611.46E/7–2054
The Ambassador in Ceylon (Crowe) to the Department of State
Subject:
- Anti-Americanism in Ceylon
One of the most disturbing trends in Ceylon today is the growth of anti-American sentiment, apparently among all classes of the people. The newspapers, both European and vernacular, attack the United States on every possible issue; politicians campaign against the Colossus of the West; and there are even religious leaders and university professors who seek to make capital at the expense of our country.
The reasons behind this antagonistic attitude are complex and divergent—so much so, in fact, that many intelligent Ceylonese, when questioned, have difficulty phrasing exactly why they feel as they do, and are apt to pin their argument on some specific point of difference such as the rubber deal with China or US policy in Indo China. Those who think more deeply about the matter—and there are many firm friends of America in Ceylon who do think about it—are inclined to lay the reason to a broader issue. They believe that the underlying basis for anti-American feeling in Ceylon, and for that matter in most of the East, is due to resentment against the materialistic aspects of American life. They rationalize that because we put so much store by material wealth, we must be primarily motivated by it and must furthermore be guided by these false standards in our foreign policies.
This distrust is not confined to the United States nor were we responsible for its beginnings. Having been successively invaded and occupied for the past three hundred years by first the Portuguese then the Dutch and finally the British, the Ceylonese say they have good reason to turn a quizzical eye on any maneuvers of the white races in this part of the world. American support of French and British colonialism has also been held against us. Bao Dai, Syngman Rhee and Chiang Kai-shek are frequently attacked as American puppets who enjoy little if any support in the countries of their origin. The grim consequences of a U.S. failure to support them seldom seems to be considered.
Ceylon is a Buddhist nation and as such is basically opposed to communism and all it stands for, but in somewhat the same religious sense she is also opposed to “American imperialism”. I have talked with many men of intelligence and position who theoretically at least see little difference between the two isms. Pressed, they always break down to admitting that America is certainly the lesser of the two evils (and the only one in which they would care to live) but that does not stop them from feeling an underlying suspicion of our motives in this part of the world. Even the communist propaganda line that [Page 1617] America only fights wars in behalf of trade has many adherents among men who would be the first to condemn Russian influence in Ceylon.
The recent rightist revolution in Guatemala was construed as a US attempt to dominate a small neighboring country.1 Editorials in some liberal British newspapers, especially the Manchester Guardian, which attacked us viciously on this issue, were reprinted in full in the local papers. When I brought up the similarity between measures used to suppress communism in British Guiana and Malaya and those exerted by the anti-red forces in Guatemala it was admitted that I had a point but most people still thought of Guatemala as a little country, about the size of Ceylon, whose politics were being influenced by her powerful neighbor.
Recognition of Red China by America is another sore point. Even though most Ceylonese fear India, due mainly to the historic fact that India has repeatedly invaded Ceylon, they are inclined to go along with Mr. Nehru’s thesis that it is possible to build a neutral bloc in southeast Asia and by moral pressure repulse any further aggressive attempts that might be made by Red China or Russia. US recognition of Mao’s government of course plays an important part in any such idealistic scheme.
The appeal of neutrality is a logical one for a nation of only eight millions of peoples. Some leading Ceylonese statesmen, in fact, would like to see Ceylon become “the Switzerland of the East”, an island whose neutrality would be respected by all nations and whose good offices as an intermediary would be universally acknowledged.
Be this as it may, the prevailing sentiment in Ceylon is strongly antiwar and most people think that America is quite willing to plunge Asia into battle with the Communist countries if it happens to suit her purposes. They point out heatedly that this war would be fought over their island with their cities as targets and their population as innocent victims. The alternative of red domination does not appear anything like as gruesome an alternative. A leading lawyer told me recently that undoubtedly his class would be liquidated, but he did not think communism would cause much change in the life of the peasants. I naturally took sharp issue on this but I do not think he is alone in his thinking.
The atom bomb is also a political hot potato for us in Ceylon. I am often asked “why did the United States single out an Asian nation on which to drop the first bomb?” There is a deep seated feeling that the United States is quite willing to use Asiatics as guinea pigs. Remarks in the American papers to the effect that “Asians should fight Asians” have most unfortunate repercussions here. This resentment is underlined by the erroneous impression that the great powers have neglected to consult the Colombo powers in regard to the Indo China war.
