The Northbrook Indian Club, formed to promote inter- course between
Indian and English gentlemen, has excited much interest in India, and £12,000 has been subscribed there to obtain a more central site for the Club in London. This Club, which will be called the " Northbrook," will be opened next Monday, by the Prince of Wales, at 3 Whitehall Gardens, and will, it is hoped, form a point of meeting for the two races. The President is Lord Northbrook, and the committee comprises the best known of retired Indian officials. The scheme is an admirable one, for its end, if its underlying thought is true ; but that has still to be ascertained. It is supposed that fre- quent intercourse between Englishmen and Indians will bring them closer together, but it may also, as in so many other cases, make them more hostile. Intimacy has not made the relations of England and Ireland cordial, nor do Negroes and Southerners love each other because they live in the same cities. We seem to see that race dislike increases as the races draw together,. and half-believe that the ancient seclusion which placed a social wall round both the Englishman and the Indian was most favourable to their mutual respect. They jar, when they touch. It is well, however, that the other theory should be tried to the uppermost, and tried fairly ; and it could not be- tried under better auspices than in the new quarters of the Northbrook Club. Hitherto, the managers report that the- attendance of Indian gentlemen has been full and regular, but not of English.
Previous page
