THE POST-WAR PERIOD AND INDEPENDENCE

(Excerpted from N.U. JAYAWARDENA The first five decades)

- BY KUMARI JAYAWARDENA AND JENNIFER MORAGODA

Continued from last week

NU's Career Advances

In May of 1942, a month after the Japanese attack, NU was promoted to a higher post within the Department of Commerce and Industries. He was also seconded to serve as Deputy Commissioner in the Department of Commodity Purchase, where he was placed in charge of arranging the supply of commodities such as desiccated coconut and copra to the Food Ministry in Britain. (Interestingly, NU had selected "The Oil Seed Trade with Specific Reference to Copra" as his special subject when he applied for his M.Sc. (Econ.) degree. Correspondence from his Personal Files show that, while NU was studying at the LSE, Professor Paish, who was one of his professors, recommended NU to a London merchant dealing in edible oils, to carry out a survey of "The Trade in Edible Oils... from Production, through Importation, Distribution and Marketing to Consumers' Demand" (N.U. Jayawardena Personal Files).

In NU's words:

As Deputy Commissioner of Commodity Purchase, it fell to my lot to plan out the organization of the department in the early stages, particularly in regard to the purchase schemes for copra, oil and plumbago. Later I was engaged in reorganizing the operative methods of the Department and, in this connection, compiled a comprehensive code of departmental instructions.

He listed the activities of the Department of Commodity Purchase. "which was run on business lines," and described the strength of the staff:

[There were] 11 Staff Officers including a full-time Commissioner and myself as Deputy, a store personnel of 112, and a clerical establishment of 117, while the annual turnover of the transactions of the Department exceeds Rs. 50 million. (N.U. Jayawardena Personal Files)