Samaja Party but who now supported the war effort. At its 25th annual conference, the CNC resolved to demand 'a complete freedom after war'. The leader of the house and Minister of Agriculture and Lands Don Stephen Senanayake left the CNC on the issue of independence, disagreeing with the revised aim of 'the achieving of freedom'.
In November 1944, Sir Susantha de Fonseka, the State Council member for Panadura, moved a motion in the State Council calling for a dominion-type constitution for a Free Lanka. Subsequently, the "Free Lanka Bill" was introduced in the State Council, on 19 January 1945.
At annual session of the Ceylon National Congress was held on 27–28 January 1945 its president, George E. de Silva, said, "Today we stand pledged to strive for freedom. Nothing less than that can be accepted."
The Congress resolved, "Whereas the decision of the State Council 'to frame a Constitution of the Dominion type for a Free Lanka', falls short of the full national right for freedom, nevertheless, this Congress instructs its members in the State Council to support the Bill providing 'a new constitution for a Free Lanka' as an advance in our struggle for freedom..."
A second reading of the Free Lanka Bill was moved and passed without division on in February. The Bill brought up for a third reading, with amendment, on 22 March. G A Wille, a British-nominated member, moved that ‘The Bill be read the third time six months hence’, which was defeated by 40 to 7.
Post-war unrest.
With the conclusion of the war against Germany, public pressure for the release of the detenus increased. On 30 May 1945 A. P. Jayasuriya moved a resolution in the State Council that the detained independence agitators be released unconditionally. This was passed, opposed only by two British nominated members. However, the detainees were only released on 24 June, after a two-day hunger strike. The released prisoners were hailed as heroes and given receptions throughout the country. The Left had emerged stronger than before the war, having earned tremendous prestige.
The oppression during the war years had kept unrest under control but, with the relaxation of wartime restrictions, there was an eruption of popular anger. From September onwards, there was a wave of strikes in Colombo, on the tramways and in the harbour. In November the LSSP-led All Ceylon United Motor Workers' Union launched an island-wide bus strike, which was successful in spite of the arrest of N. M. Perera, Philip Gunawardena and other leaders.
The All-Ceylon Peasant Congress took action on the compulsory collection of rice by the government at 8 rupees per bushel. In some areas the farmers refused to give their rice to the Government and hundreds were charged in the courts. In 1946 the Congress organised a march on the State Council, which compelled the Ministers to drop the system of compulsory collection.
In October 1946 a strike of Government workers, including those in the railway, extended to the harbour, the gas company, and became a general strike. The authorities at first refused to negotiate, but finally the Acting Governor agreed to meet a deputation of the Government Workers’ Trade Union Federation. The adviser to the deputation, N. M. Perera was arrested by the police, but the workers refused to come to a settlement in his absence. In the end Perera was released and a settlement was reached.
However, some of the promises made by the Acting Governor were not honoured, and a second general strike broke out in May–June 1947. The Ceylon Defence Force was recalled from leave in order to aid the police in crushing this upsurge. V. Kandasamy of the Government Clerical Service Union was shot dead at Dematagoda, on the way to Kolonnawa after a strike meeting at Hyde Park, Colombo, when the police repeatedly fired on the crowd. The suppression was successful in breaking the strike. However, it was set in stone for the British authorities that their position in the country was untenable. The Bombay Mutiny and other signs of unrest in the armed forces of India had already caused the British to start their retreat from that country.
General Election 1947.
D.S. Senanayake formed the United National Party (UNP) in 1946 , when a new constitution was agreed on. At the elections of 1947, the UNP won a minority of the seats in Parliament, but cobbled together a coalition with the Sinhala Maha Sabha of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and the Tamil Congress of G. G. Ponnambalam. It was to this government that the British prepared to hand over power.


Gilchrist Document

The Gilchrist Document is a much cited letter from 1965 often used to support arguments for Western involvement in the overthrow of Sukarno in Indonesia. The document purports to be a letter from the British ambassador to Jakarta, Andrew Gilchrist, addressed to the British Foreign Office and refers to a joint US–UK plan for military intervention in Indonesia.
The letter was first made public by the Indonesian Foreign Minister Subandrio on a trip to Cairo. The US embassy in Cairo was soon able to get a photographic copy of the letter. The embassy concluded that it was a fake, and the "Gilchrist letter" was subsequently referred to as a forgery in the US administration. An internal discussion in the US administration on who was behind the forgery followed, and the US settled on a Subandrio-controlled intelligence agency.
The Czech agent Vladislav Bittman who defected in 1968 claimed that his agency forged the letter. Bittman also claimed responsibility for the campaign against US citizen and movie distributor Bill Palmer.
The papers of the British ambassador Sir Andrew Gilchrist are held in the Churchill Archive at Churchill College, Cambridge University. Some of them are still classified. Speculation about a possible British role in the overthrow of Sukarno continues, although British defence secretary in 1965, Denis Healey, stated in 2000 that Britain was not involved, though Healey would have supported involvement had it been possible.
Text.
The following is the text of the document as reproduced in a semi-official collection of documents:
I discussed with the American Ambassador the questions set out in your No.:67786/65. The Ambassador agreed in principal with our position but asked for time to investigate certain aspects of the matter.
To my question on the possible influence of Bunker's visit, to Jakarta, the Ambassador state that he saw no reason for changing our joint plans. On the contrary, the visit of the US. President's personal envoy would give us more time to prepare the operation the utmost detail . The Ambassador felt that further measures were necessary to bring our efforts into closer alignment. In this connection, he said that it would be useful to impress again on our local army friends that extreme care discipline and coordination of action were essential for the success of our enterprise.
I promised to take all necessary measures. I will report my own views personally in due course.
GILCHRIST


Democratic Party (Cambodia)

