''The Ceylonese'' was an

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

newspaper in

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

founded by

P. Ramanathan Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, CMG, King's Counsel, KC ( ta, பொன்னம்பலம் இராமநாதன், translit=Poṉṉampalam Irāmanātaṉ; 16 April 1851 – 26 November 19 ...

and other leading figures. The newspaper started on 5 March 1913 with Americans H. H. Marcus as manager and Tom Wright as editor. The paper was based at Tichborne Hall, Tichborne Avenue in

Maradana Maradana is a suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Maradana is the site of Maradana Railway Station, one of the primary railway hubs in the country, serving intercity rail and commuter rail. Maradana also has many railway yards and running sheds. A te ...

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

. The paper's other directors included

Hector Alfred Jayewardene Hector Alfred Wijesinghe Jayewardene (22 July 1870 – 16 October 1913) was a Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) lawyer and politician. He was one of the prominent lawyers of his time, he was active in the political movement in Ceylon. He was an elected m ...

and Francis de Zoysa. The paper was editorially nationalistic and was run like an American newspaper, a contrast to other Ceylonese papers which were run according to the British model. Ramanthan used the paper to promote his candidature for the Educated Ceylonese seat in the

Legislative Council of Ceylon The Legislative Council of Ceylon was the legislative body of British Ceylon, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) established in 1833, along with the Executive Council of Ceylon, on the recommendations of the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission. It was the first f ...

. During the 1911 election the de Soysa family had used their paper, ''The Morning Leader'', to attack Ramanthan so that their relative

Marcus Fernando Sir Hilarion Marcus Fernando, FRCP (21 October 1864 – 18 December 1936) was a pre-independence Ceylonese statesman, physician and banker. He was a member of both the executive council and legislative council as well as the chairman of the Stat ...

would win the election. This tactic failed with Ramanthan defeating Fernando by 1,645 votes to 981 votes. After some time differences arose between the paper's directors and Ramanathan resigned from the board of directors. The remaining directors and shareholders continued to use the paper to promote their own interests.

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

also impacted on the paper - there was war-time censorship and the cost of newsprint, ink, types and machinery soared. The paper faced serious financial problems - it was making a loss and had large debts. F. R. Senanayake issued a

writ In common law, a writ (Anglo-Saxon ''gewrit'', Latin ''breve'') is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, a ...

to auction the paper's assets in order to recover a

Rs. Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

21,000 loan. As a result, the paper ceased publication in late 1917.

D. R. Wijewardena Don Richard Wijewardena ( Sinhala:දොන් රිච්ඩ් විජෙවර්ධන) (23 February 1886 – 13 June 1950) was a Sri Lankan press baron who was involved in the Sri Lankan independence movement. A successful entrepreneur ...

saw ''The Ceyloneses demise as an opportunity to grow his fledgling media empire. The auction for the paper's assets took place in December 1917. At the auction Senanayake and his brother

D. S. Senanayake Don Stephen Senanayake ( si, දොන් ස්ටීවන් සේනානායක,; ta, டி. எஸ். சேனநாயக்கா; 21 October 1884 – 22 March 1952) was a Ceylonese statesman. He was the first Prime Mi ...

asked Wijewardena to make a bid of Rs. 21,000, the amount of the writ, but bidding was slow. Wijewardena was able to buy the paper's

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

and goodwill with a bid of Rs. 16,000. He also paid off the remainder of

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any pu ...

held by F. R. Senanayake. Wijewardena subsequently started the ''

Ceylon Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an English-language newspaper in Sri Lanka. It is now published by the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (Lake House), a government-owned corporation. The newspaper commenced publishing on 3 January 1918. D. R. Wije ...

'' on 3 January 1918 using ''The Ceylonese'' assets.

Notes

References

* * 1913 establishments in Ceylon 1917 disestablishments in Ceylon Defunct English-language newspapers published in Sri Lanka Newspapers established in 1913 Publications disestablished in 1917 {{SriLanka-newspaper-stub