[Page 1618]The rubber deal with Red China has always been a source of virulent anti-American propaganda. It is contended that it was only because America was unwilling to pay a price higher than that of the world market for Ceylon’s rubber that the deal with China was consummated. Since Ceylon was at that time short of rice and needed money to import it, critics of US policy also say that by not paying more for Ceylon’s rubber America was in effect starving her people and consequently forced the Ceylon Government into the China deal in order to feed them. The fact that Ceylon was the only rubber producing country to demand such a subsidy and that if the United States gave it to Ceylon she would be establishing a precedent for paying above the market prices for the commodities of other friendly nations, is either ignored or not clearly understood.
Resentment at the United States over the rubber deal is compounded by the Battle Act, a United States congressional decision that prohibits the giving of American aid to nations which violate the ruling of the United Nations against trading with a proclaimed aggressor. Ceylon is not a member of the United Nations and is not violating any of its tenets, but America, as a member of the United Nations, must be governed by its rulings whether she likes it or not. This point is not clearly understood in Ceylon either.
Today America is being accused, often by men who know better, of offering aid in exchange for the breaking of the rubber agreement. This is, of course, completely untrue. America has never offered Ceylon any aid as an inducement to stop trading with Red China. The gambit makes easy oratory, however, and continually crops up as an example of America’s “underhanded attempt to put strings on her so-called benevolent gestures.”
Less obvious but equally insidious are the constant references to McCarthy, the Oppenheimer case, southern agitation against the segregation decision of the Supreme Court, etc. Many of these stories are reruns from the leftist British press and are made to appear to reflect British public opinion. Far more space is often given to Attlee’s opinions on world affairs than to Churchill’s. No one is more pleased with this state of affairs than the local communist party who are only too delighted to rub salt in the smallest crack in Anglo-American relations.
Another source of friction between Ceylon and the United States is the calibre of the moving pictures and comic books imported from America. Many of the former portray exactly the kind of selfish and materialistic existence that the Ceylonese have been led to expect in the American scene. I have been asked by responsible travelled persons if it is really true that gangs of children terrorize the slums of big American cities. I have then been shown US-made comic books that obviously encourage exactly this type of juvenile crime.
[Page 1619]I began this report with the observation that anti-Americanism is growing in Ceylon. As far as I have been able to ascertain, however, this antipathy is almost solely concerned with the past and present policies of various American governments and is not directed against American nationals in Ceylon. Even the newspapers, which often reveal an underlying anti-white bias, refrain usually from unfavorable personal attacks on us. The managers of the resident American firms appear to enjoy the confidence and respect of their workers and clients and so far have not reported any reaction from the anti-American campaign.
The Government of Ceylon itself is firmly anti-communist and friendly to America. Sympathy for the West has been repeatedly expressed by the present Premier, Sir John Kotelawala, whose position at the Asian Prime Ministers Conference and on the passage via Ceylon of French troops in US Globemasters to Indo China left no doubt as to where he stands. I believe furthermore that the majority of his ministers have substantially the same attitude.
Efforts to combat anti-American feeling are necessarily conditioned by the number and calibre of persons that the Embassy and the United States Information Service are able to reach and influence. I believe that the various grants allowing Ceylonese to travel and study in America are without any doubt the best method of selling them what America is really like and, more important, what her government and people stand for. Outstanding men and women have been picked for these grants and in almost all cases justified our choice by becoming firm friends of America. Such grants, of course, are limited and can be given to only fifteen men or women per year.
The United States Information Service does a fine job, within its limited budget, to reach and influence a broad market. Three newspapers—an English, Sinhalese and Tamil edition with a combined circulation of around 10,000 copies—are published weekly. A well-stocked library is maintained on one of the busiest corners in downtown Colombo and a mobile film unit is sent to outlying towns and villages. Recently the arrival of the USIS film truck in a small market town coincided with a political rally at which the speaker, an ex-minister of the present government, violently attacked the United States. He was cheered but when he finished the crowd filed happily into the USIS show.
The Committee for Free Asia, an organization privately financed in America, is also doing a great deal of good work in Ceylon. By contributing to projects that help everyone, the Committee has made many friends for America who answer critics by asking how it is that American Imperialism benefits from a library in Jaffna or a cottage industry workshop in Galle.