Features

New digs, some amusing anecdotes from London and sailing back home

Published

3 years ago

2023/02/19

Excerpted from the Memoirs of a Cabinet Secretary by BP Peiris

At the end of my third year at Sutton, I had, with deep regret, to find another home. As I stated before, each lot of girls left in December to be at home for Christmas and the next lot was not due till the February following. Miss Overton, who was old and wealthy, preferred to spend the cold English winter in Italy or on the Mediterranean coast. The house was therefore let for a couple of months.

In the three years I had been at Sutton, I had accumulated a fair collection of books other than my law books, about 300 in all, and it was inconvenient to move just for a month or two with such a deal of baggage. I explained the position to Miss Overton and she agreed that when I next moved out, it would be a move for good. The loss was mine. I was losing a good home, a very kind hostess and a charming lot of friends.

In finding a new home, luck was again with me. My brother, S. W., who was doing engineering, found the traveling from Sutton to London a bit tiring and had found a good home in Ealing, about nine miles to the west of London. He invited me to come and stay with him and I was glad to accept the offer. Soon afterwards, he left for Berlin to continue his studies with the world-famous firm of Siemens.

I moved with my baggage and my books to a delightful and cultured home, that of Captain and Mrs Woodward and five children, two girls and three boys.They had been a wealthy family but had come down in the world after a crash in Vickers-Armstrong in which Woodward had invested. Some of the things in the house showed that they had been used to a very high standard of living. There were rare Chinese art pictures hanging on the walls, exquisite antique tables in the lounge, and one set of books, a complete leather-bound set of the works of George Bernard Shaw, which Mrs Woodward knew almost by heart.

The conversation at table was of a very high level. The eldest, Nancy, at that time aged about 19, spoke French and German fluently. The next, also a girl, whom we used to call ‘Jimmy’ was a beauty of 17 and an artist’s model. The two elder boys also knew their French and German and the older boy was sent to Russia to study that language with a view to entering the diplomatic service. The youngest, Mike, was a mischievous fellow of four who spent his time in climbing trees in the garden.

His broad-minded mother did not put him into shoes till he was nearly five years old and used to take him barefooted along the streets, both summer and winter. On one occasion when Mike was walking barefooted on the snow with his mother, an angry lady came up and threatened to report her to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Nothing came of this; but Mike never caught a cold.

Mrs Woodward’s father, a man nearly 80 years of age, used to have a dip every morning in the Serpentine in Hyde Park and, in winter, if the lake was frozen, used to break the ice to have his plunge. He never caught a cold either. The doctors probably have some explanation for this.

There was also a German girl in the house, Felizitas Tillmann. Woodward’s eldest boy had been in a German home to study the language and this was an ‘exchange’. She paid no fees but ran the house with typical German efficiency, relieving Mrs Woodward of most of her household work. The house ran like a clock. I never had breakfast because Fay, as we all called her, ordered the table to be cleared if we were not down before a particular time.

She was a charming girl and we became very friendly. Hitler had made an order prohibiting women from using lipstick and rouge and from wearing stockings. Like any German, she loved her beer, and we used to walk a mile to the pub every evening. I sipped my beer; in German style she put her’s down at a ‘sitting’. The English people’ present were amazed at this strange girl without make-up, bareheaded and stockingless, knocking a beer down faster than they could. One day, she was unable to come with me and I went alone. As I ordered my pint, one of the Englishmen, all friendly people,

walked up to me and whispered “We have all admired the way your wife puts down her beer”.

On one of these trips with Fay to the pub, we found Mike about half a mile from the house, in the middle of the street on his bicycle, right under the arm of a policeman controlling the traffic. I shouted “Mike! What are you doing here?” and walked across to him. The policeman asked me “Are you the gentleman from Queen’s Road?” and allowed me to take him away. My name, as one of the darkies in the area, was on the books of Scotland Yard and every policeman in the area knew me and, I presume, was expected to keep an eye on me.

Another incident comes to my mind. I invited Fay to dine with me at Veeraswamy’s in London. It was a very expensive place – a rice and one curry costing about ten shillings and six pence. We were served by the head waiter, a fair, military-looking man with a row of war medals on his breast, a silver chain like a Lord Mayor’s round, his neck and dressed in white sherwani, jodhpurs, red sash and red; turban. I took him for a Kashmiri.

