Feby 27" 1923
S.S. ARONDA.
Dearest Mrs Barnett
We left Calcutta this morning and I want to write at once to thank you for your introduction to Lord Lytton. He was "on tour" when we arrived but we lunched at Government House yesterday and I had enough talk with him to realize what a fine type of man he is. We lunched at Dehli with the Vice Roy and have seen a good deal of the "government" in India [page 2] as well as of the Indians themselves but I am bound to admit that the present situation seems to me very bewildering. Fine men like Mr Cotton or Sir Fred White on our side and men like Joshi and Das on the other -- who are not revolutionists -- are somewhat hurt in their feelings by what has been said and written in the Nationalist endeavor.
We were in northern India just one month, are now en route for Burma and then back to South India [page 3] and Ceylon before we go on to Penang and Hong Kong. It is all very superficial, of course, but quite genuine I think and at least first hand and withal fascinating.
[We?] had a good deal to do with a group of Indian women in Calcutta, who invited us to their houses and gave me a purdah reception in a beautiful garden to which no man was admitted. Many of the women there were remarkably fine and I had the impression [page 4] of people who were absolutely of "our kind" of modern women.
The little settlement started in Calcutta has been given up but there is a flourishing office in Bombay called a Workingman's Institute where six men live and where the settlement spirit was certainly present. The Social Service Club in Bombay which number 1500 members gave me a reception that was really impressive and attracted me rather more than the people in the University Settlement for [page 5] women [although] they were also nice. I have sent some material to Mr Catchpool at Toynbee Hall asking him to communicate with Capt Ellis.
Prof Lyon had already passed [through] Calcutta and no one seemed to know his present address. I was sorry to miss him [although] it is possible I may meet him in Madras if rumor be well founded. I hope to Miss Creighton there. [page 6]
Lord Lytton found it hard to believe that you had gone to the Canary Islands. His affection for you and interest in all your doings is most obvious.
I do hope that the journey was a restorative one and that you found all going well in your beautiful town upon your return. Please give my love to Miss Patterson and as for you dear Lady, you know that you hold mine in the hollow of your hand all of the time.
Always & forever devotedly yours
Jane Addams.
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