British Studies Seminar, University of Texas at Austin with live oaks and the scattered ashes of one of the founding members of the seminar. On arrival at the seminar, the participants help themselves to a glass of Tio Pepe or Dry Sack sherry, though teetotalers prefer cranberry juice. Sherry has come to symbolize the attitude. The seminar meets to examine in a civilized way whatever happens to be on the agenda, Scottish or Indian, Canadian or Jamaican, English or Australian. The discussion is civil, but sometimes grows a bit heated. What makes the debate engrossing is the clash of different perspectives—including those of lawyers, physicians, retired ambassadors, and
Tio Tek Ho land acquisition transactions of his predecessor, Majoor Lie Tjoe Hong. The previous Majoor, who owned extensive private domains, cajoled the Chinese Council of Batavia to purchase some of these landholdings. While most members of the Council cowered and acquiesced in the Majoor's demand, Tio disassociated himself from the whole saga, thus winning the approval of the colonial government. Tio was installed in office in 1896, and held his post until 1907. By the start of the twentieth century, however, Majoor Tio Tek Ho was considered to be a conservative traditionalist by more progressive community leaders, the so-called "jong Chineesche partij"