Having finished dinner, Fay and I retired downstairs for smokes and liqueur. I do not know how many liqueurs we consumed, but when I called for two more, the ‘Lord Mayor’ refused to serve saying that I had had enough. “You are in charge of a lady, Sir’ he said “and you have a long way to go.” How he knew where I lived, I did not know. I asked him to bring me the liqueurs or to call the manager, and the following dialogue ensued:

He: I will certainly call the manager, Sir, but I think you have had enough.

I: That is not a matter for you.

He: Are you from Ceylon, Sir?

I: I am from Ceylon, but that has nothing to do with the liqueurs.

He: What school Sir?

I: Royal.

He: I am Poulier from St Thomas’, Sir. Been here 25-years. I think you’ve had enough, Sir.

I: Thank you, Poulier. I am going.

Some time later I invited a Spanish friend of mine to dine with me at Veeraswamy’s. He returned the invitation by asking me to dinner at the Royal Alphonso in Regent Street, another exclusive restaurant. He said he would order a special dish which would take about 15 minutes to prepare. And it came: about three spoons of boiled rice with a sliced, fried banana on top.

One summer, we had a delightful holiday in the Isle of Wight with the Woodwards who had booked a large house for a month. Apart from the family, there were several new faces. There was the late Dr B. E. Fernando of revered memory. There was Mr V. Coomaraswamy (later to be knighted) and Mrs Coom as everybody called her. And Jimmy, Woodward’s daughter, had brought a male friend whom she introduced as a student of the Slade School of Art of the University of London.

From the very first day, his behaviour gave room for suspicion. Art students are poor, but during the month, this student traveled several times from Southampton to London, “on business” he said, and he traveled first class. On moonlight nights, the art student used to take the entire household to the pub after dinner for liqueurs. Mrs Woodward was curious to find out the identity of the person introduced to her by the daughter as a Slade School student. On one of our friend’s frequent trips to London, Mrs Woodward, against all the rules of British ethics, searched the student’s luggage and closely inspected every article of clothing. There were no initials on anything to disclose the identity of the guest and she drew a complete blank.

Coming down to the hall, she saw his overcoat hanging in the hall-stand and looked into it. In the inside pocket, there was the usual tailor’s tab which he had forgotten to remove. It said “G. Brockhurst Esq – W. J. Pickett, Bond Street, Tailor.” A well-known artist had been caught masquerading as a poor art student.

Gerald Brockhurst, at that time about 35 years of age, was already an Associate of the Royal Academy, a Royal Etcher and a Royal Portrait Painter. As soon as it was known that he had commenced work on a picture, an etching or a portrait, it was booked by some wealthy person for about two thousand guineas. He was in the surtax grade and was, at that time, paying tax at the rate of nineteen and six in the pound.

He had a Rolls-Royce car and kept his wife in Dieppe across the Channel, paying her almost weekly visits. In spite of his wealth he was the simplest of men. He told me he came from a very poor family, so poor that his parents had not sent him to school because they could not afford the fees. He started very early in life helping his mother by carrying coals on his head in a basket for sale. While he was waiting on the doorstep for a favourable order, he would draw on the step with a piece of coal. So are great men made.

Was it Emerson who said that the truly great man is he who is never conscious of his greatness? With his lack of education, he was deficient in grammar and spelling. He rarely wrote a letter, always preferring to send a telegram, which often went into many pages, because, as he said, plural subjects can be mixed with singular verbs. Always modest, always conscious of his small beginnings and his lack of learning, he kept his head on those artistic shoulders and never talked ‘money’. In later years, he reminded me of that other great artist, Lionel Wendt and his brother Harry, both the most unassuming of men.

We were now back after our summer holiday in the Isle or Wight. One day, it was the August Bank holiday, I suddenly came across three of my good friends in London: A. F. Wijemanne, later to become a Senator and Minister of Justice, Siripala Samarakkody, later to become a member of the State Council, a very good and fluent speaker, and Hilton M. Fernando, a linguist who knew his English, Latin and Greek and spoke French, German, Italian and Spanish. The last two have been taken away from us to their heavenly rest.

Wijemanne said his landlady had gone away for the weekend holiday, his house was empty, and would we come? Naturally, with the holiday feeling, the three of us jumped at Wije’s invitation. I invited them, as a quid pro quo for Wije’s impending hospitality, to dine with me at a Chinese restaurant and, on the way to dinner, turned in at the first pub for a ‘touch’.

