According to the account by an unnamed Colombo correspondent, "The detainees attacked guards with improvised weapons. Furniture was smashed, tube lights and ceiling fans wrenched out, toilets reduced to a shambles, doors and windows shattered. The buildings of the Vidyodaya university now look like cattle sheds. The damage caused in the science department of this university alone is estimated at about Rs 1 million [1 rupee equals US$.168]."

The correspondent also reported that pictures of Lenin, Marx, and Che Guevara adorn the walls of the campus-prison.

According to the Paris daily Le Monde of October 7, the Lanka Sama Samaja party, threatened disciplinary measures against lawyers who undertake to defend any person suspected of having supported the April "insurrection." November 9, 1946
Faced with an AFL United Mine Workers ultimatum backed by a threat of a strike on Nov. 1, the Truman administration hastily backed down last week on its "get-tough-with-the-miners" attitude and agreed to begin discussions looking toward revision of its contract with the 400,000 soft coal miners.

On the eve of the conference, Capt. N.H. Collison, Coal Mines Administrator, announced a preliminary concession to the Miners.

The government has agreed, after previous refusal, to provide retroactive payments of vacation pay based on employment prior to the government's seizure of the mines on May 22.

Collison, who had previously said the government would "absolutely not" agree to reopen the contract, announced at the opening of the discussions that he had full authority to discuss all disputed issues, including wages, hours and working conditions.

The UMW committee promptly indicated the union is seeking important improvements in the contract by November 20, covering wage increases, reduced hours, and many other demands.  
 
 
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