The Democratic Party (, "Democratic Group"; ), commonly referred to as The Democrats, was a left-wing pro-independence political party formed in 1946 by Prince Sisowath Youtevong, who had previously been a member of the French Section of the Workers' International. It was the sole dominant party in Cambodia from 1946 until the creation of Sangkum in 1955.
Its slogan was "Peace, Independence, Discipline and Courage" and its electoral symbol an elephant's head and three lotus flowers.
In the colonial-era government.
In the first elections to colonial Cambodia's Constituent Assembly, held in September 1946, the Democrats won 50 out of 67 seats, and for several years they remained the most popular party in Cambodia, despite Yuthevong's early death in 1947. The Democrats - in contrast to their rivals, the Liberal Party ("Kanak Sereipheap") of Prince Norodom Norindeth and the Progressive Democrats led by Prince Norodom Montana - were in favour of immediate independence based on the model of French democracy; they also maintained that the Thai-sponsored Khmer Issarak resistance were patriots, thereby irritating the French.
The Party was to sweep the 1947 National Assembly elections, assisted by an enthusiastic team of activists (including a young Saloth Sar, later to become known as Pol Pot, and Ieng Sary). Other prominent figures associated with the Democrats in this period were centrist In Tam and leftist Hu Nim, another future Khmer Rouge cadre.
The defection of Yem Sambaur and several other deputies to the Liberals in 1948, and the subsequent assassination of Democrat leader Ieu Koeus in 1950 by a member of Norindeth's entourage, led to a period of fragmentation and division in the party. However, despite the temporary ascendancy of the Liberals, the Democrats continued to attract many members of the Khmer intellectual elite in the period leading up to and immediately following Cambodian independence in 1953, and retained particular support amongst civil servants and the urban educated classes. Son Ngoc Thanh, a former Prime Minister under the Japanese occupation, was also to join the Democrats between 1951 and 1952, when he left for the forests of northern Cambodia to start his own right-leaning independence movement.
Move leftwards and post-independence defeat.
During 1954 the Party moved leftwards, under the influence of Paris-educated political radicals led by Keng Vannsak; Prince Norodom Phurissara became its secretary-general. At this stage its stance emphasised the importance of the 1954 Geneva Conference in guaranteeing independence and the undesirability of accepting American aid as a result (a position similar to that of the rival socialist "Pracheachon" party).
In 1955 King Norodom Sihanouk abdicated and set up his own anti-communist political movement, the Sangkum, in order to participate in the 1955 general elections; some prominent Democrats (such as Penn Nouth) left the party and joined Sihanouk. Keng Vannsak was fired at by government (i.e. Sangkum) agents at a rally on the eve of the poll, and jailed during the voting, while the party's office in Battambang was ransacked. The Democrats eventually gained 12% of the vote, while the Sangkum won 82% and all seats.
In August 1957, the Democratic Party dissolved itself. According to notes left by Prince Sisowath Monireth, this happened after the remaining leaders were called for a "friendly conference" with Sihanouk and were beaten up by Lon Nol's police on departure.
Re-establishment by In Tam.
After Lon Nol deposed Sihanouk in the Cambodian coup of 1970, and the subsequent establishment of the Khmer Republic, the Democratic Party was re-established by In Tam who was one of the coup leaders. However, the manipulation of the 1972 parliamentary elections by Nol and his brother Lon Non meant that the Democrats refused to participate. In Tam was later to retire from politics, the Party being led by Chau Sau; during this period it also made overtures to exiled politician Son Sann. The Democrats, however, gained no further political power before the Khmer Republic itself collapsed in 1975, and the Khmer Rouge established Democratic Kampuchea.
In Tam, after a period in which he was once more associated with the royalists under Sihanouk, was to re-establish a Democratic Party subsequent to the 1991 peace settlement in Cambodia. The Party competed in the 1993 elections but failed to win any seats.
References.


South Island nationalism

South Island nationalism refers to a nationalist movement in the South Island of New Zealand. This political viewpoint is not widely held – in the 1999 election the NZ South Island Party received 2,622 votes, 0.14% of the total. Another South Island Party attempted to gain the 500 financial members necessary to contest the 2008 election, but chose not to register.
Julius Vogel, the 8th Premier of New Zealand, was a continual advocate of separation of the North and South Islands, which led to his dismissal from the "Otago Daily Times" in 1868. The idea of independence was voted on by the New Zealand Parliament in 1865, and the concern the South Island could form a separate colony was one of the main factors in moving the capital of New Zealand from Auckland to the more centrally located Wellington in the same year.
History.
Māori period.
The successive waves of Māori iwi (tribes) to settle the South Island – namely the Waitaha, the Ngāti Mamoe, and Ngāi Tahu – had been politically independent from their northern counterparts. Several attempts by the Ngāti Toa (from the Kapiti Coast) to annexe the island during the 1830s, under the leadership of Te Rauparaha, were eventually repelled by an alliance of the Southern chiefs of Otautahi and Murihiku. By the time the first European settlers arrived in the South Island (then known natively as ) in the early 1840s, the Ngāti Toa only held control of the Wairau plains.
This independence from North Island iwi and their political beliefs is still reflected in modern South Island Māori culture. During Waitangi Day celebrations in 2010, Ngai Tahu refused to fly the controversial Tino Rangatiratanga flag, with one tribe member saying the "flag has been nothing but trouble".
European discovery and annexation.
The first Europeans known to reach the South Island were the crew of Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who arrived in his ships "Heemskerck" and "Zeehaen". Tasman anchored in Golden Bay, at the northern end of the island, (he named it Murderers Bay) in December 1642 and sailed northward to Tonga following a clash with local Māori. Tasman sketched sections of the two main islands' west coasts. Tasman called them "Staten Landt", after the "States-General of the Netherlands", and that name appeared on his first maps of the country. Dutch cartographers changed the name to "Nova Zeelandia" in Latin, from "Nieuw Zeeland", after the Dutch province of "Zeeland". It was subsequently Anglicised as "New Zealand" by British naval captain James Cook of HM Bark "Endeavour" who visited the islands more than 100 years after Tasman during (1769–1770).
When Britain annexed New Zealand in 1840, New Zealand briefly became a part of New South Wales. This annexation was in response to New Zealand Company attempts to establish a separate colony in Wellington, and French claims in Akaroa, and so Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson declared British sovereignty over all of New Zealand on 21 May 1840 (the North Island by the Treaty of Waitangi and the South by discovery).