The invitation had been so sudden and unexpected that none of us carried a razor, toothbrush or pyjamas for the excursion. Our host had, I believe, one drink at the pub and left to “get the place ready”. In our excitement, we forgot to ask him where his landlady lived. But Samarakkody knew. Siripala, a teetotaller took port, Hilton drank beer and I anticipating trouble, took creme de menthe before dinner.

And so, we walked along the Edgeware Road to dinner in Soho but turned in at every pub we passed just for one more until we were at the 13th place and the 13th port went into Siripala’s head. The pub was full with the Bank holiday crowds. Suddenly, Siripala, in his loud and perfect diction, started “Gentlemen of the Jury, if the prisoner be guilty etc. etc.” quoting Galsworthy from memory. The barman came and requested us to leave if we could not remain quiet. As we were leaving, two persons shook hands with us saying “Congratulations. We are Irish”.

There was no point, now, in going for dinner. Instead, Hilton went for a taxi while I was looking after the casualty who was shouting, about once in every half-minute “Independence for India”. This was the time of the Indian Round Table Conference when Winston Churchill referred to Gandhi as that half-naked fakir walking up the steps of Vice Regal Lodge.

In the taxi, after a great deal of coaxing and in the midst of his shouting, we extracted from Siripala that Wije lived in Golders Green. With more difficulty, we got the name of the street and the number of the house – 13. When we got to the house, Siripala said “Give my bloody wallet to the good old English bastard” and there was another row with the man.

We were standing on the pavement. It was nearly midnight. There was an “Independence for India” shout and a torch was flashed in our faces. They were two policemen on the beat and we inquired for number 13. They flashed the torch up the gravel path saying “Quiet, now, quiet”, and we crept in quietly. Having put Siripala to bed, we looked about the house for something to eat as we were hungry.

There was a roast chicken in the refrigerator. Wije said it was not his, but we ate it nevertheless.Many years later, back in Ceylon, I was invited by my cousin, Professor G. H. Cooray to a party at his house. There I was introduced to an English girl who was then matron at a private hospital. I related this story to her and she asked me whether I remember the number of the house. When I said “Thirteen” she shouted to her mother who was seated at the other and of the room “Mummy, here is the gentleman who stole and ate our chicken.” So small is the world.

Woodward was a charming man. He would tiptoe into my room and say, “Let’s slip out for a pint of beer, old boy”. To his wife he would say, “Mummy, Percy and I are going to post a letter”. On one of these walks to the pub to post a letter we were accosted by a pretty, painted young thing, clearly a tart who, addressing Woodward, said “Hello. Good evening. What about it?”

Woodward, who was a clean and honourable man who had served in the Duke of Westminster’s Regiment in France in the First World War, politely raised his head and said “What about what?” The girl, probably realizing that this was the wrong type of fish she was trying to hook, said “Aren’t you the gentleman I spoke to yesterday about a house?” “No, madam,” said Woodward, “You are making a mistake. I’m not a house agent.”

When we were out of earshot, Woodward asked me what he should have done in the circumstances. I told him that if she had addressed me, I would have asked her across the street behind the coffee stall and inquired what it was all about. All Woodward said was “You naughty boy”.

The time was now coming for me to leave Ealing and England for good. I had passed the LL.B and been called to the Bar. Captain Woodward himself packed my several hundred books in a crate and sealed it. I took the Dutch liner P. C. Hooft from Southampton and arrived in Colombo towards the end of May 1932.

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Features

The State of the Union and the Spectacle of Trump

Published

3 hours ago

2026/03/1

Thilina Walpola

A Grim Handshake: The President and the Chief Justice at the State of the Union

President Donald J. Trump, as the American President often calls himself, is a global spectacle. And so are his tariffs. On Friday, February 20, the US Supreme Court led by Chief Justice John Roberts and a 6-3 majority, struck down the most ballyhooed tariff scheme of all times. Upholding the earlier decisions of the lower federal courts, the Supreme Court held that Trump’s use of ‘emergency powers’ to impose the so called Liberation Day tariffs on 2 April 2025, is not legal. The Liberation Day tariffs, which were comically announced on a poster board at the White House Rose Garden, is a system of reciprocal tariffs applied to every country that exported goods and services to America. The court ruling has pulled off the legal fig leaf with which Trump had justified his universal tariff scheme.

