The minister just missed seeing the Rolls Royce picking us up for a sugar traders' lunch

(Excerpted from Jn Pursuit of Governance, autobiography of MDD Pieris)

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ss always believed that whatever you do, and whatever reputation you have gathered for yourself, an element of luck is necessary from time to time. This has been reflected in many ways, but one such outstanding example occurred when a delegation led by me was in London, on our way back home from Washington.

We were staying at a hotel where we found Mr. E. L.B. Hurulle, a Senior Minister also staying. We had met him in the lobby and spoken with him a few times. We happened to be in London, because we always made use of the opportunity of passing through London to Washington and back in order to have extensive discussions with our lawyers. When importing and shipping a large tonnage of food commodities, inevitably disputes arose. Some of these were settled amicably and by mutual agreement. But over some, we had to go in for arbitration in London, and some cases involved going to Court.

The Attorney-General in Sri Lanka could not handle all these matters himself. The volume was too great. We had therefore to have lawyers on the spot in London. Whilst in London, we usually spent about five to six working days sitting down with our lawyers and discussing each case coming up for trial or arbitration. Our departmental legal advisor brought with him 20-30 files, each of which constituted a dispute or a case.

Sometimes our Commercial Counselor in the High Commission joined our discussions, because he was our liaison with the lawyers on a regular basis. We kept him regularly posted with the facts of the various cases. Sometimes we had to see specialized counsel at consultations, in their chambers. When the discussions start we spent virtually a full working day with the lawyers, having a sandwich lunch at the conference table. Occasionally, when time permitted, we were taken out to a nearby pub for lunch.