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Minister of Constitutional Affairs, Enterprise Development, Industrial Policy and Investment Promotion Professor G. L. Peiris who is on an official visit to UK met the Lord Chancellor Rt. Hon. Lord Derry Irvine of Lairg at the Lord Chancellor's Chambers in the House of Lords on June 12.

The meeting was a continuation of discussions that our Prime Minister had with the Lord Chancellor during the Prime Minister's recent visit to the UK.

The Minister, in explaining the present situation of the peace process said that the Government of Sri Lanka was looking at a number of models of devolution with a view to adopting a suitable system according to Sri Lanka's requirements. However, he emphasised that the situation in Sri Lanka was unique and that no model could be duplicated and that whatever system was chosen it would have to be adapted to suit the Sri Lankan situation.

The Government is, the Minister said, looking very closely at structures of asymmetrical devolution of power.

He further said that the government is also looking at the possibility of establishing a constitutional system which is founded upon the Committee system that was a characteristic of the Donoughmore Constitution which prevailed in Sri Lanka just before the grant of independence in 1948.

The Donoughmore system enabled people with different political views coming from different political backgrounds to work together in the national interest. The government is looking at the system not with a view to applying it in its entirety but was attracted by the flexibility inherent in it.

Lord Chancellor welcoming Prof. Peiris, reiterated the offer made to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe recently of assistance to the government of Sri Lanka in effecting institutional arrangements that may become necessary as part of the peace process.

During the discussion he explained in detail the Scottish system and said that it was one of the most generous system of devolution that was in operation.

Mr. Faisz Musthapa, Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, associated with the Minister at the discussions.

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