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“A CEYLON CENTURY” – By Des Kelly      It was 1815, the British “took-over” the little Island of Ceylon, not because it was a huge mass of land in the middle of the Indian Ocean, not because it presented the English Sailors with yet another tropical Island wherein they could vent built-up passions of months at sea, not because they were, even then, singing “Rule, Britannia, Britannia rules the waves”, in fact it was a tiny little “dot” of an Island, & there were hundreds of other such “dots”where Sailors could have their “fun”, when “out on liberty”, most of them could not “sing” to save their souls, anyway & no one knew the “lyrics”.      Because I was fortunate enough to be born (much later), in Ceylon, I think I know that the main reason why Britain walked into ” My Lovely Island Home” was firstly, because ...