Trump was livid after the ruling on Friday and invectively insulted the six judges who ruled against Trump’s tariffs. There was nothing personal about it, but for Trump, the ever petulant man-boy, there isn’t anything that is not personal. On Tuesday night in Washington, Trump delivered his first State of the Union address of his second presidency. The Chief Justice, who once called the State of the Union, “a political pep rally,” attended the pomp and exchanged a grim handshake with the President.

Tuesday’s State of the Union was the longest speech ever in what is a long standing American tradition that is also a constitutional requirement. The Trump showmanship was in full display for the millions of Americans who watched him and millions of others in the rest of world, especially mandarins of foreign governments, who were waiting to parse his words to detect any sign for his next move on tariffs or his next move in Iran. There was nothing much to parse, however, only theatre for Trump’s Republican followers and taunts for opposing Democrats. He was in his usual elements as the Divider in Chief. There was truly little on offer for overseas viewers.

On tariffs, he is bulldozing ahead, he boasted, notwithstanding the Supreme Court ruling last Friday. But the short lived days of unchecked executive tariff powers are over even though Trump wouldn’t let go of his obsessive illusions. On the Middle East, Trump praised himself for getting the release of Israeli hostages, dead or alive, out of Gaza, but had no word for the Palestinians who are still being battered on that wretched strip of land. On Ukraine, he bemoaned the continuing killings in their thousands every month but had no concept or plan for ending the war while insisting that it would not have started if he were president four years ago.

He gave no indication of what he might do in Iran. He prefers diplomacy, he said, but it would be the most costly diplomatic solution given the scale of deployment of America’s fighting assets in the region under his orders. In Trump’s mind, this could be one way of paying for a Nobel Prize for peace. More seriously, Trump is also caught in the horns of a dilemma of his own making. He wanted an external diversion from his growing domestic distractions. If he were thinking using Iran as a diversion, he also cannot not ignore the warnings from his own military professionals that going into Iran would not be a walk in the park like taking over Venezuela. His state of mind may explain his reticence on Iran in the State of the Union speech.

Even on the domestic front, there was hardly anything of substance or any new idea. One lone new idea Trump touted is about asking AI businesses to develop their own energy sources for their data centres without tapping into existing grids, raising demand and causing high prices and supply shortages. That was a political announcement to quell the rising consumer alarms, especially in states such as Michigan where energy guzzling data centres are becoming hot button issue for the midterm Congress and Senate elections in November. Trump can see the writing on the wall and used much of his speech to enthuse his base and use patriotism to persuade the others.

Political Pep Rally: Chief Justice John G. Roberts sits stoically with Justices Elena Kagan, Bret Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, as Republicans are on their feet applauding.

Although a new idea, asking AI forces to produce their own energy comes against a background of a year-long assault on established programs for expanding renewable energy sources. Fortunately, the courts have nullified Trump’s executive orders stopping renewable energy programs. But there is no indication if the AI sector will be asked to use renewable energy sources or revert to the polluting sources of coal or oil. Nor is it clear if AI will be asked to generate surplus energy to add to the community supply or limit itself to feeding its own needs. As with all of Trump’s initiatives the devil is in the details and is left to be figured out later.

The Supreme Court Ruling

The backdrop to Tuesday’s State of the Union had been rendered by Friday’s Supreme Court ruling. Chief Justice Roberts who wrote the majority ruling was both unassuming and assertive in his conclusion: “We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs. We claim only, as we must, the limited role assigned to us by Article III of the Constitution. Fulfilling that role, we hold that IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act) does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.”

IEEPA is a 1977 federal legislation that was enacted during the Carter presidency, to both clarify and restrict presidential powers to act during national emergency situations. The immediate context for the restrictive element was the experience of the Nixon presidency. One of the implied restrictions in IEEPA is in regard to tariffs which are not specifically mentioned in the legislation. On the other hand, Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution establishes taxes and tariffs as an exclusively legislative function whether they are imposed within the country or implemented to regulate trade and commerce with other countries. In his first term, Trump tried to impose tariffs on imports through the Congress but was rebuffed even by Republicans. In the second term, he took the IEEA route, bypassing Congress and expecting the conservative majority in the Supreme Court to bail him out of legal challenges. The Court said, No. Thus far, but no farther.

