High Commissioner Jayasinghe presents Credentials to Queen

Walter JAYAWARDHANA

Sri Lanka High Commissioner Nihal Jayasinghe presented his credentials to Queen Elizabeth 11 at the Buckingham Palace on October 27.

The new High Commissioner and Mrs. Indira Jayasinghe with their entourage were taken to the palace in two horse drawn red carriages from the Sri Lanka High Commission chancellery at 13, Hyde Park Gardens, London to the Buckingham palace for the ceremony.

The Queen exchanged pleasantries with the new High Commissioner who was clad in a cream coloured national dress and his wife clad in a sari and the queen said she was impressed with the national dress.

She remembered her happy visit to Ceylon in 1954 with her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh in 1954.

High Commissioner Jayasinghe said heir family fondly remembered the royal visit as his parents were invitees at the banquet given in honour of her visit.

During this visit the Queen caught world headlines when she and her husband visited a mud hut of a Sri Lankan farmer in the North Central Province where the overwhelmed farmer presented the royals with a sheaf of beetle leaves, according to the traditions of the country.

Mrs. Indira Jayasinghe spoke of the kind and unassuming nature of the Queen, with the common touch.

The Queen inquired about the victims of the Boxing Day tsunami and wished they will be one day able to overcome the grief when told by the High Commissioner that there are people who have lost their whole family to the tsunami.

The High Commissioner told the queen the present Government is only trying to get rid of terrorism and do everything to protect the Tamil people. For centuries they lived among the majority safely and continue to do so, he said.

At a largely attended reception at the Sri Lanka High Commission Ms. Sarah Gillett, Vice marshal at the Buckingham Palace toasted to the President of Sri Lanka and the new High Commissioner Nihal Jayasinghe.