LETTER IX. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 

 DINNER 



CALCUTTA, February i6th, 1910. 



I INITIATED yesterday evening, to the great 

 detriment of my bank balance, an entirely novel 

 form of entertainment. I gave a dinner to all 

 the members of the Reformed Legislative Council. 

 We dined in the guests' room at the Bengal Club, 

 and I question whether such a representative 

 collection of Indians ever before met together at 

 dinner. Some who, owing to caste, could not 

 partake of food with me, came in after dinner. 

 One, a charming man, dined (at a small separate 

 table) on a huge mound of ice-cream and some 

 very indigestible plum-cake, and drank much iced 

 water he still lives. Some were vegetarians, 

 many were teetotallers and non-smokers. On the 

 other hand, not a few ate like troopers and drank 

 wine freely, which, however, must not be taken 

 to mean that any of them took more than they 

 could carry. 



I thought well to break up the party into sets 

 of five and seat them at separate small tables, 

 and so avoid as much as possible all difficulties 

 about rank and precedence a terribly " rocky " 

 question in India. 



At my table I had Burdwan, Mamudahbad, 



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