The main thrust of the ruling is that it marks a victory for the separation of powers against a president’s executive overreach. Three of the Court’s conservative judges (CJ Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett) joined the three liberal judges (all women – Sonia Sotomayor, Elana Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson) to chart a majority ruling against the president’s tariffs. The three dissenters were Brett Kavanugh, who wrote the dissenting opinion, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett were appointed by Trump. Trump took out Gorsuch and Barrett for special treatment after their majority ruling, while heaping praise on Kavanaugh who ruled in favour of the tariffs. Barrett and Kavanaugh attended the State of the Union along with Roberts and Kagan, while the other five stayed away from the pep rally (see picture).

The Economics of the Ruling

In what was a splintered ruling, different judges split legal hairs between themselves while claiming no special competence in economics and ruling on a matter that was all about trade and economics. Yale university’s Stephen Roach has provided an insightful commentary on the economics of the court ruling, while “claiming no special competence in legal matters.” Roach takes out every one of Trump’s pseudo-arguments supporting tariffs and provides an economist’s take on the matter.

First, he debunks Trump’s claim that trade deficits are an American emergency. The real emergency, Roach notes, is the low level of American savings, falling to 0.2% of the national income in 2025, even as trade deficit in goods reached a new record $1.2 trillion. America’s need for foreign capital to compensate for its low savings, and its thirst for cheap imported goods keep the balance of payments and trade deficits at high levels.

Second, by imposing tariffs Trump is not helping but burdening US consumers. The Americans are the ones who are paying tariffs contrary to Trump’s own false beliefs and claims that foreign countries are paying them. 90% of the tariffs have been paid by American consumers, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Small businesses have paid the rest. Foreign countries pay nothing but they have been making deals with Trump to keep their exports flowing.

According to published statistics, the average U.S. applied tariff rate increased from 1.6% before Trump’s tariff’s to 17%, the highest level since World War II. The removal of reciprocal tariffs after the ruling would have lowered it to 9.1%, but it will rise to 13% after Trump’s 15% tariffs. The registered tariff revenue is about $175 billion, 0.6% of U.S. gross domestic product. The tariff monies collected are legally refundable. The Supreme Court did not get into the modalities for repayment and there would be multiple lawsuits before the lower courts if the Administration does not set up a refunding mechanism.

Lastly, in railing against globalization and the loss of American industries, Trump is cutting off America’s traditional allies and trading partners in Europe, Canada and Mexico who account for 54% of all US trade flows in manufactured goods. Cutting them off has only led these countries to look for other alternatives, especially China and India. All of this is not helping the US or its trade deficit. The American manufacturers (except for sectoral beneficiaries in steel, aluminum and auto industries), workers and consumers are paying the price for Trump’s economic idiosyncrasies. As Roach notes, the Court stayed away from the economic considerations, but by declaring Trump’s IEEPA tariffs unconstitutional, the Court has sent an important message to the American people and the rest of the world that “US policies may not be personalized by the whims of a vindictive and uninformed wannabe autocrat.”

by Rajan Philips

Features

The Victor Melder odyssey: from engine driver CGR to Melbourne library founder

Published

4 hours ago

2026/03/1

Thilina Walpola

Victor Melder in Library

He celebrated his 90th birthday recently, never returned to his homeland because he’s a bad traveler

(Continued from last week)

THE GARRAT LOCOS, were monstrous machines that were able to haul trains on the incline, that normally two locos did. Whilst a normal loco hauled five carriages on its own, a Garrat loco could haul nine. When passenger traffic warranted it and trains had over nine carriages or had a large number of freight wagons, then a Garret loco hauled the train assisted by a loco from behind.

When a train was worked by two normal locos (one pulling, the other pushing) and they reached the summit level at Pattipola (in either direction), the loco pushing (piloting) would travel around to the front the train and be coupled in front of the loco already in front and the two locos took the train down the incline. With a Garraat loco this could not be done as the bridges could not take the combined weight. The pilot loco therefore ran down single, following THE TRAIN.

My father was stationed at Nawalapitiya as a senior driver at the time, and it wasn’t a picnic working with him. He believed in the practical side of things and always had the apprentices carrying out some extra duties or the other to acquaint themselves with the loco. I had more than my fair share.

