evidence: After my schooling in Jaffna and Colombo and my under graduate studies in Colombo, I was recruited to the Ceylon Civil Service in April 1959, not long after Sinhala was made the only Official Language. I retired in April 1995, a few years after the passage of the 13th and 16th Ammendments to the Constitution, which introduced Tamil also as an Official Language. In the intervening 36 years, I served a total of 11 years in Badulla, Mannar, Batticaloa and Jaffna Districts. Badulla was bilingual but the other three Districts were predominently Tamil Speaking.