THE PARADE

THE Proclamation Parade on New Year's Day is one of those functions of the Calcutta season which people of all classes can attend.

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A few years ago, owing to the activity of the Non-co-operators and the fear in which they were held, the mass of the inhabitants kept away with the result that the troops marched past enclosures that were almost empty except for the European element. The various boycotts, however, having now ceased, Northern Calcutta poured into the Maidan on Thursday in numbers which probably constituted a record.

People were banked twenty deep all round the brigade parade, and behind them again on every side of the Maidan were many thousands who, despairing of witnessing the review itself, were at least determined to lie in wait on the route of some of the troops returning to barracks.

Everywhere crowds attract larger crowds, and the know-ledge that so many people would be out on the Maidan took many others there in a holiday mood, quite satisfied if after hours of waiting they caught no more than a glimpse of a motor tractor with a gun behind.