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Destined to be
The NAM Conference in 1976, in Colombo was the most memorable event in his life, says veteran diplomat Vernon Mendis whose choice of career was more
an act of fate
By Chandani Kirinde
Vernon Loraine Benjamin Mendis was one of six young men selected to join the Ceylon Overseas Service at its inception in 1949 and with this began his extraordinary career as a diplomat that has lasted over five decades, taken him across the continents, put him in the company of many famous personalities and also made him a major player when Sri Lanka hosted the biggest conference in the country's history- the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) conference in 1976.

He believes fate had a hand in making him a diplomat because it was failure to join the prestigious Ceylon Civil Service that prompted him to apply for a position in the COS ."I was interested in entering the government service as the ambition of every young man and woman (of the time) was to join the Ceylon Civil Service. It was the magical place to be in," Dr. Mendis recalled.

When young Mendis duly took up the CCS exam after graduating from the University of Ceylon (Colombo) with Honours in History, he was unsuccessful coming 12th from among all the candidates in the island but still not good enough to secure a place in the service, which took in only the top 10.

"It was the Sinhala paper that brought me down," he says but it was this very failure that paved the way for a place for him in the COS."This is where I think fate had a hand. In March 1949, a newspaper announced an open competitive exam to select candidates for the Ceylon Overseas Service. The requirements were the same as for those seeking a place in the CCS but minus the Sinhala paper. I sat for this exam and came first and was selected with five others as the first batch for this newly created service," he recalled.

Thus began the career that took him from Washington to London, to New Delhi to Japan to Cuba to name a few places that he served in but his first posting as Third Secretary/Attache to Washington has a special place in his heart.

"It was an exciting time to be working in a place like Washington. It was there I learnt my profession and it was a rich and unrivalled experience," he says of his three years in Washington. Professional experiences apart, he describes his stint in the American capital as a "romantic and memorable time”. It was here that he met his future wife Padma — whose father D.W.Rajapatirana worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington — and married her.

His diplomatic career had many milestones but it is the NAM conference in Colombo that Dr. Mendis recalls as the high point in the country's international relations. It was while he was serving as Sri Lanka's High Commission in Britain that he was called upon to become the Secretary General of the fifth Non Aligned Movement Conference to be held in Colombo. It was a mammoth task to be undertaken by a country like Sri Lanka and it took more than three months of planning to put together.

" My duties included handling conference proceedings, managing the meetings and the agenda and advising Mrs.Sirimavo Bandaranaike who was the Prime Minister and Chairperson of the conference," he said. The Conference brought together heads of states and governments and foreign ministers from more than 85 countries representing around two billion of the world's population. The question that everyone asked was how did little Sri Lanka gain the opportunity to host such a conference over bigger and more powerful countries such as towering India and Pakistan?

"It was the respect that Mrs.Bandarnaike had earned in the world as well as her clever manoeuvring that did it. Things worked in our favour and we had the BMICH which was tailor-made to hold such conference," Mr. Mendis said. It was a time when the country attracted massive international attention. More than 300 foreign journalists descended on the country and Dr.Mendis had to give the daily briefing during the course of the conference from August 16-19. " The whole world was electrified that little Sri Lanka was hosting such a conference and to this day people talk about it," he said. Dr. Mendis has also had the opportunity to work closely with many of the country's leaders including D. S. Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike and J.R. Jayawardene. "They were all excellent people and I enjoyed the confidence of all of them," he said. Till the later part of the 1970s, the subject of foreign affairs came under the direct purview of the Prime Minister who also functioned as the Minister of Defence and External Affairs and hence those in the COS had to work closely with the Prime Minister.

It has been a remarkable journey for Vernon L.B.Mendis who was born on December 5, 1925. Hailing from Moratuwa, he initially attended Prince of Wales College, "as I lived next door to the school and then Royal College.”

After his retirement from the Foreign Service, Dr. Mendis got the opportunity to work in an area in which he had a special interest – archaeology–when he was appointed as the UNESCO Permanent Representative to the Middle East. Here he was able to live in the shadow of the pyramids, the great Egyptian temples and also found time to compile a book, The Gift of the Nile, the history of Egypt from the earliest times to 1936. Unfortunately the book still remains unpublished, but many of his other works including The Advent of the British to Ceylon 1762- 1815, History of Foreign Relations of Sri Lanka from the earliest times to 1965 and An Introduction to Diplomacy are in print.

In 1995, a new chapter began for Dr. Mendis when he was called upon by Mrs. Bandaranaike and President Kumaratunga to take up the post of Director General of the Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Centre, where he works at present.

"Working here has been quite fulfillinge as I have always wanted to do some training and impart my experiences to others, " he said."When I started out, diplomacy was something new to the country and we were called upon to understand the world and play a role in it,” he says. And he is one person who has played that role admirably and set an example for all future Sri Lankan diplomats.

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