I thank you for inviting me here today to address you on what marks a very special day in your country’s history.

UK-Sri Lankan relations are important today in these tough economic times as they ever have been. UK exports to Sri Lanka are worth around $241m, and the UK is the ninth largest exporter to the country. Sri Lanka’s principal exports to the UK are textiles and garments and tea.

The latter is something which ties where we are today, Glasgow and Sri Lanka very closely. It was the tea-pickers of Sri Lanka and pioneering Scotsmen as much as the tea-merchants of Surrey who established the traditional cup of tea.

UK-Sri Lankan ties go back many years, but less known is the Sri Lankan connection to Scotland and Glasgow in particular. Scottish links to Sri Lanka go back at least 200 years, when it was known as Ceylon.

Scotsman, James Taylor, set up the first tea factory in 1872 on the island. From this point on, Ceylon tea began to arrive regularly in the UK, the success of which led to the opening of an auction market in the capital Colombo in 1883, and to the founding of a Colombo tea dealers association in 1894.

James Taylor’s dedication and determination was largely responsible for the early success of the tea crop in Ceylon and he became known as “the father of Ceylon tea”.

After Taylor, Ceylon tea was taken from infancy to maturity by another intrepid Scotsman, and Glaswegian, called Tommy Lipton. Born on 10 May 1850 in the Gorbals of Glasgow.

Tea drinking had become a popular habit in Britain in the late 19^th century, but it was expensive. Lipton wanted to make tea accessible to all at low prices but with guaranteed quality.

Lipton achieved this by setting up his own tea plantations in Sri Lanka and importing direct from there to Glasgow, cutting out the middle man and lowering the price.

Thanks to Scotsmen like Taylor and Lipton, by the end of the 19th Century the word “tea” was no longer synonymous with China, but with Ceylon. And their legacy lingers – modern day Sri Lanka is second only to India in the production of tea worldwide.

But Scotland’s links with Sri Lanka don’t begin and end with tea – they continue to the present day.

One of the few sports that we Scots can claim to be world champions in is Elephant Polo, where Sri Lanka is one of the key figures in the sport. To be fair we did invent the sport, as it is the brainchild of Scottish adventurer and former British Olympic bobsleigh team member James Manclark.

In February 2007 near the World Heritage Forte of Galle, the 6th Annual International Elephant Polo Tournament, were Scotland defended their title. The current world champions are England, but we will ignore that as Scotland has more titles.

On a more sombre note; Galle, where the competition was held, was also one of the worst hit places in Sri Lanka by the tsunami on 26 December 2004. After Indonesia, Sri Lanka suffered more physical damage and human loss than anywhere else.

I remember the event clearly and the efforts in my constituency of Glasgow North West to raise money for the many thousands who were effected. As some of you will be aware, many Scottish charities were at the vanguard of this aid raising 3.5mil in the first 48 hrs. This helped to provide money for fishing boats, fund the establishment of farms, subsidize farmers to enable them to plant rice, kick-start various small businesses, provide water pumps and general provisions for thousands of displaced families and purchase medical equipment for hospitals.

Furthermore, a Glaswegian church established more than a century ago by Scots tea plantation owners is giving women in Sri Lanka the opportunity to start afresh in life. St Andrews Kirk in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo maintains links with Netherlee Parish Church in Glasgow. Netherlee raised enough money to buy a house in the suburbs of Colombo, which will give many unfortunate women a new home.

I am, some maybe surprised to hear, a very keen cricket fan and former cricketer. Scotland does have a cricket team, although not as well known or competitive as England’s, but like a lot of Scots I follow the England Cricket team.

Scotland has never played Sri Lanka in cricket but I did enjoy the last England v Sri Lanka match, probably more than most in this room (as England won).

Back to why we are here today; the post war Labour government of Clement Attlee is remembered for many things in this country, such as the NHS and the foundation of a welfare state, but another of its many achievements was decolonization.

Sri Lanka’s separation from the British Empire in 1948 and its assumption as a member of the Commonwealth was an example of a bloodless birth of a nation, which unfortunately was not so common at the time.

So we should remember the Independence of Sri Lanka today but also the manner in which it was achieved as a guide for the start of a new decade for both our country’s.

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