After the four months upcountry, we were back at Dematagoda on the K. V. steam locos. From the sublime to the ridiculous, I would say after the Garret locos upcountry. Here the work was much easier and at a slower pace, as the trains did not run at speed like their mainline counterparts. The last two months of the third year saw us on the two types of diesel locos on the K.V. line, the Hunslett and Krupp diesels, which worked the passenger trains. For once this was a ‘cushy, sit-down’ job, doing nothing exciting, but keeping a sharp lookout and exchanging tablets on the run. The third year had come to an end and ‘the light at the end of tunnel was getting closer’.

Victor M’s Sri Lanka Ranjana medal

The fourth year saw us all at the Diesel loco shed at Maradana, which was cheek by jowl with the Maradana railway station. The first three months we worked with the diesel mechanical fitters and the following three months with the electrical fitters. Heavy emphasis was placed on a working knowledge of the electrical circuits of the different diesel locos in service, to ensure the drivers were able to attend to electrical faults en-route and bring the train home. This was again a period of lectures and demonstrations

We also spent three months at the Ratmalana workshops, where the diesels were stripped down to the core and refitted after major repairs, to ensure we had a look at what went on inside the many closed and sealed working parts. This was again a 7.00am to 4.00pm day job. Back again at the Diesel shed, Maradana, saw us riding as assistants for the next three months on all the diesel locos in service – The Brush Bragnal (M1), General Electrical (M2), Hunslett locos (G2) and Diesel Rail Cars.

After the final written test on Diesel locos, we began our fifth and final year, which was that of shunting engine driver. The first six months were spent at Maligawatte Yard on steam shunting locos and the next three months shunting drivers on the diesel shunting locos at Colombo goods yard. The final three months were spent as assistants on the M1 and M2 locos working all the fast passenger and mail trains.

Cartoon to celebrate Victor’s 60th wedding anniversary

I was finally appointed Engine Driver Class III on July 6, 1962, as mentioned earlier I lost eight months of my apprenticeship due to being ill and had to make up the time. This appointment was on three years’ probation, on the initial salary of the scale Rs 1,680 – 72 – Rs 2,184, per annum.

Little did the general traveling public realize that they had well trained and qualified engine drivers working their trains to time Victor was stationed in Galle until December 1967, when he resigned from the railway to migrate to Melbourne, Australia to join the rest of his family. He was the last of 11 siblings to leave Ceylon. Their two elder children were born in Galle. Victor and Esther had three more children in Australia. The children, three boys and two girls) were brought up with love and devotion. They have seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. They meet often as a family.

He worked for the Victorian State Public Service and retired in 1993 after 25 years’ service. At the time of retirement, he worked for the Ministry for Conservation & Environment. He held the position of Project Officer in charge of the Ministry’s Procedural Documents.

He worked part-time for the Victorian Electoral Office and the Australian Electoral Office, covering State and Federal Elections, from 1972 to 2010. From 1972 to 1982 and was a Clerical Officer and then in 1983 was appointed Officer-in-Charge, Lychfield Avenue Polling Booth, Jacana which is my (the writer’s) electorate.

As part of serving the community Victor participated in a number of ways, quite often unremunerated. He worked part-time for the Department of Census & Statistics, and worked as a Census Collector for the Census of 1972, 1976, 1980 and then Group Leader of 16 Collectors in his area for the 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012.

In 1970, Victor began this library, now known as the ‘Victor Melder Sri Lanka Library’, for the purpose of making Sri Lanka better known in Australia. On looking back he has this to say: “Forty-five years later, I can say that it is serving its purpose. In 1993 President Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka bestowed on me a national honor – ‘Sri Lanka Ranjana’ for my then 25 years’ service to Sri Lanka in Australia. I feel very privileged to be honored by my motherland, which I feel is the highest accolade one can ever get.”

There were many more accolades over the years:

15.10. 2004, Serendib News, 2004 Business and Community Award.

4.2.2008, Award for Services to the SL Community by The Consulate of Sri Lanka in Victoria (by R. Arambewela)

2024 – SL Consul General’s Award

In 2025 , Victor was one of the ten outstanding Sri Lankans in Australia at the Lankan Fest.

An annual Victor Melder Appreciation award was established to honour an outstanding member by the SriLankan Consulate.

The following appreciation by the late Gamini Dissanayake is very appropriate.

Comment by the late Minister Gamini Dissanayake, in the comment book of the VMSL library.

