Ceylon, Britain Dissected

Ceylon's history has led to a complex social pattern, aggravated by accelerating overpopulation and chronic unemployment, Jeunesse Rajasingham told a capacity audience at the first International Seminar Forum in Littauer Auditorium Tuesday night.

Past invasions, Mrs. Rajasingham said, have left the island with two major races and created a serious language problem.

Economically, Ceylon's problems stem from the plantation system instituted by the British before 1932, she said. In that year constitutional reform was undertaken, bringing internal self-rule and the universal franchse.

Nationalism is on the rise, she noted, but the Communist party has remained small.

Three British members of the Seminar, answering prepared questions and queries from the floor, comprised the second half of the Forum.

On the subject of British culture, Keith Godwin, sculptor and Lecturer at London University, summed up, "We're doing quite nicely, thank you."

Turning to British nationalized health service, Dennis Howell, a Laborite Member of Parlament, debated several points with John Wood, former member of the research department of the Conservative Party, although both agreed on the principle of the program.

Howell attributed the plan's economic difficulties largely to the high cost of drugs, while Wood charged that the quality of medical care had deteriorated too many patients. The problem is purely mathematical, Howell countered, and will disappear when more doctors appear, because doctors were required to handle The great expense of the program, he continued, is proof of its wide success.

On the Cyprus queston, Howell said the best solution lay in self-determination following a period of peaceful joint rule with the British.