New Munster Province.
When New Zealand was separated from the colony of New South Wales in 1841 and established as a colony in its own right, the Royal Charter effecting this provided that "the principal Islands, heretofore known as, or commonly called, the 'Northern Island', the 'Middle Island', and 'Stewart's Island', shall henceforward be designated and known respectively as 'New Ulster', 'New Munster', and 'New Leinster'". These divisions were at first of geographical significance only, not used as a basis for the government of the colony, which was centralised in Auckland. New Munster consisted of the South Island and the southern portion of the North Island, up to the mouth of the Patea River.
The situation was altered in 1846 when the New Zealand Constitution Act 1846. divided the colony into two provinces: New Ulster Province (the North Island), New Munster Province (the South Island and Stewart Island). Each province had its own Lieutenant-Governor and Legislative and Executive Council, in addition to the Governor-in-Chief and Legislative and Executive Council for the whole colony. Early in 1848 Edward John Eyre was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of New Munster. In 1851 the Provincial Legislative Councils were permitted to be partially elective.
The Provincial Council of New Munster had only one legislative session, in 1849, before it succumbed to the virulent attacks of the Wellington settlers. Governor George Grey, sensible to the pressures, inspired an ordinance of the General Legislative Council under which new Legislative Councils would be established in each province with two-thirds of their members elected on a generous franchise. Grey implemented the ordinance with such deliberation that neither Council met before advice was received that the United Kingdom Parliament had passed the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852.
This Act dissolved the New Ulster and New Munster provinces in 1853, after only seven years' existence, and New Munster was divided into the provinces of Canterbury, Nelson, and Otago. With the establishment of the New Zealand Parliament, James Macandrew the Superintendent of Otago Province fought what he saw as a bias towards central government at the expense of Otago. Similar resentment also occurred in other provinces, but the relative wealth of Otago (due to the 1861 gold rush) meant that it was felt there more strongly than elsewhere.
The provincial period.
During the provincial period of 1853 to 1876, while the North Island was convulsed by the New Zealand Wars, the South Island, with its small Māori population, was largely peaceful and the southern provinces developed more rapidly than did those in the north. In 1861, gold was discovered at Gabriel's Gully in Central Otago, sparking a gold rush. Dunedin became the wealthiest city in the country, and many in the South Island resented financing the North Island's war and less ready to accept direction from a General Assembly whose impoverished members "looked with ill-concealed envy" on the resources of the South. It was, noted the "Otago Colonist", "the sad but inevitable result of joining by artificial bonds of union countries that Nature (by Cook Strait) designed should be separate". Otago, argued its editor, Julius Vogel (who, ironically, was ultimately to lead the centralists to the abolition of provincialism), was in terms of shipping days three times as far from the capital of Auckland as it was from Victoria or Tasmania, and he looked forward to "a glorious future – the separation of the two islands". A well-attended public meeting in 1862 endorsed the principle of separation – though Southland, which had achieved independence from Dunedin only by appealing to central government, and Canterbury, understanding that Dunedin saw itself as the South Island's capital-to-be, were both unenthusiastic.
A "Southern Separation League" was formed, but Vogel had by then recognised the signs of decay in the provincial system. Seeing that the weaker provinces were heading for insolvency, he opted in favour of centralism – and promptly changed his electorate to stand for a northern seat.
In an attempt to hold her place as a capital of some description, in 1865 Auckland joined forces with Otago to support a resolution in the General Assembly calling for independence for both islands. They lost by 31 votes to 17. In the same year the political concerns of the South Island provinces prompted the colonial government to move the capital south from Auckland to Wellington. By 1870 only Canterbury and Otago could be said to be flourishing.
The modern era.
In a 2006 feature article in the New Zealand Listener on the future of a wind farm in Central Otago, Bruce Ansley expressed the view that the South Island independence movement is kicking back into gear.
In 2007, Richard Prosser called for the establishment of a South Island Parliament as part of a New Zealand Confederation. Mr Prosser later stood as the New Zealand First candidate for the Waimakariri electorate in the 2011 general election and was elected as a list MP. Several internet based groups advocate their support for an independent South Island.
The March 2010 issue of North & South magazine featured an article entitled "The Great Divide" which sought to explain the geographic, cultural and language differences between the North and South Islands through a panel of guest writers.
South Island identity.
Anna Rogers, a Christchurch writer, once said "[South Island identity is] based on the kinder, cheaper, less-harried lifestyle of the South Island, as compared, most notably, with Auckland." The Southern man remains a familiar stock character throughout the country.
Flag concepts for the South Island.
Because New Zealand is a unitary state rather than a federation, there are no specific flags used to represent the two main islands or most of the minor islands other than the national flag (with the exceptions of the Chatham Islands and Stewart Island/Rakiura). Three designs have been privately proposed for a South Island flag.
James Dignan's concept.
Vexillologist James Dignan proposed a flag including the Southern Cross stars that appear on the New Zealand national flag, with a depiction of the Southern Alps (the white peak) and the forests and fields of the south (the green inset). The Southern Alps are the South Island's most prominent geological feature, and agriculture and forestry the main primary industries, making this concept an appropriate representation.
Dean Thomas' concept.
Dean Thomas proposed a flag that reflects early Māori Flags. In this concept, the white background represents the snow of the Southern Alps while the red stripe represents the people (Māori and European populace). The New Zealand White Ensign is placed in the canton so as to blend in with the white background colour. "Te Wai Pounamu" is the Māori name for the South Island.
The New Munster Cross.
The New Munster Cross is promoted by the political lobby group South Island First and the New Munster Party. It consists of a Nordic Cross with white background representing the Southern Alps, a green cross representing the lush bush and farmland of the South Island and blue representing the ocean.


