R.E. de Alwis (1891-1945) – Lake House’s scoop-getter in the DR Wijewardene era

(Excerpted from Selected Journalism by HAJ Hulugalle)

R.E. de Alwis, one of the greatest newspaper men Ceylon has produced, died 25 years ago (when this book was published) on April 13. The news of his death came to his colleagues with a shock as he was at the peak of his career as a journalist and apparently in good health.

I say he was a great newspaperman not merely because he was a remarkably conscientious and successful reporter. He literally lived for his newspaper and one might even say died for it by driving himself too hard. There were better writers and desk-men in the office, but it was Alwis who carried the flag and made the sorties across new and disputed frontiers. He helped more than anyone else to put the “Daily News” in front as a journal of news. As a character he could have come straight out of Philip Gibbs’ “Street of Adventure” which was a newspaper classic 50 years ago.

Alwis had served briefly in two short-lived newspapers, the “Ceylonese” and the “People”. They were hard times. The editorial staff used to wait at the gate for anyone coming with a death notice to find the price of a dinner.

With his employment by D.R. Wijewardene about 1919, he seemed to have entered his spiritual home with a chief after his own heart. There were more experienced reporters with a sound knowledge of shorthand on the staff but Alwis was anxious to make an immediate impact. This he did by concentrating on getting front page news, a task in which he enjoyed the cooperation of the best news-getter in the establishment, the boss himself. A time came when every first-class “scoop” was promptly rewarded with a bonus.

Alwis had a disarming boldness which opened many official doors to him. When he met Mr. George Bernard Shaw at the Grand Oriental Hotel (now the Taprobane), he asked: “Mr. Shaw, are you going round the world because the world cannot go round you?” The great mean gave him one of his fetching smiles and asked in turn: “Young man, where did you get that from?”

As the star reporter Alwis met all the celebrities who came to Ceylon, such as Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, Ramsay MacDonald and Mahatma Gandhi. But his forte was the exclusive and often sensational news story to be splashed on the front page. During the agitation for constitutional reforms a secret memorandum was sent by those who were opposed to the reform, to the Colonial Office in Whitehall. In the Legislative Council the Colonial Secretary refused to table a copy. He was fully confident that none of the signatories would give it. Alwis was able to obtain a copy surreptitiously from a member of the household of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan. Sir Ponnambalam was one of the instigator’s of the memorandum.

It was often good fun tracking a piece of news with him. When I was editor of the paper he came to my room one day with the information – obtained no doubt from Mr. D.S. Senanayake, though he rarely disclosed his sources truthfully – that Sir Bernard Bourdillon, the Chief Secretary at that time was about to be transferred elsewhere. I had seen in “The Times” of London that the Governor of Uganda was about to retire. I asked Alwis to telephone Sir Bernard at Nuwara Eliya, where he was on holiday, to find out whether he was going to Uganda.

Alwis did so, to be told that there was no foundation whatever for such a surmise. Two weeks later I sent Alwis a telegram, congratulating him on his “scoop.” He did not know whether I was referring to the birth of his eldest son, which had occurred during the previous night, or to something else. What happened was that I had received a letter from Sir Bernard Bourdillon apologizing for his denial of the news. He assured me that he had no idea he was going to Uganda and wondered how we had got the information before he did.

Until Alwis joined the “Daily News” the paper carried very little news as such. Meetings were reported at great length, official reports were published in full and there were columns and columns of the attendance at weddings and funerals. Government information was carefully guarded by European officials. A reporter in the “Ceylon Morning Leader” V.B. Ernst, who had a brother-in-law at the Colonial Secretary’s office, often obtained exclusive news of appointments and transfers. Mr. Armand de Souza, the able editor of that paper, had contacts with the higher officials and was sometimes able to get something special for his news columns.

Alwis raided the same field and made his presence felt. But it was after Mr. D.S. Senanayake was elected to the Legislative Council that Alwis emerged as a news-gatherer par excellence. Senanayake’s friendship with D. R. Wijewardene made his task easier. “D.S.” was the Secretary of the unofficial block in the Council and the most active member of its Finance Committee which had all the inside information of what went on in the Government.

Alwis was soon on friendly terms not only with Senanayake’s friends and allies but also with some of the European officials, the most important of whom was Sir Wilfrid Woods, Colonial Treasurer and later Financial Secretary. Woods, who had a crusty sense of humour, regarded Alwis as a new phenomenon and found time for him. He pumped Alwis for news of “D.S,” Oliver Goonetilleke and Kotelawala, and their machinations. What Alwis gathered from Sir Wilfrid he passed on to “D.S.”

When Senanayake became a Minister in the State Council Alwis was always at hand to get information from him and keep him informed of what went on in political circles. When the Minister had his lunch brought to his office the sweet, which he was not allowed to eat, was always kept for Alwis.

There was indeed no politician of any importance who did not welcome Alwis. He was quite capable of discussing Vedantic philosophy and the Christian gospels with Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, singing fish with E.R. Tambimuttu and Catholic politics with H.A.P. Sandarasegara and Father Long. Anyone who gave him news was his friend and he rewarded his informant with small favours from his more influential patrons.

In the office he often managed to upset his fellow-workers by his mysterious movements, his furtive relations with important persons and his readiness to work long hours. There were certain institutions which could not be criticized in his presence with impunity, among them the Roman Catholic Church, the proprietor of the “Daily News” and Mr. Senanayake’s political circle. Loyalty, he often repeated, was greater than love. For the majority of his colleagues journalism was a way of earning a living; to him it was a way of life.

He was never in a hurry to hand in his “copy”, a practice which irritated the sub-editors, Orion de Zylva in particular, who were in a hurry to catch their trains. Alwis who started his working day in the morning, almost invariably caught the last train. For the paper, he scorned delights and lived laborious days. When his family was on holiday he lingered in the office to make telephone calls to his informants or to write a letter to his wife. When there was a big news story in hand he waited till the pages were closed and the paper was put to bed.

He was the born journalist. When he died a great newspaper man passed. I was his editor for seventeen years and his colleague for a much longer period and am glad to be able to pay this tribute to his memory.

(This article, headlined ‘Story of a reporter’ first appeared in the Ceylon Daily News on April 13, 1970)