Thirty sixth death anniversary falls tomorrow:

Dudley- The gentleman politician

Wijitha NAKKAWITA

Among the leaders of the United National Party, Dudley Shelton Senanayake stood taller than any other. It could not be said that he was cut out to be a politician though he entered politics after joining the Ceylon National Congress as he came from one of the distinguished political families in the previous century. Perhaps Dudley may have regretted that he had to make certain political decisions but he never felt sorry for resigning as Prime Minister in 1953 after the hartal when several people were killed by police shooting.

Dudley Shelton Senanayake

Son of the first Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake and nephew of the freedom fighter F.R.Senanayake, Dudley was born on June 19,1911 and had his school education at S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavinia. In school he was a bright student, a sportsman and won the Victoria Prize for studies. After leaving school he left for England where he pursued law studies at the Cambridge University and took oaths as a Barrister -at- Law at the Inner Temple.

On his return home he practised law but in most of the Court cases he appeared free for poor people. When the Ceylon National Congress, one of the two constituent parties that was to form the UNP - the other was Sinhala Maha Sabha - he became one of its joint secretaries with J.R. Jayewardene. In 1936 he entered the then State Council contesting and winning the Dedigama constituency that he held for many decades afterwards. In 1952 after Premier D.S. Senanayake died after falling off his horse on Galle Face Green, Dudley was sworn in as the Premier by the then Governor General Lord Soulbury though he was only in his early forties.

It drew the ire and surprise among some of his colleagues in the Cabinet including Sir John Kotelawala one of the most senior ministers who wrote a small booklet "The Premier Stakes," as it was known the old man D.S. Senanayake had instructed the Governor General Lord Soulbury to appoint Dudley as premier in the event of his death. However Dudley soon dissolved Parliament and sought a mandate from the people and won with a clear majority. But destiny decided otherwise.

At that time there were rice ration books and a measure of rice was sold to the public through cooperative shops at 25 cents. When the price of rice was suddenly jacked up to 50 cents a measure - J.R.Jayewardene was the then Finance Minister - a countrywide hartal led by the left political parties against the price hike turned to riots in some places and a number of people were shot dead by the police. Dudley resigned from premiership as well as politics and was quoted saying he did not come to power to kill people.

Sir John Kotelawala succeeded Dudley but was defeated at the next general election of 1956 and the UNP decimated to 8 seats out of 101 in Parliament was in total disarray.

Sir John also resigned from politics and left the country and the party members including the few in Parliament appealed to Dudley to lead the party again.

Even though the UNP was very weak he took up its leadership on February 4, 1957 and at the next general election of March 1960 after Premier S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was assassinated in September 1959 the UNP led by Dudley won 50 seats as the largest party but creating a hung parliament.

His government was short lived and was defeated at the first session during the "Throne Speech."

In 1965 Dudley led the UNP to victory again winning a majority as a coalition with some other political parties and ran the full term of fiveyears taking great pains to develop agriculture, following in the footsteps of his father D.S.

At the next general election of 1970 the UNP was defeated again. Dudley died on April 13, 1973 at the age of 62.

He is remembered as a humanitarian who loved the country and helped people even individually.

There are only very few individuals in politics who could be compared to him as he used power only to help the people.