Fredericton

Fredericton (; ) is the capital of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the dominant natural feature of the area. One of the main urban centres in New Brunswick, the city had a population of 58,220 in the 2016 Canadian Census. It is the third-largest city in the province after Moncton and Saint John.
An important cultural, artistic, and educational centre for the province, Fredericton is home to two universities, the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, and cultural institutions such as the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Fredericton Region Museum, and The Playhouse, a performing arts venue. The city hosts the annual Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, attracting regional and international jazz, blues, rock, and world artists. Fredericton is also an important and vibrant centre point for the region's top visual artists; many of New Brunswick's notable artists live and work there today. Fredericton has also been home to some great historical Canadian painters as well, including Goodridge Roberts, and Molly and Bruno Bobak.
As a provincial capital, its economy is tied to the public sector; however, the city also contains a growing IT and commercial sector. The city has the highest percentage of residents with post-secondary education in the province and the highest per capita income of any city in New Brunswick.
History.
There is archaeological evidence of a camp in the area 12,000 years ago, and Maliseets farmed several kilometres upriver.
Colonists from the Kingdom of France in the late 1600s built Fort Nashwaak on the north side of the Saint John River, as the capital of Acadia. It withstood a British attack in 1696, but the capital was later moved to Port Royale. In 1713 Acadians escaping the British takeover of Nova Scotia settled the site, naming it Pointe Ste-Anne. It was destroyed in 1758 when the population of about 83 were exiled during the expulsion of the Acadians.
It was in 1783, when United Empire Loyalists arrived from New England, that the history of modern Fredericton began. The following year New Brunswick was partitioned from Nova Scotia and became its own colony. Pointe-Ste-Anne was renamed "Fredericstown", after Frederick, second son of King George III. It became the capital of the new colony, being considered to have a better defensive position than larger Saint John.
The streets were laid out in the typical grid pattern of the time, with the names reflecting loyalist tendencies: Charlotte, Brunswick, George, King, and Queen.
In 1785 it became the shire town of York County. In 1790 the New Brunswick Legislative Building was constructed. As a centre of government, it attracted educational institutions, with King's College (now the University of New Brunswick) being the first English-language university in Canada, and religious institutions, with Christ Church Cathedral being built as the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Fredericton in 1853.
It was a British garrison town from 1784 to 1869, and the military compound is preserved as a National Historic Site of Canada.
With the New Brunswick Equal Opportunity program in the 1960s, county councils were abolished, and government services were centralized provincially in Fredericton, increasing jobs and population.
Geography.
The Saint John River runs through Fredericton, with most of the city's post-war suburban development occurring on the gently sloping hills on either side of the river (although the downtown core is flat and lies low to the river).
At an altitude of about above sea level, Fredericton is nestled in the Pennsylvanian Basin. It differs markedly from the geologically older parts of the province. There are prominently two distinct areas in the region that are divided around the area of Wilsey Road, in the east end of the city. In the west side, the bedrock underneath the earth is topographically dominant, whereas the other is controlled by Pleistocene and recent deposits leading to the rivers (resulting in the area being shallow and wide). Fredericton and its surroundings are rich in water resources, which, coupled with highly arable soil, make the Fredericton region ideal for agriculture. The Saint John River and one of its major tributaries, the Nashwaak River, come together in Fredericton. The uninhabited parts of the city are heavily forested.
Climate.
Fredericton has a humid continental climate. On average, Fredericton receives approximately of precipitation per year.
Demographics.
The population of the city of Fredericton is 58,220 (2016 Canada Census) and 101,760 for Greater Fredericton. Along with Moncton and Halifax, Fredericton is one of three Maritime cities to register a recent population increase.
Fredericton's population are predominantly European Canadians. Visible minorities make up 10 per cent, and include, in descending order of population, Indigenous peoples (many the St. Mary's First Nation Indian reserve), Chinese Canadians, Black Canadians, South Asian Canadians, Arab Canadians, and refugees from the Syrian Civil War.
English is spoken as a mother tongue by 83.7% of residents. Other mother tongues are French (7.8%), Chinese languages (2.1%), Arabic (1.7%), and Russian (0.6%).
Those who declare a religion are predominantly Protestant. Fredericton has a synagogue, a mosque, a Hindu temple, a Unitarian fellowship, and a Shambhala Buddhist meditation centre.
Economy.
The Government of New Brunswick and the universities are the primary employers. The policies of centralizing provincial government functions during the 1960s led to an expansion of the population.
The 1960s also saw an expansion of the University of New Brunswick due to increased post-war university enrolment, as well as the construction of Saint Thomas University. The Law School, now the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law moved from Saint John to the Fredericton area.
The city has been investing actively in IT infrastructure. The City of Fredericton won the "Judges Innovation Award" at the 2004 Canadian Information Productivity Awards due to their "Fred-eZone" free municipality wide Wi-Fi initiative. This and other innovations by the city's utelco, e-Novations, led Intel to do a case study on their successes. Fred-eZone spans much of the city's downtown and parts of surrounding residential areas, as well as peripheral commercial areas such as Fredericton's Regent Mall. In 2008 and 2009 the Intelligent Community Forum selected Fredericton as a Top 7 Intelligent Community, based partly on the city's work in the IT sector.
Arts and culture.
The Playhouse is the main venue for Theatre New Brunswick, the province's largest professional theatre company.
Festivals include the Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, the New Brunswick Summer Music Festival, the Silver Wave Film Festival and Symphony New Brunswick.
Fredericton has a long literary tradition, having been home to Jonathan Odell, Charles G. D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Francis Sherman. Writers living in Fredericton include Raymond Fraser, Herb Curtis, David Adams Richards, Mark Anthony Jarman, and Gerard Beirne.
Architecture.
Styles range from Victorian to modern. There are 12 National Historic Sites of Canada.
Sports.
There are no professional sports teams in Fredericton, although both universities have extensive athletic programs. The UNB Reds play in the Atlantic University Sport conference of U Sports and St. Thomas Tommies play in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association conference of the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association for most sports, although their women's hockey team, cross-country teams, and track & field teams play in the Atlantic University Sports conference of U Sports.
Fredericton's high schools compete in a variety of sports in the New Brunswick Interscholastic Athletic Association.
The Junior A hockey team is the Fredericton Red Wings. The former Fredericton Express and Fredericton Canadiens were American Hockey League teams.
Each summer the Fredericton Loyalists host the New Brunswick Timber team which competes in the Rugby Canada Super League.
Parks and recreation.
Trail system.
Fredericton has a network of 25 trails totalling more than on both sides of the Saint John and Nashwaak Rivers. Many of the city trails are rail trails that follow old railway lines. These include the Fredericton Railway Bridge that spans across the Saint John River. The rail trail system in Fredericton is part of the Sentier NB Trail system and some of these trails are also part of the larger Trans-Canada Trail network.
Government.
Fredericton has a non-partisan and Mayor–council government. The mayor and council serve four-year terms with elections in May. The city is divided into 12 wards, (six on each side of the river, one councillor per ward.
The city includes the provincial ridings of Fredericton North, Fredericton-Grand Lake, Fredericton West-Hanwell, Oromocto-Lincoln-Fredericton, New Maryland-Sunbury and Fredericton South, which in 2014 elected the first-ever MLA for the Green Party of New Brunswick, party leader David Coon.
Federally, the city forms most of the riding of Fredericton.
Education and research.
The Anglophone West School District and the District Scolaire Francophone Sud (District 1) run schools including Fredericton High School, École des Bâtisseurs, and the École Sainte-Anne. Leo Hayes High School is a public–private partnership
There are two universities, the UNB, and St. Thomas, the province's only Catholic university.
Colleges include the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, the New Brunswick Community College, and the Maritime College of Forest Technology.
For-profit universities include University of Fredericton and Yorkville University.
The Hugh John Flemming Forestry Centre researches in forestry management. Fredericton's Provincial Research Organization specializes in aquaculture, mining, manufacturing, energy and the environment.
Transportation.
Air service is provided out of the Fredericton International Airport.
Fredericton Transit provides bus service, though not on Sundays.
Fredericton started installing bicycle lanes in July 2008.
Passenger rail service ended in the 1960s, and freight in 1996. All railway tracks have been abandoned and removed.
Fredericton is served by the Maritime Bus fleet which provides connections to points throughout Eastern Canada.
The Trans-Canada Highway passes along the southern municipal boundary. Routes 7 and 8 (the latter being a former alignment of the Trans-Canada) also pass through the city. Two highway bridges, the Westmorland Street Bridge and the Princess Margaret Bridge, cross the Saint John River. Those bridges feed into controlled-access roads (Routes 8 and 105 serving the city's north side.)