A man is attached to many things. Attachments though leading to sorrow in the end

are the living reality of life. Amongst these many attachments, the most noble are the attachments to one’s family and to one’s country. You have left Sri Lanka long ago but “she” is within you yet and every nerve and sinew of your body, mind and soul seem to belong there. In your love for the country of your birth you seem to have no racial or religious connotations – you simply love “HER” – the pure, clear, simple, abstract and glowing Sri Lanka of our imagination and vision. You are an example of what all Sri Lankan’s should be. May you live long with your vision and may Sri Lanka evolve to deserve sons like you.

With my best Wishes.

Gamini Dissanayake, Minister from Sri Lanka.

15 February 1987.

The Victor Melder Lecture

The Monash council established the Victor Melder Lecture which is presented every February. It is now an annual event looked forward to by Melbournians. A guest lecturer is carefully chosen each year for this special event.

Victor and his library has featured on many publications such as the Sunday Times in 2008 and LMD International in 2026.

“Although having been a railway man, I am a poor traveler and get travel sickness, hence I have not travelled much. I have never been back to Sri Lanka, never travelled in Australia, not even to Geelong. I am happiest doing what I like best, either at Church or in this library. My younger daughter has finally given up after months of trying to coax, cajole and coerce me into a trip to Sri Lanka to celebrate this (90^th) birthday.

I am most fortunate that over the years I have made good friends, some from my school days. It is also a great privilege to grow old in the company of friends — like-minded individuals who have spent their childhood and youth in the same environment as oneself and shared similar life experiences.”

Victor’s love of books started from childhood. Since his young years he has been interested in reading. At St Mary’s College, Nawalapitiya, the library had over 300 books on Greek and Roman history and mythology and he read every one of them.

He read the newspapers daily, which his parents subscribed to, including the ‘Readers Digest’.His mother was an avid fan of Crossword Puzzles and encouraged all the children to follow her, a trait which he continues to this day.

At his workplace in Melbourne, Victor encountered many who asked questions about Ceylon. Often, he could not find an answer to these queries. This was long before the internet existed. He then started getting books on Ceylon/SriLanka and reading them. Very soon his collection expanded and he thought of the Vicor Melder SriLanka Library as source of reference. It is now a vast collection of over 7,000 books, magazines and periodicals.

Another driver of his service to fellow men is his deep Catholic faith in which he follows the footsteps of the Master.

Victor was baptized at St Anthony’s Cathedral, Kandy by Fr Galassi, OSB. Since the age of 10 he have been involved with Church activities both in Sri Lanka and Australia. He remains a devout Catholic and this underlies his spirit of service to fellowmen.

He began as an Altar Server at St Mary’s Church, Nawalapitiya, and continued even in his adult life. In Australia, Esther and Victor have been Parishioners at St Dominic’s Church, Broadmeadows, since 1970.He started as an Adult Server and have been an Altar Server Trainer, Reader and Special Minister He was a member of the ‘Counting Team’ for monies collected at Sunday Masses, for 35 years.

He has actively retired from this work since 2010, but is still ‘on call’, to help when required. To add in his own words

“My Catholic faith has always been important to me, and I can never imagine my having spent a day away from God. Faith is all that matters to Esther too. We attend daily Mass and busy ourselves with many activities in our Parish Church.

For nearly 25 years, we have also been members of a religious order ‘The Community of the Sons & Daughters of God’, it is contemplative and monastic in nature, we are veritable monks in the world. We do no good works, other than show Christ to the world, by our actions. Both Esther and I, after much prayer and discernment have become more deeply involved, taking vows of poverty, obedience and chastity, within the Community. Our spirituality gives us much peace, solace and comfort.”

“This is not my CV for beatification and canonization. My faith is in fact an antidote for overcoming evil, I too struggle like everyone else. I have to exorcise the demons within me by myself. I am a perfect candidate for “being a street angel and home devil” by my constant impatience, lack of tolerance and wanting instant perfection from everyone. “

The above exemplifies the humility of the man who admits to his foibles.

More than 25 years ago The Ceylon Society of Australia was formed in Sydney by a group of Ceylon lovers led by Hugh Karunanayake. Very soon the Melbourne chapter of the organization was formed, and Victor was a crucial part of this. At every Talk, Victor displayed books relevant to the topic. For many years he continued to do so carrying a big box of books and driving a fair distance to the meeting place. Eventually when he could no longer drive his car, he made certain that the books reached the venue through his close friend, Hemal Gurusinghe.

