BOxMBAY GARDEN-PARTY 77 



suspension of Opium sale. The Finance Member 

 was able to assure them that the Government of 

 India had taken a very strong position and would 

 doubtless do their best to enforce the terms of 

 the Cheefoo Convention. The informal Conference 

 which is now discussing the Canton Opium Duty 

 in Peking has before it the views of the Government 

 of India. The Indian merchants also discussed 

 various other questions, including the prospects 

 of the silver market, in which Bombay has for 

 some time now taken a lead. The members of the 

 Exchange also interviewed the Finance Member 

 and discussed several important matters/' 



One afternoon I accepted an invitation from 

 Mr. Goculdas, who is, I believe, very wealthy and 

 a leading merchant, to attend at his house a 

 garden-party of Bombay Indian merchants who 

 desired to make my acquaintance. I am unable 

 to give the names of the gentlemen who were asked 

 to meet me, but they were representative of the 

 most important Indian financial, commercial, and 

 industrial interests in Bombay, and they numbered 

 about thirty. I was with them the whole after- 

 noon and listened to every conceivable grievance 

 and to every, almost inconceivable, remedy. I 

 was very greatly struck by the high order of 

 intelligence of the Bombay Indian communities. 

 They seem to me to be elbowing out the English. 

 An absorption of English firms by Parsees seems 

 to be going on. I was a good deal heckled, but I 

 received from them all the greatest courtesy and 

 very friendly consideration, and my intercourse 

 with them was both pleasant and advantageous. 

 Indeed, I may say of all those whom I met in 

 Bombay, English or Indian, that nothing could 