Wu Commandery

Wu Commandery was a commandery of imperial China. It covers parts of the contemporary Northern Zhejiang and Southern Jiangsu. The capital of Wu commandery was Wu (today's Suzhou). Major counties of Wu commandery include Wu (county), Yuhang county, and Huating county which later became known as Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai.
History.
During its existence, Wu commandery was ruled by various dynasties and regimes. Chronologically, Han dynasty, Eastern Wu, Jin dynasty, Liu Song dynasty, Southern Qi dynasty, Liang dynasty, Chen dynasty, Sui dynasty and Tang dynasty governed Wu commandery in sequence.
In the year of 129, Wu commandery was established during the reign of emperor Shun of Han. When Kuaiji Commandery was divided, lands west of Qiantang river in Kuaiji commandery formed the new Wu commandery. After the division of Kuaiji, Wu constitutes one of the commanderies of Yang Province.
In 195, local strongman of Fuchun county Sun Ce acquired the entire Wu commandery without the authorization of Han dynasty. His family ruled the commandery until 280. The last ruler of Sun clan Sun Hao divided a part of Wu commandery and formed the new Wuxing Commandery.
In 548, Military leader Hou Jing started an open rebellion against Emperor Wu of Liang. Wu Commandery was occupied by Hou's army during his rebellion. Local lords Lu Xiang, Lu An and Lu Yingong of Lu clan were defeated. Xiang died out of fear and anger. The rebels caused great damage to the commandery's economy. It was recorded that, in Wu, human bodies were eaten as rations of the rebels.
In 589, Emperor Wen of Sui abolished the commandery system and substituted it with "Zhou"(administrative division). Consequently Wu commandery was renamed as Suzhou. However, In 607, Emperor Yang of Sui re-established Wu commandery.
In 758. Wu commandery was once more renamed Suzhou.
Wu commandery ceased to exist nominally in 758 and continued to exist under the name of Suzhou. Shortly after the An Lushan Rebellion, the imperial court enforced heavy taxes on the people of Wu commandery since Wu was not invaded by An's army. However, the tax collection became unbearable for the ordinary peasants of the commandery (An amount of tax that was equivalent to 8 years of laboring was demanded). In 762, a low rank officer of Taizhou Yuan Chao, with angry peasants, stormed and attacked cities of Wu commandery including Suzhou. The Tang court had to pacify Yuan's unexpected rebellion in 763. Yuan was captured by Li Guangbi and was escorted to the capital Chang'An. He was soon executed under the charge of treason.
Functionaries.
According to the bureaucratic system of Han dynasty, every commandery has an identical hierarchy of functionaries.
The top administrator of Wu commandery is Taishou(the top official of a Commandery). In addition, the Taishou has a subordinate Juncheng(vice Taishou and an assistant of its work). Military affairs are entrusted to the Duwei of a commandery. In terms of counties, Ling(an officer) is in charge of a county with more than 10 thousand registered families. Zhang(an officer) is in charge of a county with a population that is less than 10 thousand.
In Wu commandery, many counties reached a relatively large population thus were governed by a Ling. Numerous resources proved Wu, Wucheng , Yuhang, Qu'e, Haiyan, Fuchun, Jiaxing, Yangxian to be some of the large counties with a Ling.
During Jin and Southern dynasties, the top official of commanderies (including Wu commandery) were called Neishi. The Neishi, in practice, did not differ from Taishou in any manner.
Society.
Wu was the home of the four clans of Wu. In Eastern Wu , the four clans were pillars of Emperor Sun Quan's rule. Wu and Huaisi region's lords together formed two main power blocs of Eastern Wu.
Lu Yun, a nobleman of Wu commandery in Jin dynasty, described his native commandery as a culturally and politically advanced region comparable with Zhongyuan. His assertion was validated by the fact that in the records of the three kingdoms, 28 individuals from Wu commandery were biographized making Wu the most prolific source of historically important figures during the three kingdom period.
In Han dynasty, Wu had become known for its economic wealth. The 3rd century intellectual Zuo Si had written a rhymed prose concerning Wu commandery. Through his prose, researchers had discovered Wu's prosperous agriculture. On the other hand, Chen Shou's records indicated a flourishing commercial society in 3rd century Wu commandery.
During the rule of Eastern Wu, the government planned military-led plantations in Wu commandery. The aim was to provide a logistic base for the armies on the mission of border defense (against Cao Wei).
The Disaster of Yongjia forced numerous northern nobles to flee from their homeland. These northern lords later settled down in Wu, Kuaiji and other southern commanderies. However, the four clan's economic, political and social hegemony in Wu was not threatened by Northern immigrants during Jin dynasty.


Administrative divisions of the Yuan dynasty

The Yuan dynasty was a vast empire founded by Mongol leader Kublai Khan in China. During its existence, its territory was divided into the Central Region (腹裏) governed by the Central Secretariat (Zhongshu Sheng) and places under control of various provinces (行省) or Branch Secretariats (行中書省), as well as the region under the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs (Xuanzheng Yuan). In addition, the Yuan emperors held nominal suzerainty over the western Mongol khanates, but in reality none of them were governed by the Yuan dynasty due to the division of the Mongol Empire.
Overview.
The most important part of the Yuan Empire was the Central Region, which covered the region of the Yuan capital Khanbaliq (Dadu, modern Beijing). The Central Region consisted of present-day Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, the south-eastern part of present-day Inner Mongolia and the Henan areas to the north of the Yellow River. Since it was considered the most important region of the dynasty, it was directly governed by the Zhongshu Sheng at Khanbaliq; similarly, another top-level administrative department called the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs (or Xuanzheng Yuan) held administrative rule over Tibet.
Branch Secretariats (行中書省), or simply provinces (行省), were provincial-level administrative organizations or institutions subordinated to the Zhongshu Sheng, though they were not exactly provinces in modern sense. There were 11 "regular" provinces in Yuan dynasty.
Below the level of provinces, the largest political division was the circuit (), followed by lù (), fǔ () and zhōu (). These are three kinds of prefecture-like divisions. The lowest political division was the xiàn or counties ().
Basically, lù is higher than fǔ, and fǔ is higher than zhōu.However, the actual relationship between them could be very complicated. Both lù, fǔ and zhōu could administer counties. Some fǔ and zhōu are directly administered by the province, while some exist inside a lù. A lù usually administers several counties, along with several fǔ and zhōu, and the fǔ or zhōu themselves could also administer their own counties. As a result, it is impossible to exactly define how many tiers of divisions there are under a province.
This government structure at the provincial level was later inherited and modified by the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Special provinces (Branch Secretariats).
These provinces or Branch Secretariats were set up before or during the invasions of certain regions outside the Yuan, such as Japan, Vietnam and Burma. They were usually abolished after the wars.
Region under the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs.
The Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs, or Xuanzheng Yuan was a government agency and top-level administrative department set up in Khanbaliq that supervised Buddhist monks in addition to managing the territory of Tibet. Besides modern-day Tibet Autonomous Region, it also governed a part of Sichuan, Qinghai and Kashmir. It was separate from the other provinces of the Yuan dynasty such as those of former Song dynasty of China, but still under the administrative rule of the Yuan. While no modern equivalents remain, the political functions of the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs might have been analogous to the India Office in London during the British Raj. To emphasize its importance for Hangzhou, the capital of the former Southern Song dynasty, a branch (行) Xuanzheng Yuan was established in that city in 1291.


