Lodge Burroughs Strange No. 87
Vijayawada, India

Most Worshipful Grand Master, I beg leave to report on the mission with which you entrusted me when I was instructed to head the deputation from England to install the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of India in New Delhi.

After months of preparation the preliminary arrangements for the Inauguration Meeting were completely successful. As approximately one - thousand - five - hundred Masons were attending, the ballroom of the Ashoka Hotel and various other reception rooms were taken over. This itself required a tremendous lot of tact and organisation, as the World Council of Churches was meeting in New Delhi at the time, and the hotel was practically full with foreign dignitaries; the fact that there was also a Trade Fair in progress must have added to the difficulties of finding accommodation.

I want at this point to offer my congratulations to the Grand Director of Ceremonies and his two Deputies, and also to the Grand Secretary. Their efforts at the rehearsals and their patience with those whom they were rehearsing was quite beyond praise. The results of their labours however were fully realised, because on Friday, 24th November, when the ceremony took place at 4 p.m., everything went like clock work.

R. W. Bro. Large, District Grand master for Bengal assisted by Irish and Scott Brethren, opened the Lodge with great dignity Each of the deputations from Scotland Ireland and England were brought in perfect order, and the ceremony throughout went without a hitch of any kind. The Grand Master Mason of Scotland consecrate the Grand Lodge of India, the Deputy Grand Master of Ireland constituted it, and finally I installed the Grand Master. The was followed by the appointment and invest true of the new Grand Officers, and after exchange of formal addresses the deputation withdrew. It must be realised that there were nearly one - thousand - five - hundred people crowded into a room that had been only temporarily adapted for Masonic purposes.

The buffet dinner, which was arranged in several rooms for 10 p.m. was beautifully laid on and the food quite delicious. When the evening was over I had a feeling of great pride that I had the opportunity to take part in such an historic occasion.

One of the points that impressed me most about the Grand Lodge of India is its universality, for they had no less than five different volumes of the Sacred Law lying open on the altar for use by the Grand Officers in taking their Obligations, demonstrating that Masonry in India is open to all races and religions.