(Excerpted from the autobiography of MDD Peiris, Secretary to the Prime Minister)

We left for New York on September. 26, 1976 This was the day, that the Prime Minister’s husband, Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike succumbed to his injuries from an assassin’s bullet. She had attended the commemoration ceremonies at Horagolla in the morning and was in a sombre mood.

At this point, even though it would constitute a digression, I have to record something. Politics is a rough game and there are no holds barred when it comes to the denigration of political opponents. Mrs. Bandaranaike just as others was also a victim of this process. All kinds of stories were afloat that the Prime Minister and her husband did not get on, and that at the time of Mr. Bandaranaike’s assassination they were on the verge of divorce.

I do not know anything about the veracity of these stories. But I have to record a certain episode. The Prime Minister went to Yugoslavia occasionally to seek treatment for a bad knee. She obtained much relief from this treatment. Once when she was out there, she telephoned me, and rather apologetically inquired whether I could attend to a personal matter.

She said that she was very sorry to disturb me on such a matter, but she thought of speaking to me because of its importance to her. Then, she went on to say that she sends Dana or alms to the temple on the 26th of every month, in order to bestow merit on her husband. She had given such instructions to the staff at Temple Trees, but she was worried that they would forget. Would I please see that this Dana was sent to the temple on the due day?

I told her not to worry, and that I would personally attend to this with pleasure. She again expressed her apologies for disturbing me. She was always refined and polite. I thought I should record this story, because, to me at least this was the conduct of a devoted wife, and not of a lady who had been on the verge of divorce.

When we reached New York, we were accommodated at the elegant Carlyle hotel. A busy and packed schedule of work began. On the afternoon of the 27th there was a major discussion with Shirley (Amarasinghe), Neville (Kanekaratne) and the Prime Minister on her UN speech, and we were able to progress a great deal. It was a pleasure to work with the two senior Ambassadors. They were bright, quick thinking, precise, relevant, witty and prone to ribbing.

Hard work was a pleasure in their company, and the Prime Minister enjoyed it most. Between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. there were a number of calls on the Prime Minister in her suite in the hotel. Mr. Chavan the Foreign Minister of India; the Foreign Minister of Nigeria; and the Deputy Martial Law Administrator of Bangladesh were among those that called. That night and the next day were devoted to finalizing her address to the General Assembly and getting the final draft typed out and carefully checked.

On September 30 at 10 a.m. the Prime Minister called on the Secretary General of the UN, in his office suite at the UN. Neville Kanekaratne and I accompanied her. They had already met in Colombo in August during the time of the Non-Aligned Conference. At 10.50 a.m. she commenced her address to the General Assembly, which took 50 minutes.

Since it was an important speech, and since there was considerable interest in the Non-Aligned Conference, the hall was quite packed. This important responsibility discharged, we went back to the hotel quite relieved, responsibility discharged, and had a relaxed lunch. The afternoon’s programme started at 4 p.m. when the United States Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger, accompanied by their Permanent Representative at the UN, Ambassador Scranton, and the Assistant Secretary of State for South-East Asia Alfred Atherton called on the Prime Minister at the Hotel.

Neville Kanekeratne and I sat in. The discussion was relaxed, informal and cordial, and touched upon matters both political and economic. Dr. Kissinger paid Neville a great compliment by saying that we had “A formidable” Ambassador in Washington. The discussions lasted about 30 minutes. Dr. Kissinger apologized for not being able to attend the Prime Minister’s reception later in the evening at the UN, since he was flying back to Washington. All in all, it was a pleasant encounter.

We were back in the UN for a 6 p.m. reception hosted by the Prime Minister to Foreign Ministers, Heads of Delegations, the Secretary General and Senior UN Officials. This was quite well attended, and we finally wound up about 8.30 p.m. On the next day, at 1 I a.m. the Prime Minister addressed the Non-Aligned Group at the UN. This was a short 20 minute address, which we had worked on.

She took this opportunity of meeting some of the Sri Lankan staff working in the UN, followed by a visit to our permanent mission to the UN, where she talked with the staff, their spouses and children. We got back to the hotel for a quick lunch. At 4.15 p.m., the Norwegian Foreign Minister called, and discussed the Prime Minister’s impending visit to his country. This was followed by a visit from the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr. Aziz Ahmed at 5 p.m. He was a former member of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) and a very articulate person.

We were back at the UN by 6 p.m. to attend a reception hosted in the Prime Minister’s honour by the Secretary General of the UN. We got back at about 8 p.m. just in time to receive the Permanent Representative of China to the UN, Ambassador Huang Hua, at 8.15 p.m. It was a most interesting conversation, during which we listened to an interesting dissertation from him on “The hegemony of the Super Powers.”