Robert Faurisson

Robert Faurisson (; born Robert Faurisson Aitken; 25 January 1929 – 21 October 2018) was a British-born French academic who became best known for Holocaust denial. Faurisson generated much controversy with a number of articles published in the "Journal of Historical Review" and elsewhere, and by letters to French newspapers, especially "Le Monde", which contradicted the history of the Holocaust by denying the existence of gas chambers in Nazi death camps, the systematic killing of European Jews using gas during the Second World War, and the authenticity of "The Diary of Anne Frank". After the passing of the Gayssot Act against Holocaust denial in 1990, Faurisson was prosecuted and fined, and in 1991 he was dismissed from his academic post.
Early life and education.
Faurisson is believed to be one of seven children born in Shepperton, Middlesex, England to a French father and a Scottish mother.
He studied French, Latin and Greek literature ("Lettres classiques"), and passed the agrégation (the highest competitive examination to qualify to be a secondary school teacher) in 1956. He became a high school teacher at Vichy, while working on a PhD thesis about the poet Lautréamont. He obtained his doctorate in 1972. He then became a lecturer, and then professor of French literature at the University of Lyon between 1973 and 1990.
In Vichy, as a young teacher, he gained attention when he published an interpretation of Rimbaud's "Sonnet des voyelles" as an erotic text. Around 1960, he developed political sympathies for the colonialist cause in Algeria (the "Algérie française" movement), and was arrested in the belief he was a member of the "OAS", a terrorist organisation.
Holocaust denial.
In 1974, Faurisson contacted Yad Vashem with a lengthy letter detailing a variety of arguments which he claimed demonstrated that there had been no genocide of Jews during World War II. These assertions were based on his own interpretation of archival records and his skepticism about the assertions and testimony of various historical figures, including Nazi officials such as Rudolf Höss.
He became involved with the Institute for Historical Review during the 1970s, lecturing and publishing prolifically. He twice testified in defense of Canadian-German Holocaust denier and Neo-Nazi Ernst Zündel, and his testimony has been associated with laying the groundwork for the "Leuchter Report", an influential Holocaust-denial publication. Faurisson's activism garnered him several dedicated critics, including the Jewish French historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet.
"The Diary of Anne Frank".
In 1978, Faurisson authored a French-language text, ""The Diary of Anne Frank" Is It Authentic?". It appeared in Dutch-language translation in 1985, with the modified title, ""The Diary of Anne Frank" A Forgery". The text questioned the credibility of various elements in "The Diary of Anne Frank".
The website of the historian Deborah Lipstadt, Holocaust Denial on Trial, argues that Faurisson's treatise ignored details within Anne Frank's account that explain the aspects he deemed implausible, as well as observable details within the Anne Frank House.
Faurisson interviewed Otto Frank in researching the piece, though much of what Faurisson asserted Frank had said was later contradicted by Frank himself. Faurisson's writing on the subject first came into the spotlight during a court case between Otto Frank and Heinz Roth, a publishing-house owner responsible for the circulation of various neo-Nazi writings, including several publications impugning the authenticity of Anne Frank's diary; Faurisson's writing on the subject was entered into the court record as an expert opinion in defense of Roth. The 1978 finding of the court was that Roth must refrain from publishing any further reading material claiming the diary was a fraud.
Faurisson affair.
One of Faurisson's works, "Mémoire en défense", was published in 1980, prefaced by an essay by Noam Chomsky. While Chomsky had given general approval for his essay to be reproduced by others, it was included without his knowledge. Chomsky's piece was a general defense of freedom of speech, including that of Faurisson. Chomsky stated that "I see no anti-Semitic implications in denial of the existence of gas chambers, or even denial of the Holocaust...I see no hint of anti-Semitic implications in Faurisson's work," and considered Faurisson as a "relatively apolitical liberal of some sort". Chomsky was accused of supporting Faurisson, rather than defending his right to free speech, which Chomsky denied. Noting that he had described the Holocaust as "the most fantastic outburst of collective insanity in human history", Chomsky argued that his views were "diametrically opposed" to those of Faurisson on the subject.
Legal and other consequences.
Faurisson was fined by a French court in 1983, for having declared that "Hitler never ordered nor permitted that anyone be killed by reason of his race or religion."
In September 1989, Faurisson was beaten by unknown assailants claiming to be "The Sons of the Memory of the Jews", an organization about which nothing has been discovered either before or since the incident. Faurisson had been walking his dog in a park in Vichy and was kicked and punched by three young men, breaking his jaw.
Shortly after the Gayssot Act—a statute that prohibited Holocaust denial—was enacted in 1990, Faurisson was convicted of Holocaust denial in a French court. In 1991, Faurisson was removed from his university chair under the Gayssot Act on the basis of his denialist views. He challenged the statute as a violation of international law, specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, at the Human Rights Committee. Faurisson filed a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Committee in 1993; in 1996, the Committee rejected Faurisson's claim that France's prosecution of him was a violation of the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Committee upheld the Gayssot Act as "serv[ing] the respect of the Jewish community to live free from fear of an atmosphere of anti-semitism" and necessary "to serve the struggle against racism and anti-semitism".
He challenged the statute as Faurisson was charged again in a trial on 11 July 2006. He was accused of denying the Holocaust in an interview with the Iranian television station "Sahar 1" in February 2005. On 3 October 2006, he was given a three-month probationary sentence and fined €7,500 for this offence.
Later life.
In December 2006, Faurisson gave a speech at the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, which was sponsored by the government of Iran.
Beginning in late 2008, Faurisson became close to the comedian and political activist Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, appearing with him publicly on stage and in video, and celebrating his (Faurisson's) 80th birthday in his theater. Dieudonné awarded Robert Faurisson an "insolent outcast" prize. The award was presented by one of Dieudonné's assistants, Jacky, dressed in a concentration camp uniform with a yellow badge. This earned Dieudonné a court conviction.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad granted Faurisson an award for "courage" in Tehran, Iran on 2 February 2012.


Charleston riot

The Charleston riot occurred on March 28, 1864, in Charleston, Illinois, after Union soldiers and local Republicans clashed with local insurgent Democrats known as Copperheads. By the time the riot had subsided, nine were dead and twelve had been wounded. It is generally thought that one of the events that triggered the riot was the treatment of Judge Charles H. Constable by Union soldiers. The soldiers humiliated Constable by making him swear allegiance to the federal government, due to his decision to allow four Union deserters to go free in Marshall, Illinois. When the riot began, Judge Constable was holding court in Charleston.
Copperheads.
The news coverage of the event stated that the Peace Democrats were responsible for beginning the event. One such news source, from the "Chicago Tribune", later reprinted in the "Charleston Courier", labeled Nelson Wells as the instigator of the conflict. Most articles published from the time, insist that the whole event transpired as a more spontaneous event and was not directly prompted by any one individual. The most likely explanation is that the event occurred because a sizable presence of both Copperheads and Union soldiers had been in town that day. Also many sources speculate that a sizable portion of the participants, at least on the side of the Peace Democrats, had been drinking quite heavily all day, and this led to the outbreak that resulted in the confrontation. At any rate, the fighting only lasted a few moments. But by the time the affair was over, the Copperheads had been run out of Charleston. Rewards had been issued for the capture of any of those whom fled the scene. Included in those who left town, was John O’Hair, the leader of the Copperheads, who had been the sheriff of Coles County. Out of those killed, only two had been Copperheads, Nelson Wells and John Cooper; the other participants had been either captured or escaped. Other Union troops were called in from Mattoon to assist the soldiers fighting in Charleston, but by the time their train arrived, none of the instigators were left in the town. Fifteen prisoners were eventually held for seven months, initially in Springfield, Illinois. President Lincoln, whose father and stepmother had lived in Coles County, waived the prisoners' right to Habeas Corpus and ordered their removal to Fort Delaware in the East. He ordered their release on November 4, 1864. Two of the prisoners had been indicted for murder and were exonerated by trial in December, 1864. Twelve other Copperheads had also been indicted for murder. They were never captured, and the indictments were annulled in May 1873.
The terms Copperheads and Butternuts were used to describe the larger movement, which has been known as Peace Democrats. This political affiliation which stirred up support, as David Montgomery points out in "Beyond Equality: Labor and the Radical Republicans", by incorporating the fears that the federal government’s war effort sought to usurp the constitution. The copperheads incorporated a racial component to their disdain for the Republican war effort, as Montgomery points out, that emancipated Negroes would flood the North, because of the Emancipation Proclamation. Using racially charged rhetoric, Copperheads sought to unite opposition to the Radical Republicans. This had become a national phenomenon during the American Civil War. Democrat sympathizers were battling to keep their country from becoming, in their eyes, too radical.
Coles County.
The Copperheads represented a political affiliation that was staunchly opposed to President Lincoln, the draft, and abolition of slavery. This group favored an armistice to end the Civil War because they opposed the war itself. Most components of Copperhead ideology centered on the mistrust of the implications the war presented to American society. In particular, the aim to free the slaves had become an issue that some white natives of Illinois took issue with. The Civil War had split the country into factions, either side chose to support or oppose the aim to reincorporate the Southern states back into the Union. The Copperheads believed the Lincoln Administration had been out of line by abolishing slavery. Some citizens of Coles County accepted the ideology that it was not in the best interest of the country to free the slaves. Although the exact number is hard to gauge it has been estimated, by Victor Hicken in "Illinois in the Civil War", that Coles County had been a significant pocket of Copperhead sympathizers. This idea is supported by the fact that John O’Hair, the leader of the Copperheads, had been the sheriff of Coles County during the Civil War.
In the end, the Charleston Riot provides a good example of how local events of Coles County history have fit into national currents as well. The Copperheads of Coles County had been different from other dissenting groups from around the country, in that they chose to use physical violence as their method of dissent. By killing Union soldiers, who had become the emblem of Federal government control, the Copperheads were attempting to project their anger toward the government. The draft, a strong central government, and racism fueled the Copperheads support within the county. In March 1864, these national tensions boiled over in the small town of Charleston, creating one of the most interesting events in the history of the county.
Casualities.
The nine men killed include: Major Shuball York, Fifty-fourth Illinois Infantry; Privates Oliver Sallee and James Goodrich, Company C, and John Neer and Alfred Swin, Company G, Fifty-fourth Illinois Infantry; Private William G. Hart, Sixty-second Illinois Infantry; John Jenkins, citizen (loyal); Nelson Wells, citizen (copperhead); John Cooper, citizen (copperhead). The wounded include: Colonel G.M. Mitchell, Fifty-fourth Illinois; Privates William H. Decker, Company G, Landford Noyes, Company I, and George Ross, Company C, Fifty-fourth Illinois; citizens Thomas Jeffers, William Giolman, Young E. Winkler, Robert Winkler, John W. Herndon, and George J. Collins. Colonel G.M. Mitchell prepared this list as part of a report he sent to Lieutenant Colonel James Oakes on April 8, 1864.
54th Illinois Infantry Regiment.
The Adjutant General's Report records the event.
″January 1864, three-fourths of the Regiment re-enlisted, as veteran volunteers, and were mustered February 9th, 1864. Left for Mattoon, Illinois, for veteran furlough, March 28th. Veteran furlough having expired, the Regiment re-assembled at Mattoon. The same day an organized gang of Copperheads, led by Sheriff O’Hair, attacked some men of the Regiment at Charleston, killing Major Shubal York, Surgeon, and four privates, and wounding Colonel G. M. Mitchell. One hour later the Regiment arrived from Mattoon and occupied the town, capturing some of the most prominent traitors.″
Dyer's Regimental History records the riot in the Regimental Battle Honors
″Veterans on furlough March and April. Riot at Charleston, I11., March 28°


