Prince Charles spoke of his memories of the 'remarkable' Dom Mintoff and his passion for water skiing at a dinner hosted by the Commonwealth heads of government in Sri Lanka.

In his speech he referred to a speech earlier by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

"And I’m also most grateful to the Prime Minister of Malta, because when he was speaking it reminded me that I have actually visited an enormous number of Commonwealth countries in the last 60 years. And in 1954 I remember my sister and I went over to Gibraltar, Malta and then on to Dubruck to meet The Queen and Prince Philip at the end of their Coronation cruise," he said.

DOM MINTOFF

"When I was in Malta on one occasion," he said, "I remember Mr Dom Mintoff, who was a remarkable Prime Minister, invited me to go water skiing with him, and he was very keen on water skiing but he was one of those people who go on and on water skiing for hours and hours. And I remember he wore this extraordinary bath hat, bathing hat, and put wax plugs in his ears. Anyway we solemnly waterskied around most of Malta, until I could bear it no longer and dropped off, and let go of the rope and he went on. I never saw him again!"

Prince Charles also spoke of his recollections of other countries to underscore how the Commonwealth is a family of nations.

"I have been brought up in the family with all the stories about it, and all the accounts, and all the reminiscences, and everything else over so many years and I think that what we are renewing here are those family ties, those family associations, and most of all those family values, if I may say so, and I feel proud and enormously privileged to be a part of it all."

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