'You are well-behaved, well-fed lions'

100 Years Ago

Replying to the toast proposed at the breakfast, the Governor has some interesting things to say about the planters. "I had heard so much of you gentlemen, of your pugnacious habits, of your inveterate hatred of all Governors and constituted authority. I was also told that you were misogynists, in other words, women haters. Evidently that is a libel." 

Elaborating further on what he saw as features of the planters, he added: "The fact, gentlemen is that you do not seem to me to be lions at all. You seem to be lambs. However, if you are lions, you are not the savage famished lions ready to devour anybody who comes your way, but you are well-behaved, well-fed lions bursting your skins with hospitality."

Having made his speech amidst roars of laughter, the Governor finally announces a gift to the planters - the Kelani Valley railway.

Looking for help

An appeal for funds urgently needed to carry on the activities of the Society states that unless funds are received, the Society "will have to refuse help to destitute persons". Donations are to be sent to the Treasurer, J Harward at George Stuart & Company.

Five cents a copy

In the outstations, the paper is available in Kandy, Galle, Nuwara Eliya, Hatton and Alutgama.

Victoria Home

Paris Exhibition

The ivory casket is described as "a thing of beauty embellished with all the different precious stones found in Ceylon, rubies all round the lid with pearls in gold at the corners."

O.L. M. Macan Markar at the Grand Oriental Hotel are sending three stones valued at 4600 pound sterling. A Ceylon cat's eye weighing over 100 carats is valued at 3000 pound sterling. Out of the other two, one is a ruby and the other a star sapphire, described as "the largest in the world". 

Singer machines

The Company claims 100 offices in India, Burma and Ceylon. The Colombo head office is at 27, Main Street. There are branches in Kandy, Galle, Hatton and Jaffna. E. Cahill & Sons, Fort act as sub-agent.

Media Man

Former UNCTAD Chief reminisces

'I am one of the few Gamanis'

By Roshan Peiris 

Inspecting the many photographs in his immaculate and well-appointed drawing room in his ancestral home at Horton Place, I begin with one of his parents Freda and C.V.S. Corea as a bridal couple, and then see his imposing grandmother together with those of his uncle, one-time Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawela. There are also pictures of Gamani at various ages. His father was C.V.S. Corea who became the first President of the Homeopathic Council here, and was instrumental in getting government recognition for this branch of medicine.

"Please spell my name correctly, I am one of the few Gamanis and not Gamini. As a child, Mrs. D.B. Jayatilleke told me that it was she who named me Gamani," he says as we begin the interview.

His handsome face puckered in thought and his hands smoothing his grey hair, he recalls the memories "that crowd my brain." 

"As an only child I had a lot of attention from both my mother and father, but I was not spoilt. They placed much emphasis on discipline and orderly behaviour, but never pressured me to study. In fact, both they and my uncle Sir John never thought I would be an academic and a professional. Look after the estates, they said." 

"My maternal grandmother Alice Kotelawela seeing me doing homework - would say, quite concerned, 'don't strain your brains'," Gamani smiles. 

"Sir John who was later known for his garrulousness was not very communicative just like his brother Justin, says Gamani. But he remembers with warmth and much affection, the very expensive Christmas and birthday presents he gave him as a child. There were beautiful train-sets, mechanical toys and air guns, all of which endeared the young boy to him. 

"I was never punished at home nor at school. I was a naturally well-behaved child, with discipline being dinned into me by my parents, grandmother Alice and my uncles Sir John and Justin. 

Gamani first schooled at what was then known as Training College. In his first year, to his surprise and delight he was given a double promotion. 

From Training College he went onto Royal prep and then to Royal College. "At school I did not take part in sports firstly because I was very shy, and secondly because I was fat and flabby. I played cricket though at home."

"I was born in this house and I still recall F.R. Senanayake, D.S's brother, carrying me in the mornings to look at the sun. I had very few friends about five or six such as Gemunu Karunaratne. We used to spend time together, visit cinemas and each other's houses and attend parties. We often took my father's Rolls Royce (1927 vintage) and went for long, stimulating drives," Gamani recalled. 

After sitting for his senior at Royal, he was exempted from sitting for the matriculation, but he did sit and pass the exam. He got special permission from Sir Ivor Jennings, the then Vice Chancellor of the Colombo University and attended lectures in Economics, though he was not entitled to sit for the degree. 

In the meantime the clever handsome young man was a very eligible bachelor! He was much sought after at parties but confessed "I did not dance since I felt selfconscious being on the heavy side. I was also not encouraged to mix with girls by my mother, who wanted me to become a man of consequence." 

"I could not go to England before 1945 on account of the war. In 1945 I flew to England, with D.S Senanayake, later to become Sri Lanka's first Prime Minister. He was going to discuss Ceylon's Constitution with the British Government. I attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge for studies. 

"I must mention that before leaving for Cambridge I took a studied interest in national politics and India's freedom movement. I read avidly on the Indian leaders who struggled for India's independence. 

Gamani did his Economics Tripos at Cambridge and says here that his method and technique of studying changed.

"Under the Cambridge system we had not only lectures, but also a tutor allocated to each of us, whom one met alone or with another classmate once a week." 

Believe it or not, Gamani says the tutor discouraged them from reading text books. "He wanted us to read the original books. He told us, 'Don't bother to remember what you read, but try to understand...that is important."

After Cambridge, like Dudley and R.G. Senanayake, the young Gamani enrolled at the Inns of Court but did not quite finish. Instead he studied further for his degree. He can still visualise the pride and joy on the faces of his grandmother and mother when they attended his graduation ceremony. 

From Cambridge he left for Oxford where a new College, Huffield had been started, to study for his doctorate.

While studying Gamani came to Ceylon for three months, applied and was chosen to work at the Central Bank. When he went back he was given no-pay leave, and remained a member of the staff of the Bank until his retirement.

In 1952 he was seconded to work in the Planning Secretariat until 1954, under his uncle Sir John Kotelawela. Working with Finance Minister M.D.H. Jayewardene, he helped to prepare the first historic extensive programme for economic planning in the country, for the government sector.

After Sir John's defeat by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, he was made the head of the Planning Secretariat. "Though he had defeated my uncle, he was never prejudiced," Gamani says of S.W.R.D.

Dr. Gamani brought great honour to this country when he was appointed Secretary General of UNCTAD - the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. While in UNCTAD he visited several member countries and recalls how he was treated with great respect. 

He was also Ambassador to the European Economic Community in Brussels and Ambassador to the BENELUX countries Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg. In Geneva, Gamani said, "ladies kissed you thrice, twice on one cheek and once on the other. I rather liked it," he confessed with a grin reminiscent of his uncle Sir John.

Dr. Gamani Corea, despite his academic and professional skills lives simply, talks charmingly and has never been found through the years this writer has known him, to be standoffish or difficult to approach. He is currently busy writing his memoirs "in three parts".

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