2007 Pakistan riots


Urban Eden

Urban Eden is a pressure group based in Milton Keynes, England, formed in 2006. The group states that its aim is to "promote a sustainable expansion to the original masterplan for Milton Keynes". In recent years the expansion of Milton Keynes has moved away from the original design principles of the city; Urban Eden campaigns against this trend, pressuring for new developments to remain true to the original vision for the new city. the group says that it has over one hundred members, including a number of professional engineers and town planners, as well as some former employees of the Milton Keynes Development Corporation.
Campaigns.
According to their main website, Urban Eden's main campaign focuses can be broadly summarised to the following:
The first two of these points are expanded below.
The Grid System.
One of Urban Eden's primary goals is the continued expansion of the Milton Keynes grid road system. The system, unique in the UK, is based around a grid layout of national speed limit, landscaped roads, many of them dual carriageways, situated on average 1 km apart. The current plans for the expansion of Milton Keynes do not extend this system, instead constructing roads that Milton Keynes Partnership describe as 'city streets', which form the spine roads of the new districts. The group argues that these city streets do not provide sufficient room for future expansion, restrict pedestrian, cycle and car movement and are dangerous. They argue that the grid system, with its lack of frontage development and its regular pedestrian/cycle underpasses, provides a much safer pedestrian/cycle environment and allows all modes of transport to move more freely. On the other hand, Milton Keynes Partnership argue that the grid system may not be the most sustainable transport system for the expansion areas, and creates a barrier effect between residential areas.
Building density.
Milton Keynes, from its conception in 1967, has always been a low-density city. Notwithstanding the various areas of parkland dotted around the city, the residential districts themselves are laid out with generous amounts of open space for a British settlement. However, as is the current policy across the UK, developments have tended towards higher densities over the last decade. Recently Central Milton Keynes has seen the construction of tower blocks, something which was excluded in the original city masterplan. New districts such as Broughton have been built to much higher densities than ever before seen in Milton Keynes. Milton Keynes Partnership, a subsidiary of Homes and communities agency and the organisation in control of the expansion of Milton Keynes, argues that higher densities are necessary to deliver high-quality transport systems and meet housing targets. Urban Eden argues that the high-density districts have the potential to become "instant slums" and are out of place in a city which has always been built at a low density. High-density districts are now being built in many towns and cities across the country, and this debate is not limited to Milton Keynes.
Urban Eden in local media.
The group's activities have attracted much attention from the local media, as well as a small amount of national media attention. The group's chairman, Theo Chalmers, writes a monthly column for a local business magazine on the matters campaigned on by the group. In 2006, the group ran a two-page article in the MK Citizen named "plane crash", describing the cutting of the plane trees in Central Milton Keynes. All in all the group's efforts have resulted in much debate within the Milton Keynes, and their campaigns have drawn the attention of local and regional planning bodies. At least one development within Milton Keynes, the former Millennium Community at Oakgrove, was changed to protect a stretch of grid road that was proposed to be downgraded, although it is unclear as to whether or not this was a result of Urban Eden's campaigning.