He also was the guest speaker at one of the meetings and he regaled the audience with railway stories.

Victor has dedicated his life on this mission, and we can be proud of his achievements. His vision is to find a permanent home for his library where future generations can use it and continue the service that he commenced. The plea is to get like-minded individuals in the quest to find a suitable and permanent home for the Victor Melder Srilankan Library.

by Dr. Srilal Fernando

Features

Sri Lanka to Host First-Ever World Congress on Snakes in Landmark Scientific Milestone

Published

4 hours ago

2026/03/1

Thilina Walpola

Dr. Anslem de Silva

Sri Lanka is set to make scientific history by hosting the world’s first global conference dedicated entirely to snake research, conservation and public health, with the World Congress on Snakes (WCS) 2026 scheduled to take place from October 1–4 at The Grand Kandyan Hotel in Kandy World Congress on Snakes.

The congress marks a major milestone not only for Sri Lanka’s biodiversity research community but also for global collaboration in herpetology, conservation science and snakebite management.

Congress Chairperson Dr. Anslem de Silva described the event as “a long-overdue global scientific platform that recognises the ecological, medical and cultural importance of snakes.”

“This will be the first international congress fully devoted to snakes — from their evolution and taxonomy to venom research and snakebite epidemiology,” Dr. de Silva said. “Sri Lanka, with its exceptional biodiversity and deep ecological relationship with snakes, is a fitting host for such a historic gathering.”

Global Scientific Collaboration

The congress has been established through an international scientific partnership, bringing together leading experts from Sri Lanka, India and Australia. It is expected to attract herpetologists, wildlife conservationists, toxinologists, veterinarians, genomic researchers, policymakers and environmental organisations from around the world.

The International Scientific Committee includes globally respected experts such as Prof. Aaron Bauer, Prof. Rick Shine, Prof. Indraneil Das and several other authorities in reptile research and conservation biology.

Dr. de Silva emphasised that the congress is designed to bridge biodiversity science, medicine and society.

“Our aim is not merely to present academic findings. We want to translate science into practical conservation action, improved public health strategies and informed policy decisions,” he explained.

Addressing a Neglected Public Health Crisis

A key pillar of the congress will be snakebite envenoming — widely recognised as a neglected tropical health problem affecting rural communities across Asia, Africa and Latin America.

“Snakebite is not just a medical issue; it is a socio-economic issue that disproportionately impacts farming communities,” Dr. de Silva noted. “By bringing clinicians, toxinologists and conservation scientists together, we can strengthen prevention strategies, improve treatment protocols and promote community education.”

Scientific sessions will explore venom biochemistry, clinical toxinology, antivenom sustainability and advances in genomic research, alongside broader themes such as ecological behaviour, species classification, conservation biology and environmental governance.

Dr. de Silva stressed that fear-driven persecution of snakes, habitat destruction and illegal wildlife trade continue to threaten snake populations globally.

“Snakes play an essential ecological role, particularly in controlling rodent populations and maintaining agricultural balance,” he said. “Conservation and public safety are not opposing goals — they are interconnected. Scientific understanding is the foundation for coexistence.”

The congress will also examine cultural perceptions of snakes, veterinary care, captive management, digital monitoring technologies and integrated conservation approaches linking biodiversity protection with human wellbeing.

Strategic Importance for Sri Lanka

Hosting the global event in the historic city of Kandy — a UNESCO World Heritage site — is expected to significantly enhance Sri Lanka’s standing as a hub for scientific and environmental collaboration.

Dr. de Silva pointed out that the benefits extend beyond the four-day meeting.

“This congress will open doors for Sri Lankan researchers and students to access world-class expertise, training and international partnerships,” he said. “It will strengthen our national research capacity in biodiversity and environmental health.”

He added that the event would also generate economic activity and position Sri Lanka as a destination for high-level scientific conferences, expanding the country’s international image beyond traditional tourism promotion.

The congress has received support from major international conservation bodies including the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Save the Snakes, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Amphibian and Reptile Research Organization of Sri Lanka (ARROS).

As preparations gather momentum, Dr. de Silva expressed optimism that the World Congress on Snakes 2026 would leave a lasting legacy.

“This is more than a conference,” he said. “It is the beginning of a global movement to promote science-based conservation, improve snakebite management and inspire the next generation of researchers. Sri Lanka is proud to lead that conversation.”

By Ifham Nizam