Yanmen Commandery

Yanmen Commandery was an administrative subdivision ("jùn") of the state of Zhao established BC and of northern imperial Chinese dynasties until AD758. It occupied lands in what is now Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Its first seat was at Shanwu (near present-day Youyu, Shanxi); its later seats moved southeast to the more defensible sites at Yinguan (within present-day Shuozhou, Shanxi) and Guangwu (near present-day Daixian, Shanxi).
Name.
The name derives from Yanmen Pass in Shanxi's Dai County. Yanmen, meaning "Wild Goose Pass" or "Wildgoose Gate", takes its name from the wild geese that migrate through the area.
History.
Zhao Kingdom.
Yanmen Commandery was first established around 300BC during China's Warring States Period by the state of Zhao's King Yong, posthumously known as the Wuling ("Martial-&-Numinous") King. It covered territory in what is now northern Shanxi and southern Inner Mongolia. He created Yanmen Commandery along with its companion commanderies of Dai and Yunzhong to consolidate his conquests from invasions of the Loufan ( "Lóufán") and "forest nomads" or "barbarians" ( "Línhú") in 306 and 304BC. He protected these new lands by raising earthen walls along their northern border, close to what is now Hohhot in Inner Mongolia. Garrisons and forts were also placed at strategic spots within the new territory, such as Yanmen Pass between the northern plains and the Hutuo Valley. In the mid-3rd centuryBC, the Yanmen governor Li Mu, relocated there under the command of Handan used these interior defenses and drills the commandery's citizens to minimize casualties to good effect when he lured more than 100,000 Xiongnu horsemen into the heart of the commandery before defeating them with 160,000 chariots, cavalry, and archers.
Qin Empire.
Under the Qin, Yanmen was one of the commanderies which made up the principal divisions of the empire. Its seat was at Shanwu, south of present-day Youyu in Shanxi. Its territory ran from present-day Shanxi's Hequ, Wuzhai, and Ningwu Counties in the south to Inner Mongolia's Huangqi and Dai Lakes in the north; its eastern border was near Mount Heng. The Zhao wall was connected to those of the other former states as part of the Great Wall. This territory was divided into:
Western Han Empire.
Under the Han, Yanmen Commandery maintained its seat at Shanwu. It was part of the realm of Dai, used as an appanage of the imperial kings and a title of rebels like Han Xin and Chen Xi. Han-era Yanmen included the Qin-era counties above, excluding Xincheng and Wangtao, with the addition of:
Eastern Han Empire.
Under the Eastern Han, the commandery seat was moved to Yinguan, present-day Xiaguancheng Village southeast of Shuozhou in Shanxi.
Wei Kingdom.
During China's Three Kingdoms Period, Wei moved the commandery seat to Guangwu, southwest of present-day Daixian in Shanxi. The district is recorded as having 12,600 households around AD285.
Eastern Wei.
During China's Northern and Southern Dynasties Period, Eastern Wei had the commandery seat at Daixian in what is now Shanxi. During the 540s, the district is recorded having 30,434 people living in 6,328 households.
Sui Empire.
Under the Sui, Yanmen Commandery was abolished in 583, then revived in 607. It was recorded as having 42,502 households in 609.
Tang Empire.
Under the Tang, Yanmen Commandery was part of Hedong Circuit until it was abolished and replaced by Dai Prefecture in 618, although it was temporarily restored between 742 and 758. During the Tang, the name was retained as an honorary title: the generals Tian Chengsi, Tian Xu, Tian Ji'an, and Wang Zhixing were created "Prince" or "King of Yanmen" ("Yànménwáng").
In 882, Yanmen Defense Command ("Yanmen Jiedushi") was also briefly established to oversee local defense. It had its seat at present-day Daixian, Shanxi. In 883, its name was changed to Daibei.


Kescusulyans Kernow (Conference of Cornwall)

Kescusulyans Kernow (Conference of Cornwall) was an independent non-political Cornish conference which was held twice yearly at Perranporth, Cornwall, England, UK, between 1987-1994. It was formed to promote research into Cornish current affairs and the culture of Cornwall and was originally started by members of Cowethas Flamank, an organisation founded in 1969. Of special interest to Kescusulyans Kernow was the issue of the Cornish Constitution implicit in the creation of the Duchy of Cornwall.
The conference also looked into the need for a Cornish European Parliamentary Constituency. It had a special interest in developing a higher profile on Cornish rights issues and coordination and dissemination of any views which identified infringements of Cornish human rights. One of the founding members of the organisation was John Bolitho, a former Grand Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh and the conference included a range of members from other organisations such as Mebyon Kernow, the Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament, Gorsedh Kernow and Cornish Solidarity. Other aims of the group were to raise awareness of Cornish culture, politics and society, both within Britain and internationally. One example of a working group formed from Kescusulyans Kernow is the Cornish Bureau for European Relations (CoBER), established in 1987.
In 1995 some members of Kescusulyans Kernow and Cowethas Flamank joined to form "Tyr-Gwyr-Gweryn" (meaning 'Land-Truth-People' in the Cornish language).
External links.


Faraba shooting

The Faraba shooting was an incident in the town of Faraba Banta, The Gambia, that took place on 18 June 2018. During a protest against mining operations, officers of the Gambia Police Force used live ammunition, firing on protesters. Two were killed instantly, with a third dying two days later. A number of other protestors and police officers were injured during the confrontation.
Background.
In 2018 in the town of Faraba Banta, 50km south of Banjul, a contract was awarded to the Julakey Company to conduct sand mining operations in the area. Accusations were leveled that the contract had been awarded without consulting the local village council and stakeholders in the project. The week prior to the shooting, the National Assembly's Committee on the Environment had ordered the Julakey Company to cease operations pending the outcome of an investigation into their operations. However, due to complications in communications, by the day of the incident the company had yet to receive an official letter from the committee asking them to do so.
Incident.
On 18 June 2018, a number of angry local residents took to the streets of Faraba Banta to protest the mining company. Parts of the protest turned violent, and five trucks that were loading sand in the mining area were set on fire by Faraba youths. Youths were also seen targeting compounds belonging to Bo Jarju, Ba Jambang Sanyang, Bakary Saidy, and Nuha Kujabi, among others, who had all been involved in the mining operations. Their house materials were removed and set on fire.
A detachment of the Gambia Police Force's Police Intervention Unit (PIU) was dispatched to deal with the protest. The protesters clashed, and a number of PIU officers sustained injuries. These were later named as Modou Dem, Alie Camara, and Momodou Jallow. Camara was identified as the PIU officer who fired live ammunition at the protesters. Bakary Kujabi and Ismalie Bah were killed instantly. Amadou Nyang-Jawo, a student at The Gambia College, was hospitalised at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital in Banjul. Masanneh Njie, Salaman Darboe, Jalaman Darboe, Pa Jammeh, Sainey Sonko, Sheriffo Touray, Dawda Daffeh, Buba Sanyang, and Francis Jambang were all injured in the clash and taken to Brikama Major Hospital.
Nyang-Jawo died in hospital on 20 June, having previously been in a critical state.
Responses.
Activists and human rights organisations.
Mustapha Camara, a youth leader from Faraba and eyewitness to the incident, tearfully condemned the killing of unarmed youths by the PIU. He called on the government to launch an immediate investigation. Two international human rights organisations, the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA), and Article 19, called on the government to investigate the shooting via an independent investigation.
Police.
Following the incident, Landing Kinteh, the Inspector General of Police, denied giving police officers the authority to use live ammunition during the incident. He released a statement saying that his office "will investigate the circumstances that led to this unfortunate incident." On 21 June, Kinteh resigned from his role as Inspector General, under pressure to allow through an independent investigation. His deputy, Alahagie Mamour Jobe, took over the role in an acting capacity.
Government.
The day after the incident, the office of President Adama Barrow released a statement saying that he was "deeply saddened" by the reports. He had ordered a thorough investigation into the matter as soon as possible. He called for "calm and restraint" and also issued a directive for all mining activities to be suspended until further notice. In the week following the incident, Barrow appointed a presidential commission of enquiry, appointed a coroner, and visited victims in the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital. On 22 June, Barrow visited the town of Faraba. He led the Friday prayer before speaking, saying "It is not only Faraba Banta that is in mourning, but the entire country is in shock and mourning."
Investigation.
Five police officers involved in the shooting, including two superintendents, were taken into custody by the police. On 21 June, it was announced that Barrow had appointed a commission of enquiry into the incident, to be chaired by human rights lawyer Emmanuel Joof. The commission would have five other members, consisting of a representative from the Ministry of Justice, the Gambia Bar Association, the Gambia Armed Forces, the State Intelligence Services, and The Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (TANGO). On 6 July, the members of the commission were sworn-in by President Barrow, and were as follows: