Russia 
 
 AdXiNST 
 
 India 
 
 % 
 
 m^ 
 
 A.R.COLQUHOUN 
 
1> 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 FROM THE 
 
 SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 189X 
 
 AUkJ^dS ^/J/i.^...d.S.. 
 
 S474 
 
Cornell University Library 
 D 378.C72 
 
 Russia against ln<l)a<, 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027822414 
 
RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
Showing successive advances of Itussia. 
 
 J.v'ulmuA'Xiiryorti^ Sorptr i,-£roaizrt. i^jiU/anari* Strttt.. W. C 
 
 K S.V*IUr.FJL& S. bV 
 
RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR ASIA 
 
 ARCHIBALD RV^'^COLQUHOUN 
 
 GOLD MEDALLIST, ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY; FORMERLY DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, 
 BURMA; FIRST ADMINISTRATOR OF MASHONALAND^ AND SPECIAL CORRESPON- 
 DENT OF THE "times" IN THE FAR EAST; AUTHOR OF "ACROSS 
 CHRYSfi," "china in TRANSFORMATION," ETC. 
 
 WITH SPECIAL MAPS 
 
 LONDON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS 
 
 4S, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 
 
 1900 
 
 T 
 
' ^ ^\Lkj X)^ P 
 
 A) to 5^1 B^ 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This little work is intended to bring before 
 the Anglo-Saxon public a question of vital 
 importance. It is not sucb a complicated and 
 difficult question as is generally supposed, nor 
 is it one that can be shelved for settlement 
 by a future generation. " The man in the 
 street" is nowadays a powerful factor in the 
 facing and solution of political situations, and 
 it is for him that this book has been written, 
 and not for the few experts on the Central 
 Asian question who have already arrived at 
 fixed conclusions. The writer makes no claim 
 to presenting an exhaustive study of the sub- 
 ject, but hopes that his sketch of things, as 
 they are in reality — a sketch from the life, 
 and not from official descriptions — will arouse 
 sufficient interest to induce others to make a 
 study for themselves, and decide in their own 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 minds whether or no it is desirable that the 
 Anglo-Saxon race should be worsted in the 
 " struggle for Asia." 
 
 There are many who ridicule the idea of 
 such an impending struggle. Do they base 
 their confidence on the pacific intentions of 
 Eussia, or on the impregnability of all other 
 nations with whom she is likely to dispute the 
 possession of Asia ? In either case the history 
 of the past throws a significant light on the 
 possibilities of the future. The advance of 
 Eussia — "creeping on bit by bit" — is, in this 
 little book, viewed as a whole, and the connec- 
 tion between the transformation of the Far East, 
 especially of China, and the Eussian advance 
 towards India through Central Asia, is shown 
 to be intimate. 
 
 With British interests in India are closely 
 bound up the interests of the whole Anglo- 
 Saxon race, and indeed of many of the Latin 
 races as well. That these interests are in real 
 jeopardy the writer has endeavoured to make 
 quite plain. It is possible that the whole 
 question may not come to a head during the 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 next few years, but are we not bound to ensure, 
 as far as possible, for those that come after us 
 the prestige our fathers bequeathed us? At 
 the same time, when we take a bird's-eye view 
 of the progress of Kussia since the time of 
 Peter the Great, when we look at the maps 
 of Eussia then and now — or even the maps of 
 sixty years ago — we may not feel so certain 
 of security even in our own times. 
 
 The writer has given the outlines of a policy, 
 at once bold and prudent, which alone would, in 
 his opinion, meet the exigencies of the situation. 
 But no such policy is likely to be initiated 
 unless the People — who govern Governments — 
 instruct themselves, become interested, and 
 demand that measures be taken to safeguard 
 the prestige of the Anglo-Saxon in Asia. 
 
 It is a case of educating our masters. 
 
 The writer desires to acknowledge his in- 
 debtedness, amongst other works, to those of 
 Eugene Schuyler, Hugo Stumm, Thorburn, and 
 the anonymous author of "The March towards 
 India." 
 
 A. E. C. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. HiSTOBIOAL iNTBOBtrCTION 1 
 
 II. Historical Inteoduction — continued . . 30 
 
 III. Central Asia — Country and People . . 55 
 
 IV. Central Asia — Country and People — 
 
 continued 80 
 
 V. Central Asia — Country and People — 
 
 contintced 101 
 
 VI. The British Eulb in India 126 
 
 VII. Afghanistan and Persia 150 
 
 VIII. Eussii m Central Asia 183 
 
 IX. The Defence of India 202 
 
 Appendix 231 
 
RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR ASIA 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 Russia, at the time of Henry III. in England, 
 some four centuries before the first settlers 
 landed from the Mayflower in the United States, 
 was in a state of great disorder, split up into a 
 number of petty principalities, and devastated by 
 Mongol invasions which lasted until the end of the 
 fourteenth century. The Russian princes were 
 mere tax-gatherers, actually forced to pay homage 
 to the Khans of the Golden Horde — a name given 
 to those Mongols who had settled on the banks 
 of the Volga, on account, it is said, of the splen- 
 dour of their tents and appointments. Obliged 
 to submit their disputes to the decision of the 
 Khan, the Russian princes could not even ascend 
 
 B 
 
2 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 their thrones without first receiving " Jarlikh/' 
 or letters patent, from their Mongol suzerain. 
 
 By degrees, however, the Mongol power 
 waned while that of Moscow increased, until, in 
 the reign of Ivan III., who succeeded his father, 
 Vassili the Blind, in 1463, the Muscovites were 
 able to throw off all semblance of obedience to the 
 Horde. In 1478 Ivan refused to pay tribute, 
 trampled on the image of the Khan, and put 
 his envoys to death. The Mongol marched, with 
 a large following, to avenge this insult, and was 
 met by Ivan. The two armies faced each other 
 on either side of the river Oka, but did not come 
 to close quarters, as neither seems to have had 
 the pluck to attack. They contented themselves 
 with an occasional discharge of arrows and more 
 frequent voUeys of abuse, and when the freezing 
 of the river made a rencontre almost inevitable, 
 both sides were seized with panic, and ran away. 
 The degeneration of the Mongol had, as this 
 incident shows, already made great strides, and 
 from this time the Golden Horde rapidly lost its 
 ascendency. Ere long, indeed, the Grand Prince 
 of Moscow turned the tables on his old suzerain, 
 and both Sarai and Kazan, the headquarters of 
 the two chief Mongol tribes in Russia, were 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 forced to swear allegiance to Moscow ; while 
 the Khan of the Crimea, where a third tribe 
 had settled, became a sworn ally of the Grand 
 Prince. About 1499 the Eussians made a small 
 raid across the Urals, unimportant in itself, but 
 interesting as their first advance into Asia. 
 Ivan III. had many successes in the battle-field, 
 and, becoming over-lord of a large number of 
 the other States, laid the foundations of, and 
 commenced the work of consolidating, the Eussian 
 empire. 
 
 The grandson of this prince was Ivan the 
 Terrible, the first to assume the title of " Tsar," 
 who became extremely powerful, and was sought 
 in alliance by ambassadors from Eastern countries. 
 In his time Kazan and Astrakan were annexed, 
 and the Strogonofis made their colonizing ex- 
 peditions towards the Urals. The first serious ( 
 expedition of Eussia into Central Asia was \ 
 undertaken at the end of the sixteenth century 
 by the Kassak (Cossack) tribe, under their cele- 
 brated chief, Yermak. These Cossacks were, as 
 their name implies, merely a tribe of outlaws 
 and freebooters, who called themselves "The \ 
 Good Companions of the Don ; " but the Tsar, in 
 order to turn their energies to good purpose, 
 
4 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 offered them a free pardon if they would assist 
 him against the wild tribes on the other side of 
 the Urals. They accepted the offer, and, crossing 
 the mountains, found their way to the Caspian 
 Sea, where they occupied themselves with piracy 
 and with plundering the Persian colonies. They 
 were, later, also successful in their engagements 
 with the Trans-Ural nomad tribes, whom they 
 completely defeated, taking possession of Sibir, 
 the capital of Kuchum (a lineal descendant of 
 Genghiz Khan), and so giving Eussia her first 
 foothold in Asia.* Such was the birth of 
 Eussian power in the enormous territory since 
 known to the world as Siberia, 
 
 Early in the seventeenth century, some of the 
 Cossacks who had crossed the Urals brought 
 back wonderful tales of riches in the oasis of 
 Khiva, and a troop started thither to explore, 
 taking only such baggage as their horses could 
 carry. At first they were successful, capturing 
 and looting one of the principal towns and 
 annexing a thousand of the youngest and 
 prettiest women for their household require- 
 ments ; but, encumbered with too' much heavy 
 baggage, they were caught and surrounded by 
 * An account of this is given in " Overland to Cliina." 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 the Khivans, who shut them oflf from water. 
 They fought desperately, drinking the blood of 
 the slain to quench their thirst ; but though a 
 hundred of them cut their way through and 
 managed to conceal themselves for a time, all 
 eventually perished. Two other campaigns were 
 equally unsuccessful ; while the third, which was 
 ostensibly a peaceful mission from Peter the 
 Great to the Khan, ended in the treacherous 
 murder of the Russian envoy and all his men — 
 a Khivan St. Bartholomew's Day. 
 
 In the early part of the seventeenth century, 
 relations were established with Bokhara, and it 
 is interesting to note that the Russian ambassa- 
 dors insisted on being treated with the greatest 
 ceremony. They had " no intention of per- 
 mitting their nation to be treated with dis- 
 respect" — an excellent method in dealing with 
 Asiatics, and one which has been of much service 
 to Russia in her advance into the heart of Asia. 
 China meanwhile viewed the progress of Russia 
 into Asia with distrust, and destroyed the first 
 strongholds which the Russians, taking advan- 
 tage of a dispute between the Chinese and one of 
 the neighbouring tribes, had built on the Amur. 
 A treaty was concluded later, in 1689, which 
 
6 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 ousted the Russians altogether from the Amur, 
 and barred their progress towards the Pacific. 
 
 The first attempt made by England to trade 
 with Russia was in 1553, when was founded 
 what was known as the British Muscovy Com- 
 pany. Attempts were also made, without much 
 success, to trade with the Khanates of Central 
 Asia through Russia, but the time was not yet 
 ripe ; and though an intrepid English sailor, 
 Jenkinson, flew the first British flag on the 
 Caspian Sea and actually reached Bokhara, no 
 regular communication with Central Asia could 
 be established. Owing to their ignorance of 
 geography. Englishmen thought that the only 
 way to reach India — the fabulously wealthy 
 " Kingdom of the Great Mogul " — was through 
 the Tsar's dominions, and it is curious to reflect 
 that the very State to which England looked 
 to aff'ord a means of communication with India 
 is, now that she has built up an Eastern empire for 
 herself, her most dangerous and powerful rival. 
 
 Peter the Great, who came to the throne in 
 1689, adopted the vigorous policy of expansion 
 which has never since ceased to animate his 
 nation. UntU early in the eighteenth century 
 he was occupied on the European frontiers of 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 his dominions. His imagination was, however, 
 fired by the wonderful stories which had reached 
 him of the mineral wealth of Siberia, and these 
 were confirmed by an envoy from Khiva, which 
 had some years earlier tendered its submission 
 to the Tsar. Peter, therefore, sent an armed 
 expedition for the double purpose of occupying 
 Khiva and getting some of the gold which, he 
 was assured, was to be found on the shores of 
 the river Oxus. The expedition was a failure, 
 but it resulted in the building of the first fort 
 in the chain, known since as the New Siberian 
 Line, which stretches across the Ishim steppe and 
 was completed in 1752. Peter also established 
 himself firmly on the Caspian Sea, and made 
 efibrts to inaugurate a trade-route vid Persia 
 to India. Astrabad, on the Caspian, which was 
 ceded to Russia in 1722, was an important factor 
 in the eyes of the Great Tsar as a base for the 
 advance towards India. " Have you ever been 
 in the Gulf of Astrabad ? " he exclaimed to an 
 officer at Derbent. "You must know, then, 
 that those mountains " — pointing to the heights 
 on the shores of the Caspian — " extend to Astra- 
 bad; and from there to Balkh and Badakshan 
 with pack-camels is only a twelve days' journey, 
 
8 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 and on that road to India no one can interfere 
 ■with us." 
 
 Peter died in 1725, and after his death 
 Eussian affairs in Asia were for some time less 
 successfully conducted. The document known 
 as the "Will of Peter the Great" was almost 
 certainly apocryphal, and not improbably written 
 at the instigation of Napoleon I. It sets forth 
 a policy, however, virtually amounting to the 
 conquest of Asia and, through Asia, of the 
 world.* It expresses, in fact, the true aspirations 
 of the Eussian nation, and Eussian diplomatists 
 have, since the time of Peter the Great, steadUy 
 pursued a course in keeping with the principles 
 set forth in this document. Towards the end 
 of the eighteenth century, in the reign of the 
 Empress Catherine II., a scheme was contem- 
 plated, the first of its kind, for invading India 
 through the Khanates of Central Asia — a scheme 
 which was, however, never carried into effect. 
 
 For the rest of the century Eussia was 
 occupied with her European conquests. The 
 annexation of the Crimea in 1775 was marked 
 by a merciless slaughter of 30,000 Tartars 
 of either sex and every age. Georgia, which 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 had been a shuttlecock between Persia and 
 Eussia for some time, became the vassal of 
 the latter in 1800. A year later the Emperor 
 Paul, infatuated with Napoleon, agreed to a 
 project for the joint invasion of India by France 
 and Eussia. The orders had already been given 
 to the commander, and an army of Cossacks had 
 started, when the death of the Tsar put an end 
 to the scheme. His successor, Alexander I., did 
 not pursue the project, but he continued the 
 struggle to extend his dominions into Central 
 Asia, and a long conflict with Persia ensued, in 
 which the fate of Georgia and other Caucasian 
 provinces was disputed without any decided 
 advantage to either side. 
 
 Napoleon, having defeated Austria and Eussia 
 at Austerlitz in 1805, tried to undermine the 
 interests of Eussia in Asia by seeking an alliance 
 with Persia; but a treaty had already been 
 concluded with Britain, and the policy of the 
 Shah was to keep both French and Eussians at 
 bay, looking to Great Britain for aid, in return 
 for which he was to prevent the Afghans from 
 invading India, In 1807, however, finding that 
 Great Britain would not afford him the aid he 
 wanted, the Shah concluded a treaty with 
 
lo RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 Napoleon ; and, when the Peace of Tilsit put an 
 end to the war between France and Kussia, Alex- 
 ander and Napoleon concocted another scheme 
 for the invasion of India, in which they counted 
 upon Persia as an ally. But the French had 
 overreached themselves, and the British envoy. 
 Sir Harford Jones, succeeded in persuading the 
 Shah that the true enemy of Persia must always 
 be Russia, and her friends those who are against 
 that Power. As the Tsar had just declared war 
 with France, and as Persia had, despite promises, 
 reaped no advantages from her French alliance, 
 this diplomacy was successful, and an Anglo - 
 Persian treaty was again concluded. Sir Harford 
 Jones appears to have been " the first British 
 statesman to realize that the greatest external 
 danger which threatened British India was to 
 be found, not in French intrigues at Teheran, 
 nor in the possibility of invasion by Afghan 
 hordes, but in the steady and insidious encroach- 
 ments of Russia beyond her European frontiers." 
 The close of the year 1814 found Persia, though 
 some of her fairest provinces had been ceded to 
 Russia, at peace with that nation and in alliance 
 with Great Britain, the latter Power undertaking 
 to defend her in a war with any European 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION ii 
 
 nation, unless she herself were the aggressor. 
 Eussia, however, by her threatening attitude 
 on the Persian frontier, which had not been 
 accurately defined, provoked the Persians to 
 declare war, and, when applied to for help, the 
 British Government elected to abide by the letter 
 of the treaty rather than risk a war with a 
 European nation. In the subsequent struggle 
 Persia lost stUl more provinces to Eussia. When 
 peace was concluded, Eussia turned her attention 
 to Turkey, and conducted a successful campaign 
 which enabled her to round off her possessions 
 south of the Caucasus. She then began to 
 undermine British influence in the court of 
 Teheran, and to stir up Persia to make attacks 
 on Afghanistan. Mr. McNeill, the British envoy 
 and afterwards ambassador, was not able to 
 prevent a campaign, although he did everything 
 in his power. Great Britain, being bound by 
 the terms of the former treaty, was unable to 
 interfere, and the English, who had formerly 
 urged the Persians to attack Afghanistan (for 
 the purpose of shielding India from an Afghan 
 invasion), now had the mortification of seeing 
 a Persian army (largely drilled by British ofl&cers) 
 repeat that invasion, not in defence of British 
 
12 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 interests, but to further the designs of Eussia upon 
 the British Empire in India. The first British- 
 Afghan war took place in 1839, resulting in the 
 occupation of the chief cities by British troops. 
 
 Eussia now began a policy of slow but syste- 
 matic advance in Central Asia. In the winter of 
 1839 an expedition, starting from Orenburg, was 
 led by General Perovski, ostensibly to obtain the 
 release of Eussian prisoners in Khiva, and to 
 redress the injuries inflicted by the wild tribes 
 on the borders of Eussia ; in reality, the objec't 
 was to obtain paramount influence over Afghan- 
 istan, and to oust the British. That winter, 
 however, proved to be one of almost unprece- 
 dented rigour in Central Asia, and after horrible 
 sufferings, entailed by the effort to march in 
 blinding storms with snow almost waist high, the 
 troops returned to Orenburg, leaving more than 
 a thousand dead, and bringing 609 sick to be 
 lodged in hospital. This expedition, nevertheless, 
 convinced the Khivans that Eussia was in earnest, 
 and to avert another campaign, the Khan made 
 overtures, and sent back many prisoners, but it 
 was not till 1842 that a treaty was concluded. 
 
 The Khanate of Khiva is a long, narrow oasis, 
 including both banks of the Amu Daria, and 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 extending from tlie frontier of Bokhara to the 
 southern shore of the Sea of Aral. The city of 
 Khiva is the exact centre of the Khanate. A 
 girdle of absolute desert, in area exceeding the 
 territories of Germany, France, and Italy to- 
 gether, with a radius of over fifty miles, encircles 
 Khiva on every side, in many places attaining a 
 width of from fifty-five to sixty miles. This 
 girdle was surrounded from the south-west round 
 to the north-east by Russian territory, Russian 
 forts, and Russian troops. The south and south- 
 east were bordered by Persia, Afghanistan, and 
 Bokhara, and could only be of importance if 
 these states abandoned their neutrality. 
 
 Khiva was one of the most sacred cities of 
 Central Asia, and, according to an old saying, 
 would remain secure from foreign aggression — 
 interpreted as Russian — untU the waters of the 
 Amu Daria, returning to the old bed which they 
 had deserted, should once more wash against the 
 walls of Kane Urgench (the old capital, which 
 lies north of Khiva). In 1839 the river is said 
 to have risen to such an extent that its waters 
 reached the ancient city, and the inhabitants, 
 whose superstition is notorious, felt the hour for 
 Russia had come. 
 
14 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 From tlie time of her first steps in expansion, 
 Eussia invariably marked her line of advance 
 with forts, which gradually extended further 
 south and east. These were occupied by Cos- 
 sacks, who were able to combine agricultural 
 with military pursuits, and thus to a certain 
 extent mitigate the grave difficulties of pro- 
 visioning. These Cossacks were able to hold the 
 forts against overwhelming odds. 
 
 The disasters which befell the British in 
 Afghanistan during the years 1841-42 brought 
 about a marked difference in the attitude of 
 Eussia towards the Khanates, and the misfortunes 
 of the British quite dwarfed those of Perovski, 
 which had created so powerful an impression 
 throughout Eussia. These disasters began with 
 the attempt of Dost Mohammed to regain his 
 throne, from which Britain had deposed him. 
 This attempt was unsuccessful, but the people 
 were discontented, and the Suddozai Shah, the 
 British nominee, was unpopular. The disafiiection 
 grew, unchecked by any prompt action on the 
 part of the British, until it culminated in the 
 murder at Kabul of Sir Alexander Burnes and 
 the British envoy. Sir William Macnaghten. 
 Matters then went rapidly from bad to worse, 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 and ended disastrously in the retreat of General 
 Elphinstone, with an army of 16,000, of which 
 only one man, Dr. Bryden, was ever destined to 
 reach Jalalabad alive. The English position in 
 Afghanistan seemed almost hopeless, and, to 
 crown all, at Bokhara two British envoys, 
 Stoddart and ConoUy, who had been sent on 
 special missions, were cruelly put to death by 
 the Amir, who thought he had nothing to fear 
 from the countrymen of a nation which had just 
 sustained so terrible a defeat. The Eussian 
 agent, Buteneff, on the contrary, who was accom- 
 panied by a small staff of miners and topographers, 
 was well received at first, and made valuable 
 notes and extensive surveys. Buteneff, however, 
 could not effect any agreement with the Amir, 
 and finally left without the usual official cere- 
 mony, feeling by no means certain that he might 
 not share the fate of the unfortunate Englishmen 
 who had lost their lives, if he stayed longer with 
 the treacherous Amir. 
 
 While England was preparing to retrieve the 
 disgrace of Kabul, Kussia took an opportunity 
 offered her by Persia, who appealed for aid to 
 check the piracy of the Turkomans on the 
 Caspian Sea, By the treaty of Turkoman chi, 
 
i6 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 Persia had forfeited the right to keep war- vessels 
 on this sea, but Eussia was hampered by no such 
 restriction. She sent ships from the naval 
 station on the island of Sari, and took possession 
 of Ashurada (at the mouth of the Gulf of Astra- 
 '^ad), which she proceeded to fortify. Despite 
 the protests of Persia, who appealed to England 
 for aid, this place was held, and has ever since 
 remained the property of the Tsar. This, one 
 of Russia's bloodless conquests, acquired simply 
 by a cool, high-handed, and unscrupulous policy, 
 affords her one of the most valuable strategical 
 positions in Central Asia. 
 
 The Kirghiz, who were nominally the vassals 
 of Eussia, now gave her an excellent pretext for 
 pushing the line of forts further south. They 
 had never abandoned their predatory habits, and 
 frequently attacked the caravans which passed 
 across their steppes. At the beginning of the 
 century Eussia adopted more stringent measures, 
 and large bodies of Cossacks were sent to subdue 
 them. During the first half of the century the 
 line of forts had been thrown out till it almost 
 enclosed a large portion of the Kirghiz steppe, 
 but a considerable gap was left between Fort 
 Eaim, on the Aral Sea, and Kopal. To connect 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 these was now the aim of the Kussian Grovern- 
 ment, and, as a preliminary, an expedition was 
 sent up the Syr Daria with the object of found- 
 ing a fort there. The Khokandians viewed these 
 advances with much uneasiness, and resisted to 
 the best of their power. Ak-Meehet, the im- 
 portant fortress of Khokand, was twice besieged 
 — in 1852, and again in the following year — 
 and finally captured. Several attempts were 
 made to regain it, and great numbers of 
 Khokandians killed, but it remained in the 
 hands of the Russians. Almost simultaneously 
 an advance was made in the east, from Kopal, 
 and the excuse ofiered was that the Kirghiz 
 Kazaks must be defended from their wild kins- 
 men, the Kara Kirghiz, who inhabited the moun- 
 tainous districts. Either the Kirghiz must 
 themselves be brought to order, or they must be 
 protected; in either case the paternal Govern- 
 ment must send a large body of troops, and the 
 ascendency of the White Tsar thoroughly estab- 
 lished. Acting on Peter the Great's saying, 
 " The Kirghiz are a roaming and fickle people, 
 but their country is the key and gate to all the 
 lands of Central Asia," the Russians have always 
 used them as a means to the great end they have 
 
 c 
 
i8 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 in view. As, however, the whole country of the 
 Kirghiz is now under Russian rule, excuses are 
 no longer needed. 
 
 In 1854 a scheme for the invasion of India 
 was prepared by General Duhamel, and presented 
 to the Tsar, to whom it was pointed out that 
 there were five routes by which Eussia might 
 proceed, and that if the friendship of Afghan- 
 istan in particular could be gained, the path to 
 victory would be easy. This invasion would 
 further effect the object of withdrawing the 
 whole attention of Great Britain from the war 
 just begun in the Crimea. The victories of the 
 allied armies of England and France prevented 
 the realization of this scheme ; and though sug- 
 gestions were made at the time that this would 
 be a good occasion for the British to emulate the 
 policy of Russia herself, by advancing into 
 Central Asia and driving her back, yet nothing 
 of the sort was attempted. 
 
 A few years later, in 18 57, two embassies 
 came to St. Petersburg from Khiva and Bokhara, 
 both asking for the friendship of the Tsar. 
 Count Ignatieff was accordingly entrusted with 
 a mission to Bokhara, with directions to proceed 
 thither by way of Khiva, in order to conclude 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 a treaty with the Khan and obtain permission 
 to navigate the Amu Daria and examine the 
 ancient river-bed of the Oxus. Unsuccessful in 
 Khiva, he was well received in Bokhara. At the 
 same time three different parties were engaged 
 in exploring respectively the country between the 
 Urals and the Caspian, that beyond Lake Balkash 
 and the Thian Shan range, and Kashgaria. Valu- 
 able information regarding Eastern Turkestan 
 was obtained, and a large portion of the country 
 surrounding the Caspian was mapped out. An 
 important mission under Khanikoff explored 
 Khorassan, starting in 1858, and, travelling from 
 Astrabad to Herat, returned to Teheran. At 
 Herat Khanikoff set afoot intrigues against Eng- 
 land, then in the throes of the Indian Mutiny, but 
 his attempt at diplomacy was not successful. 
 
 So far, the Russians had not yet completed the 
 connection of their chain of forts; but in 1859 
 the Khokandian stronghold of Julek, on the 
 Syr Daria, was captured, and in 1861 rebuilt 
 under the name of Fort Perovski. The Khokan- 
 dians mustered a large army, but were utterly 
 routed ; and their defeat was followed in 1864 
 by the loss of Hazret-i-Turkestan. Here the 
 two Eussian columns joined hands, and were 
 
20 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 combined under Tchernaieff. Chimkent, the most 
 advanced Khokandian fortress, still remained 
 intact, and was garrisoned with 10,000 men. 
 It was asserted that so large an armed body 
 could not be allowed to exist in such close 
 proximity to the Eussian frontier, and accord- 
 ingly, in October, 1864, Chimkent was seized by 
 means of a daring coup. This laid the road open 
 to Tashkent, the capital, an opportunity of which 
 TchernaieiF was not slow to avail himself. After 
 a severe struggle, Tashkent surrendered in June, 
 1865, and the fate of Khokand was finally sealed. 
 These campaigns did not seem to excite much 
 apprehension in Great Britain, and Lord Law- 
 rence, then Viceroy of India, was inculcating the 
 doctrine that " Russia might prove a safer neigh- 
 bour than the wild tribes of Central Asia." 
 Nevertheless, the Eussian Chancellor, Prince 
 Gortchakoff, felt it necessary to explain the posi- 
 tion and intentions of his country to the world 
 at large, and accordingly issued the now famous 
 circular of November 21, 1864, which explained 
 the Asiatic policy of Eussia, and utterly denied 
 her intention of acquiring any farther depen- 
 dencies in Central Asia.* 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 Seid Mosaffer, the Amir of Bokhara in 1865, 
 was a successor of Tamerlane, and regarded him- 
 self as the suzerain of all the Khanates and the 
 defender of the Mohammedan faith. He sought 
 to make capital out of the internal dissensions 
 of Khokand, took several of the principal cities, 
 and established a new Khan. General Tcher- 
 naieff sent an embassy to him under Colonel von 
 Struve, which, though well received, was not 
 permitted to depart, but was kept in confine- 
 ment for six months — until, indeed, serious 
 reverses to the arms of Bokhara had somewhat 
 frightened the Amir. He then addressed a 
 despatch to General Eomanovski, expressing the 
 sincere wish " to live at peace with Eussia ; " 
 but, at the same time, he was actively engaged 
 in preparations for another campaign, which 
 assumed large proportions, being proclaimed by 
 the fanatical moUahs as a sacred war of vengeance. 
 This war was terminated by the siege of Samar- 
 kand, which was taken by Eussia and held 
 despite the most determined assaults. The 
 defenders retired to the citadel, the town having 
 been betrayed by some of the native inhabitants, 
 and had hardly time to close the gates ; here 
 they managed to hold out — although provisions 
 
22 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 and ammunition ran short and 200 men 
 were killed — until relieved by tlie rest of the 
 army. Despite the assurances of the Eussian 
 ambassador in England that the Tsar did not 
 intend to retain this city, it was never again 
 ceded to the Amir. Seid Mosaffer was so dis- 
 heartened by his reverses that he wished to 
 abdicate and go on a pilgrimage to Mecca, but 
 it was important that Bokhara should have a 
 ruler who fully realized the power of Eussia. 
 It was also considered more politic to have a 
 responsible satrap to rule over the Tsar's southern 
 protectorate than to waste men and money on 
 a complete military occupation. The Amir, 
 therefore, was politely requested to resume his 
 throne, and, nominally independent, became the 
 obedient vassal of Eussia. 
 
 The subjugation of Bokhara was followed by 
 the Steppe Commission, which published an 
 ukase in 1867 announcing the formation of the 
 province of Turkestan, to include the whole of 
 the recently acquired territories, with head- 
 quarters at Tashkent, and ruled by a Governor- 
 General appointed at St. Petersburg. 
 
 The British Government now became alarmed 
 at the advance of Eussia, and the idea of a 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 " neutral zone " between Russia and India, with 
 a view to obviating further difficulties, was sug- 
 gested. Finally, after much dispute as to the 
 limitary line, the Agreement of 1873 was con- 
 cluded, and Eussia undertook not to interfere 
 with Afghanistan. The north-eastern and north- 
 western frontiers were, however, very ambigu- 
 ously described — a fact utilized by Eussia, who, 
 after the occupation of Merv, seized a large 
 slice of territory in the neighbourhood. 
 
 The province of Prilinsk, formerly Kuldja, was 
 annexed in 1868, Eussia having become alarmed 
 lest it should fall into the hands of Yakoob Beg, 
 the enterprising ruler of Kashgar. Originally 
 occupied by Mongolian tribes, Kuldja had been 
 colonized by the Chinese, to whom it virtually 
 belonged until annexed by Eussia, who promised 
 to restore it as soon as the Emperor of China 
 could send a sufficient force to occupy it. 
 
 A commercial treaty had been signed in 1874 
 between Great Britain and Kashgaria, but the 
 invasion by China of the Eastern frontier, and 
 the death of Yakoob Beg, altered the position 
 of affairs. China was entirely successful, and, 
 having established herself firmly in Eastern 
 Turkestan, was in a position to comply with the 
 
24 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 conditions on whicli Russia had promised to give 
 back Kuldja, and promptly demanded its ren- 
 dition. After much negotiation, the demand 
 was partially acceded to, but the complete 
 evacuation did not take place till 1883. 
 
 The occupation of Krasnovodsk on the Caspian 
 Sea, in 1869, gave Eussia a position from which 
 she could exercise a threatening influence on the 
 borders of the Herat province, and serious appre- 
 hensions were also felt at Khiva. The Eussian 
 Government, however, announced that Krasno- 
 vodsk was merely to be used as a factory^ and 
 not for strategical purposes. The entire eastern 
 coast of the Caspian Sea is, with a few exceptions, 
 destitute of vegetation, while the interior, as far 
 as the oasis of Khiva, has no settled inhabitants. 
 Tribes of Kirghiz and Turkomans visit it periodi- 
 cally, but the district barely afibrds sufficient 
 nourishment even for their hardy horses and 
 camels. The country between the Amu and 
 Syi Daria is equally barren, and the few nomads 
 settled on the Eussian frontier, in the Orenburg 
 Government, are sometimes, like birds of passage, 
 seized with the old wandering instinct, and 
 " trek " to the plains of Western Siberia, so rich 
 in grass, or to the Southern Ural steppes, or to 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 the Ust Urt, which lies between the Caspian and 
 the Sea of Aral. 
 
 Khiva was the door of all commercial routes 
 to the centre of Asia, but the lesson learnt from 
 previous diplomacy and campaigns was that this 
 door would never open to peaceful negotia- 
 tions, but only to force. It was felt that the 
 base for successful operations against Khiva was 
 the Caspian Sea, and a line of forts was planned 
 on the east coast. Krasnovodsk was to become 
 a considerable port, and energetic measures were 
 adopted towards the neighbouring Yomud and 
 Tekk^ tribes. Warfare with these people was 
 carried on under difficulties, for they deserted 
 their forts at the approach of the enemy and 
 carried off all their goods and chattels. The 
 future hero of Plevna, then Colonel Skobeleff, 
 accompanied by three Cossacks, disguised as 
 Usbek merchants, succeeded in penetrating right 
 into the cultivated parts of the oasis of Khiva ; 
 and, passing safely through the hostile nomads 
 who kept their flocks there, returned to Tiflis 
 without misadventure, and added much to the 
 scanty knowledge hitherto possessed of these 
 regions. 
 
 The following year an expedition under 
 
26 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 Markasoff reached the same spot on the Amu 
 Daria, and supplied valuable information as to 
 the country through which they had passed. 
 Thanks to Skobeleflf, they were able to arrange 
 their halts so as to strike the principal weUs, 
 which are sometimes very bitter, but can be used 
 for cooking purposes. The Khivan desert, con- 
 sisting of hot, dry, and yielding sand, was 
 trying to march through, but they had the 
 advantage of a cool wind. From the spot men- 
 tioned, Sari Kamish, on the dried-up watercourse 
 of the river Oxus, Markasoff made a recon- 
 naissance, and, coming across some fresh-water 
 pools in the ancient river-bed, was able to 
 verify Skobeleff's visit there in a curious way. 
 Close to one of the wells he picked up a silver 
 teaspoon with that officer's initials, which had 
 been dropped there a year before. On the return 
 march towards Krasnovodsk, Markasoff gradually 
 re-collected his forces, which he had disposed in 
 small forts along his route. All the wells of 
 the Khivan desert have names, many relating 
 to some event in their history. One at which 
 Markasoff halted was called Topiatan, or " the 
 well to which cannon has been dragged," tradi- 
 tion relating that a Khivan chief once on a time 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 27 
 
 dragged a gun to this very spot, with the 
 purpose of resisting the Eussians. No trace, 
 however, of this murderous Asiatic weapon now 
 remains. During the retreat, Markasoflf had a 
 miraculous escape at one of the halting-places, 
 for the camp was besieged on all sides, and the 
 Turkomans made a desperate attempt to kill 
 him, even bursting into his tent and killing his 
 guards. Luckily for himself, the general was 
 away visiting the outposts, and the Turkomans 
 had to retire without accomplishing their object. 
 In 1872-73 Markasoff conducted a campaign 
 against the Tekkes, with Khiva as an ultimate 
 goal. The Tekkds were a martial race, and had 
 buUt a number of small mud fortresses, very 
 primitive works indeed, which were, however, 
 deemed impregnable by the neighbouring tribes. 
 They were simply squares composed of mud 
 walls, without fortifications, the MbitJcas, or tents, 
 being ranged both inside and around the fortress. 
 Though essentially nomad in character and 
 habits, the Tekkes are fond of agriculture, and 
 notwithstanding that the country is badly 
 watered, they grow vegetables, grain, and cotton 
 in the neighbourhood of their dwellings. The 
 Tekkes adopted a very simple plan of warfare 
 
28 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 on the approach of MarkasofF — they burnt their 
 kibitkas and fled. Eyentually, however, they 
 came to close quarters and were defeated at 
 Dshmala, after which they sent an embassy to 
 MarkasoiF to assure him of their friendship, and 
 to ask for the release of the prisoners in the 
 hands of the Eussians. They made the original 
 excuse for their hostile attitude that they had 
 supposed Eussian soldiers to be no better than 
 Persians. Markasoff wishing, according to the 
 Eussian account, to propitiate them " by kind- 
 ness," gave up the prisoners ; but as these would 
 have been a hindrance to him on the march, and 
 would have consumed water, which was scarce, 
 there would seem to have been a certain motive 
 of policy in his action. Markasoff asked for a 
 tribute of 300 camels, which, by the way, he 
 never succeeded in getting. His column, al- 
 though useful as affording valuable opportunities 
 for surveying the country, was not destined to 
 reach Khiva. The Turkomans attacked him 
 persistently, and he thought it wiser to retire. 
 The Eussian Government, however, by no means 
 abandoned the idea, and an elaborate campaign 
 was arranged by which five columns converged 
 from different points upon Khiva. All but that 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 29 
 
 under the command of Markasoff reached their 
 destination; and in June, 1873, Khiva capitu- 
 lated to General Kauffmann, and the Khan, 
 although permitted to retain his throne, became 
 the mere puppet of Kussia. The Tekk^ tribes 
 continued to give considerable trouble, and 
 another unsuccessful expedition was conducted 
 against them in 1879 ; but it was not until 1881 
 that the Russian troops under Skobeleflf were 
 able to entirely subdue them. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION — Continued 
 
 It may be said with truth, that every kingdom, 
 principality, or tribe to which Russia has ex- 
 tended " protection," has eventually been appro- 
 priated into the Muscovite Empire. In Europe 
 she has gradually acquired Finland, Livonia, 
 Lithuania, a large portion of Poland, Bessarabia, 
 and other territories. Finding, however, that 
 further extension in Europe is impracticable, 
 unless, indeed, at immense sacrifice of life and 
 money, she has for many years turned her atten- 
 tion to the more open field of Central Asia, 
 where, carrying out a policy similar to that 
 pursued in Europe, she has by degrees pushed 
 her way through tribe after tribe, protecting 
 and annexing as she went, until, at the pre- 
 sent moment, she has practically arrived at 
 the gates of Afghanistan. This, of course, 
 is not the proposed end of her march. During 
 
 30 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 31 
 
 this progress of hers, the Kalmuck and Kirghiz 
 tribes had, amongst others, to be dealt with ; 
 and it is significant that the former, in 1771, 
 unable to longer endure the Russian oppres- 
 sion, migrated to Chinese territory to the 
 number of half a million, having to fight their 
 way thither through hostile tribes. The Kirghiz, 
 however, whose land, according to Peter the 
 Great, is " the key and gate to all the countries 
 of Asia," were not so fortunate in maintaining 
 their independence, for they gradually fell before 
 the inevitable wave of Russian advance ; and 
 although many of them do not even now acknow- 
 ledge allegiance to the conqueror, the majority 
 are both nominally and practically vassals of 
 the Tsar, their patriarchal system having been 
 gradually superseded by that of circuits and 
 volosts, and their very wanderings being care- 
 fully regulated by the governor of their province. 
 The race is undoubtedly of great antiquity. 
 Their early government was founded on the 
 patriarchal system, their chiefs being known as 
 Khans. Tradition says that one of these early 
 Khans divided his kingdom into three parts for 
 his sons, thus founding the three Hordes— the 
 Great, Middle, and Lesser. The second of these. 
 
32 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 living on the western frontier of China, and con- 
 sequently at a great distance from Russia, pre- 
 served their independence until as late as 1847. 
 The Lesser Horde, occupying the country con- 
 tiguous to the possessions of Eussia in the southern 
 Ural, and the Great Horde, living mostly north 
 and east of the Sea of Aral, being torn by internal 
 dissensions and harried by neighbouring tribes, 
 offered their allegiance to Russia in 1730, but at 
 that time it was not accepted. Shortly after- 
 wards, however, the Russian Empress consented 
 to become suzerain and protectress of the Kirghiz, 
 a step which has since led to the acquisition of 
 much territory on the part of Russia, although 
 no inconsiderable amount of money, not to speak 
 of human life, has been sacrificed in the process. 
 At first Russia's policy in Central Asia was to 
 control her subjects by playing off one tribe 
 against another, thus keeping them well occupied. 
 As it was found, however, that the predatory 
 habits of the Kirghiz (by no means renounced 
 when they took the oath of allegiance to the 
 White Tsar) greatly interfered with the caravan 
 trade which Russia was anxious to develop ; 
 and that they made raids on Russian colonists 
 on the frontier line and along the shores of the 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 33 
 
 Caspian, carrying off many of tlie settlers and 
 selling.them as slaves, expeditions were frequently 
 sent to bring them to order. The Kirghiz resisted 
 stoutly, and as late as 1843, rallying round their 
 popular Khan Kenissar, the " Kirghiz Schamyl," 
 met with a certain amount of success, and were 
 hopeful of achieving their independence. With 
 the death of Kenissar in 1846, however, this 
 hope was destroyed, and, as previously stated, 
 their final subjection to the Muscovite was merely 
 a matter of time. A kibitka tax of 36,000 
 roubles is now levied on the Kirghiz of the 
 Caucasian province. 
 
 At a time when the Tsar's troops were making 
 steady progress in Central Asia among these 
 Kirghiz and other tribes, there arose, in the 
 Christian provinces of the Turkish Empire, dis- 
 turbances which eventually led to the Russo- 
 Turkish war. The enmity between Christians 
 and Moslems had led to fearful massacres in 
 Bulgaria ; Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro 
 were in revolt ; and in the summer of 1876 
 Servia declared war against the Turks. When 
 the latter, however, were on the point of taking 
 Belgrade, Eussia interfered, and demanded that 
 an armistice of six weeks should be agreed to. 
 
 D 
 
34 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 Negotiations were carried on for a considerable 
 time, a conference of the Powers being beld 
 at Constantinople early in 1877 ; but as no 
 satisfactory result was arrived at, the Tsar, in 
 April of that year, having invoked the Supreme 
 blessing, ordered his troops to cross the Turkish 
 frontier, declaring that his " desire to amelio- 
 rate and assure the lot of the oppressed Christian 
 population of Turkey " left him no alternative. 
 And so it came about that, whilst thus en- 
 gaged, Eussia's attention was for a brief period 
 partially diverted from her designs on the 
 various approaches to the Indian Empire. The 
 Eusso-Turkish campaign was carried on, not only 
 in Europe, but also in Turkey's Asiatic pro- 
 vinces, Armenia being invaded by Eussian 
 troops. In the spring of 1878 Eussia had 
 obtained possession of all the Armenian fort- 
 resses, and, with an army encamped near the 
 Golden Horn found Constantinople at her mercy. 
 The occupation of the city, at that time appar- 
 ently imminent, did not, however, take place, 
 for at this point a British fleet arrived on the 
 scene, anchoring in the Bosphorus. Shortly after 
 this the Eussians effected an occupation of the 
 village of San Stefano, and eventually the war 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 35 
 
 was brought to a close (March 3, 1878) by the 
 Treaty of San Stefano, after some delay on the 
 part of the Turks in agreeing to the proposed 
 terms. 
 
 During the war Russia had been ill-pleased to 
 find that England had despatched Indian troops 
 into Europe, and when the British Government 
 insisted that the terms of the Treaty of San 
 Stefano should be laid before a congress of the 
 European Powers, relations between the two 
 countries became so strained that both nations 
 began to prepare for war. In order that Britain's 
 action in Europe should be weakened as much 
 as possible, by forcing her to confine her atten- 
 tion to the defence of her Eastern empire, a 
 demonstration against India was decided upon. 
 Under Skobelefi"'s scheme for the invasion of 
 that country through Afghanistan, the first step 
 was to be an alliance with Shere Ali (who had 
 hitherto been an ally of Britain), and increased 
 efibrts were made to bring to a successful issue 
 the negotiations which emissaries of the Tsar had 
 for some years been carrying on with the Amir. 
 That potentate was informed that if he refused 
 to become the tool of Russia, another claimant 
 to his throne would be brought forward and 
 
36 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 backed by Russian influence. Under this pres- 
 sure the Amir yielded, rejecting with insolence 
 the overtures of the British, who wished to 
 send a mission to Kabul. Stolietoffs mission 
 to that city in 1878 ended in the conclusion of 
 an alliance having for its object a joint attack 
 by Russia and Afghanistan on India ; an alliance 
 which was the result of seven years' careful 
 intriguing carried on by Kauffmann's agents at 
 the Afghan capital. Simultaneously, an emissary 
 was secretly despatched to India to sow the seeds 
 of rebellion ; but on reaching Peshawur he was 
 arrested, and, despite the outcry at interference 
 with a " private traveller," was quietly sent 
 down country and deported to Russia. Mean- 
 while, however, the Berlin Congress had met, 
 and had rendered any advance of Russia on 
 India an impossibility for the time being. Shere 
 Ali found himself between two stools. The 
 English were demanding reparation, and an 
 army was marching towards Kabul, while the 
 Russians refused, perforce, all aid, and would 
 not even mediate. The course of action pursued 
 by Russia at this time will long be remembered 
 as treacherous, not only towards the Amir, but 
 also Great Britain ; for Stolietoff stayed at 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 37 
 
 Kabul five months after the Treaty of Berlin 
 was concluded, and acted as adviser to Shere Ali 
 till such time as the unfortunate Amir was com- 
 pelled to fly to the north, accompanying the 
 Russian mission, and leaving his son, Yakoob 
 Khan, as regent. The British established their 
 ascendency over Afghanistan, concluded the 
 Treaty of Gandamak, left a British resident at 
 Kabul, and, having established their supremacy, 
 withdrew their troops. By this treaty certain 
 valleys were assigned to the British Government, 
 which obtained complete control over the Khyber 
 and Michni passes ; while, in return for support 
 against foreign aggression and an annual subsidy 
 of six lakhs of rupees, the new Amir bound him- 
 self to conduct his relations with other states in 
 accordance with the advice of the Indian Govern- 
 ment. With regard to the conduct of Russia in 
 sending Stolietofi" to Kabul, it must be remem- 
 bered that in 1869, and again in 1873, she had 
 given the most solemn assurances, which were 
 repeated from time to time, that Afghanistan 
 should not be tampered with, and that Russian 
 agents should not visit Kabul, In spite of this, 
 however, Russian officers and Cossacks, as has been 
 said, remained at Kabul for five months after 
 
38 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 the Treaty of Berlin was signed, and this although 
 M. de Giers, in July, 1878, gave assurance to 
 the British ambassador at St. Petersburg that 
 " no mission had been, or was intended to be, 
 sent to Kabul, either by the Imperial Govern- 
 ment or by General Kauffmann." A month 
 later, when the state of affairs could no longer 
 be concealed (as accounts of the progress of the 
 mission were actually appearing in the Rlissian 
 press), de Giers informed the British charge 
 d'affaires that " everything had been stopped ; 
 the political as well as the military precautions 
 which we thought ourselves justified in taking 
 against you — everything has been stopped." 
 Nevertheless, four months later, in a conversa- 
 tion with the British Prime Minister, Count 
 Schouvaloff casually observed that, although the 
 Eussian envoy who had been sent to Afghanis- 
 tan had been recalled, the Russian mission still 
 remained at Kabul. Nothing could better illus- 
 trate the fine distinctions which characterize the 
 general policy of Russia in Central Asia, where, 
 to quote Prince Dolgoroukoff, " slavish subjection 
 and arbitrary force reign from top to bottom, 
 and throughout there is developed in formidable 
 proportions the official lie — the lie erected into 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 39 
 
 a political iastitution." One more significant 
 incident. When the Treaty of Berlin rendered 
 imperative the retirement of the troops which 
 were gathered to invade India, Grodekoflf, the 
 chief of the staff, left Samarkand, with General 
 Kauffmann's permission, and, wearing his uniform, 
 rode through Northern Afghanistan to Herat, an 
 escort of Afghan troopers being furnished as 
 soon as he had crossed the Eusso- Afghan frontier. 
 At Herat he was accorded a warm reception, and 
 after staying there three days and making a 
 thorough survey of the city and its fortifications, 
 continued his journey to Meshed, and thence 
 to Astrabad. On returning to Russia he was 
 cordially received by the Tsar, knighted, and 
 appointed Governor of the Syr Daria district, 
 from which he has since been moved to still 
 higher command. 
 
 Under all the circumstances it is apparent 
 that Russia's action in Central Asia at that 
 time is not to be viewed solely in the light of 
 precautionary measures, in case of hostilities 
 with Great Britain. In reality, the Tsar's 
 Government saw a chance to make another step 
 forward in the direction of India, and they did 
 not neglect the opportunity. 
 
40 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 Another means by which Eussia had long 
 sought to approach nearer to her goal was by 
 getting a footing in the Akhal country, and she 
 never rested till, having conquered the Turko- 
 mans of Akhal and Merv, she was able to 
 establish garrisons close to -Herat, the " Key of 
 India" — the English, in their horror of a great 
 war, permitting her to thus take possession of 
 a part of Afghanistan, and to occupy advan- 
 tageous positions in the country. In 1877 an 
 expedition under Lomakin had been sent against 
 the Akhal Tekk^s, but met with disastrous 
 failure, which, coming just at the time when 
 Kussia had sustained her reverse at Plevna, 
 considerably reduced her prestige in Central 
 Asia. In the following year Lomakin under- 
 took a second expedition, which, however, was 
 even less successful than the first ; but the 
 Russians were not to be beaten, and they set 
 about retrieving their position. Still another 
 campaign was organized. General Lazareff being 
 appointed to the command ; but disaster con- 
 tinued to attend the Eussian arms, for Lazareff, 
 falling a victim to the poisonous air and the 
 impure water supply characteristic of the Caspian 
 shores, died just as the troops were entering the 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 41 
 
 Aklial territory. After his death, Lomakin was 
 again placed in command ; but at Denghil Tep^, 
 where the Tekkes made a resolute stand, he lost 
 his final chance of retrieving his former failures, 
 and after a wanton massacre, in which he spared 
 neither women nor children, was himself driven 
 back, and his troops overwhelmed by the 
 desperate Tekkes. Alikhanofi", an eye-witness 
 of what took place, says, " The whole course of 
 the battle, . . . from beginning to end, was in 
 defiance of the commonest elementary rules of 
 the art of war." At this last reverse, Kussian 
 prestige, of course, sank to the lowest ebb, and 
 for the time being the campaign against the 
 Tekkes was abandoned. 
 
 Meanwhile, English supremacy had apparently 
 been firmly re-established in Afghanistan by 
 the Treaty of Gandamak, and it was supposed 
 that Yakoob Khan would be strong enough to 
 hold his own against the various factions in the 
 country. \ The British congratulated themselves 
 on the turn which affairs had taken, while Russia 
 looked on in mortification and alarm at the 
 advantages which had accrued to her rival. At 
 this juncture, however, an event occurred which 
 rendered necessary a second British campaign 
 
42 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 against Afghanistan. A few days prior to 
 Lomakin's defeat at Denghil Tepe, news arrived 
 of tlie treacherous murder of Sir Louis Cavagnari, 
 who had just been appointed British resident 
 at Kabul, and who, with his officers, was set 
 upon by certain of the fanatical inhabitants of 
 that city (September, 1879). The British took 
 up arms to avenge his murder and to vindicate 
 their supremacy. Yakoob Khan was deposed, 
 and Abdul Eahman Khan was made Amir in 
 his place; but although the campaign was 
 entirely successful, the English Government, 
 under Mr. Gladstone, did not think it advisable 
 to retain the country which had been won at 
 so much cost; and accordingly, in 1881, 
 Afghanistan was entirely evacuated, it being 
 maintained that a Eussian invasion of India was 
 a very remote contingency, and that " the pro- 
 bability of our having to struggle for Herat, or 
 to defend India from Kandahar, is so remote 
 that its possibility is hardly worth considering." 
 In the same year in which Afghanistan was 
 thus evacuated, Skobeleflf triumphed over the 
 Tekk^s ; and with the fall of Denghil Tep^, the 
 power of the Akhal Turkomans was entirely 
 broken. Skobeleff estimated the total loss of 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 43 
 
 the Turkomans during this last siege to be about 
 20,000, or half the defenders of the town. 
 
 The occupation of Merv seemed likely to be 
 the next item on the Russian programme ; but 
 this, M. de Giers assured Lord Dufferin, was far 
 from being the case. " Not only do we not want 
 to go there, but happily there is nothing that 
 can require us to go there." 
 
 In response to anxious inquiries on the part 
 of Great Britain, the Eusso-Persian frontier was 
 at last definitely fixed, in 1881, by the Con- 
 vention of Teheran ; but the most important 
 part of the frontier-line, that between Merv and 
 Herat, was not iacluded in the arrangement. 
 During the next few years Russia resorted to 
 her favourite expedient, and sent agents, under 
 the guise of scientific and trading explorers, who 
 made a careful reconnaissance of the oasis of 
 Merv, and the routes thither. The occupation 
 and annexation of the town, early in 1884, was 
 well timed, taking place at a moment when 
 Great Britain was wholly occupied with afiairs 
 in the Soudan. It was practically accomplished 
 by the intimidation of the inhabitants, who, 
 being overawed by the Russian troops who had 
 been gradually introduced into their country, 
 
44 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 swore allegiance, through their chiefs, to the 
 White Tsar. The news was thereupon conveyed 
 to England, his Imperial Majesty intimating 
 that he had decided to accept the allegiance, 
 and had sent an officer to administer the region. 
 The possession of the Merv oasis, it may be 
 observed, is of the utmost advantage to Eussia, 
 both strategically and commercially. Before the 
 annexation of Merv, the Kussian armies of the 
 Trans-Caspian and of Turkestan were separated 
 by a large tract of hostile country, and, as can 
 readily be seen, in the event of a war with 
 England, such an arrangement would have been 
 far from conducive to the success of the Russian 
 arms. Once Merv was taken, however, the 
 position of affairs was entirely altered, for free 
 and direct communication was thus obtained 
 from the Caspian Sea, to the borders of China, 
 whilst, at the same time, a shorter route by way 
 of Askabad, Merv, and Charjui was provided for 
 the sending of reinforcements to the Turkestan 
 army. The saving of time immediately effected 
 by making use of this route could be estimated 
 in weeks, and when the railway had been 
 carried through Merv and Charjui to Samar- 
 kand might be reckoned in months. The 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 45 
 
 commercial gain to Russia consequent on the 
 acquisition of Merv is no less important than 
 the strategical, for new markets have been 
 opened up for the interchange of both European 
 and Asiatic commodities, and by this means a 
 great impetus has been given to the Central 
 Asian cotton trade. 
 
 But, of course, whatever immediate advantages 
 might accrue to Eussia, there is little room to 
 doubt that her ulterior object in acquiring the 
 place was to advance yet another step on her 
 carefully planned path towards India, and it 
 was not long before she found fresh opportunity 
 for her enterprise. Her troops had now been 
 introduced to a district whose frontiers towards 
 Afghanistan were but imperfectly defined, and 
 where, in consequence, the possibilities were 
 illimitable. Further developments were rapid. 
 
 Immediately after the annexation of Merv, a 
 new map was prepared by Russia, in which she 
 took advantage of a certain vagueness of defini- 
 tion as to desert land (so called in the Anglo- 
 Russian agreement of 1873, by which the frontier 
 had till this time been delimitated) to extend 
 her boundaries. In answer to repeated inquiries 
 on the part of Great Britain, it was arranged 
 
46 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 that a Boundary Commission should meet at 
 Sarakhs in October of 1884. Various expedients 
 were, however, resorted to by Kussia in order 
 to gain time ; and meanwhile she occupied 
 numerous points of vantage. In January, 1885, 
 she herself proposed a frontier line which would 
 be much to her own advantage, and which 
 practically meant that Britain should agree, 
 without any inquiry, to a Russian appropria- 
 tion of Pandjeh and neighbouring districts, 
 hitherto considered as parts of Afghanistan. 
 This was, of course, rejected by the British 
 Government, who, however, made a counter- 
 proposal, in which considerable concessions were 
 made to Russia, Their proposition did not 
 meet with the approval of the Russians, who 
 now no longer endeavoured to conceal the 
 fact that their intention was to occupy all 
 the important points on the way to Herat. 
 The British Government thereupon made strong 
 representations on the subject, and demanded 
 that Russian troops should be withdrawn from 
 certain outlying positions which they already 
 held, and that no further advance should be 
 made. The Russians refused to evacuate any 
 position already in their possession, but agreed 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 47 
 
 to the second half of the demand. The 
 promise was, as usual, not carried out, and 
 attempts were made at various points to provoke 
 the Afghans to hostilities. The despatch re- 
 ceived at Kabul from the British Government 
 hereupon gave distinct instructions on the sub- 
 ject : " Her Majesty's Government cannot ad- 
 vise the Afghans to attack the Eussian troops 
 in order to dislodge them from the positions 
 they now occupy, hut her Majesty's Government 
 consider that the further advance of Russians 
 should, subject to military considerations, he re- 
 sisted by the Afghans." The result was that 
 a series of collisions took place between the 
 Eussians and the Afghans on the river Murghab, 
 culminating in the Eussian attack on Pandjeh, 
 of which place they obtained possession after a 
 courageous resistance on the part of the Afghan 
 defenders, who suffered heavy loss. Pandjeh 
 having succumbed, the Eussians proceeded to 
 establish a temporary administration, to in- 
 clude also the surrounding districts. Hereupon 
 England awoke to the fact that it was time to 
 interfere, and accordingly preparations were 
 made for war. After a time of suspense, how- 
 ever, the difficulty was ended by the Tsar agreeing 
 
48 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 to submit the matter to arbitration if desired ; 
 and finally a line of frontier was agreed upon 
 whicli, with the exception that Pandjeh was 
 exchanged for Zulfikar, was practically the same 
 as that proposed by the Eussians in January 
 of 1885, and at that time rejected by the 
 Gladstonian Ministry. Even after this, how- 
 ever, numerous complications ensued, and it was 
 only with the greatest difficulty that a fresh 
 frontier line on the north-west of Afghanistan 
 was finally arrived at. 
 
 This matter at last settled, for the time being 
 at any rate, Russia proceeded to see what could 
 be done in the Pamirs, where the boundary lines 
 were also but vaguely defined. For a time 
 some anxiety was felt in England at this latest 
 Russian movement, but was easily allayed by an 
 " assurance " from that country on the subject. 
 Whatever she means to do in that direction, 
 however, it is an open secret that she regards 
 the Hindu Kush as the proper boundary of 
 British activity in Asia — that is to say, for the 
 present — and that, centring her attention for the 
 time being on obtaining a port on the Persian 
 Gulf, or rather Indian Ocean, she looks upon 
 an occupation of Herat as by no means a remote 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 49 
 
 possibility. As has already been said, she has 
 now extended her line of railway to within 
 seventy miles of that town, and it is far from 
 likely that the present terminus at Kushk will 
 long remain the terminus.* On all hands it is 
 admitted that the Merv-Kushk Eailway is but 
 a means to an end, and that end the establish- 
 ment of Eussian domination at Herat and in 
 Northern Afghanistan generally. Nor is this 
 line destined to be the only one having this 
 important object. Already the country in the 
 direction of Balkh has been carefully surveyed, 
 and plans submitted to the Imperial authorities 
 for a line of rail to that place, whilst the whole 
 of the surrounding country has been so carefully 
 studied that the position of almost every tree 
 and hedge is known. At the same time, em- 
 ploying Askhabad as a centre, a network of 
 Russian intrigue and acquisition is also being 
 gradually spread further and further to the 
 south of Persia, in preparation for the time 
 when that country also can be easily absorbed. 
 It is an understood thing that a railway is 
 eventually to branch off towards the south from 
 
 * Written before the extension of the line beyond Kushk now 
 in course of construction. 
 
so RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 Askhabad, and thus, according to Russian 
 writers themselves, open a way to the estab- 
 lishment of the Tsar's supremacy on the shores 
 of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean — " to 
 be beforehand with the Germans," they say. 
 
 It is at present claimed for the Merv-Kushk 
 Railway that it is merely a civilizing project; 
 but it is well here to recall the words applied to 
 the Central Asian Railway by Skobeleff, He 
 declared that not for a generation or more would 
 Russia be able to advance beyond Herat upon 
 India. " But," he went on to say, " in the mean 
 time, by this railway of ours, we are assuming a 
 menacing position towards England, which will 
 keep her occupied ia India, and prevent her im- 
 peding us in other parts of the world." Clearly, 
 then, if this line has any civilizing aim at all, 
 that is by no means its sole purpose of creation. 
 
 The inevitable conclusion to be drawn from a 
 study of the persistent Muscovite advance is that 
 Russia will continue her encroachments. As 
 has been demonstrated, she has now almost 
 reached the very heart of Afghanistan, thus 
 reducing the space intervening between herself 
 and the frontiers of Britain's Asiatic Empire to 
 comparatively insignificant proportions; but it 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 51 
 
 is not to be supposed that, having readied this 
 point, she has achieved the goal of her ambition. 
 It may be asserted that, so long as she is not in 
 possession of Herat, India is safe. But Herat 
 is not impregnable, and it is obvious that the 
 frontier line delimitated immediately after the 
 Pandjeh incident places Eussia in a position which 
 would render the seizure of that town a com- 
 paratively easy matter, whenever she may arrive 
 at the conclusion that such a coup de main is in 
 other ways practicable. It, therefore, behoves 
 Britain to carefully consider the present position 
 of aflfairs, and to formulate and carry out some 
 consistent line of policy which shall effectually 
 protect her vast Eastern Empire from the Eussian 
 menace. Dangers are accumulating thick and 
 fast on the frontier and in the adjacent countries, 
 and the time has come for the British Govern- 
 ment to make a determined stand, once and for 
 all, against Eussian interference in Afghanistan. 
 A Eussian occupation of Herat would not only 
 be a direct menace in itself, but, if allowed, 
 would give rise amongst the peoples of Afghan- 
 istan and India to an impression that England 
 feared to oppose the Eussians. Such a belief 
 would lead to the most serious results. Even 
 
52 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 as it is, the Afghans could scarcely be de- 
 pended upon to remain staunch allies, for they 
 would naturally wait to discover the winning 
 side ; and any sign of weakness on the part of 
 England would not only injure her best interests 
 with them, but would alienate many who might 
 be already vacillating in India itself. Nor should 
 the fact be lost sight of that Herat is not the 
 only danger point ; for a part of the scheme for 
 the projected railway from Askhabad to the 
 Persian Grulf is to carry a branch line to Seistan 
 and Nasratabad. The most sanguine believer in 
 Eussian " assurances " cannot by any possibility 
 ascribe the construction of such a line to a desire 
 for commercial development. On the other hand, 
 it is a significant fact that this branch railway 
 will provide the means of approach to the two 
 routes from the Helmund valley to Kandahar, a 
 city from which the Russians are at present some 
 five hundred miles distant. The time has gone 
 by for paying attention to pledges ; it has been 
 abundantly proved that they are given merely 
 as », matter of diplomacy, and are abandoned 
 whenever it is found convenient. The present 
 position is one calling for careful consideration 
 and decided action. 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 53 
 
 Assuming that the Russian advance towards 
 India continues until the overstepping of a 
 certain fixed line makes war inevitable, the 
 British nation has to decide where that line is 
 to be. No one is likely now to maintain that 
 such a line will have been reached with the 
 occupation of Herat or Balkh. Otherwise this 
 occupation (not merely possible, but probable) 
 would at once mean war. Is Britain prepared 
 to go to war on such an account ? and is she in 
 a position to do so ? If, then, not at Herat and 
 Balkh, where is the line to be drawn ? If Russia 
 be allowed to occupy either or both of these 
 places without opposition, should Britain make a 
 corresponding counter-advance ? and, if so, how 
 far? or should she remain where she is, and 
 complete, so far as the resources of India permit, 
 her frontier defences, leaving Russia to gradually 
 absorb Afghanistan ? How about the engage- 
 ment with the Amir to defend the integrity of 
 Afghanistan? These are problems which we 
 have to solve, nor can the solution of them be 
 relegated to a future generation. 
 
 We have now to examine the chief factors in 
 the case ; the position of India for offence and 
 defence, of Russia for offence, and the part likely 
 
S4 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 to be played by Afghanistan and Persia, especi- 
 ally should either Eussia or England, or both, 
 occupy portions of these countries. Before 
 arriving at any definite conclusion as to the 
 probable ultimate result of these factors, the con- 
 dition of India, Russia, Afghanistan, and Persia 
 must be glanced at, whilst, at the same time, 
 the position of China must always be borne 
 in mind. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 CENTBAL ASIA 
 COTINTUY AKD PEOPLE 
 
 In order to acquire a comprehensive and clear 
 idea of the part now being played in the world's 
 history by the peoples of Central Asia, and to 
 estimate with some degree of accuracy the possi- 
 bilities attendant on the ever-progressing incur- 
 sion into her territories of Western nations, it is 
 necessary to consider, at some length, the various 
 characteristics of climate, races, customs, and 
 other important factors in the problem. 
 
 The climate of Central Asia varies considerably 
 from the north to the south, and may be roughly 
 divided into three zones. The northern zone 
 extends as far south as latitude 45°, and includes 
 the lower course of the Syr Daria to Fort No. 2, 
 and the lower course of the Hi. The climate in 
 this zone is what is known as "continental," 
 
 S5 
 
S6 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 witli very hot summers and very cold winters. 
 Snow remains on the ground for about three 
 months, while the summer is extremely hot, and 
 lasts from four to five months. The central zone 
 includes the towns of Perovsky, Turkistan, Aulie- 
 ata, and Vierny, with the middle course of the 
 Syr Daria and a large portion of the Kyzyl Kum 
 sands. Here the winter may be compared to 
 that of Central Germany, while at Vierny grapes 
 ripen, though not so well as further south. The 
 southern zone is tropical, and includes Kuldja, 
 besides those towns which lie either in the same 
 latitude or south of Tashkent. Kuldja owes its 
 comparatively high temperature to its sheltered 
 position, being surrounded by high mountains, 
 which protect it from the north-easterly winds 
 so prevalent in the rest of the central zone. 
 Fruits of a delicate nature flourish — peaches, 
 apricots, pomegranates, and grapes. The winter 
 though cold is short, snow seldom remaining on 
 the ground for longer than a month. There is, 
 however, a great deal of rain, the rainy season 
 lasting from about March till October. 
 
 Besides these three rough divisions, in all the 
 mountain valleys south of latitude 42°, and in 
 the district of Hodjent, the winter is even 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 57 
 
 shorter and the summer very hot. The pistachio 
 tree can grow, and the wild peach, wild almond, 
 and wild apple flourish, at a height of 4000 to 
 6000 feet above the level of the sea. The dis- 
 trict of Hodjent, acquired by Russia in 1874, 
 lies south of Tashkent, and with the valley of 
 Zarafshan is the most fertile part of Central 
 Asia. It was for some time a disputed point 
 between Bokhara and Khokand. The country 
 here is better wooded than most parts of Central 
 Asia, and also better watered ; everywhere one 
 sees the beautiful gardens which are the joy and 
 pride of all dwellers in Central Asian towns. 
 These gardens surround most of the cities, and 
 are often used as summer residences, the Russians 
 even having adopted the fashion, and camping 
 out in roomy tents and pavilions during the hot 
 months. Peach, cherry, and apple trees make 
 these gardens beautiful, and it is much to be 
 regretted that, owing to the scarcity of coal, 
 these orchards are being largely cut down for 
 fuel. 
 
 With regard to mineral produce, the lack of 
 good coal in Central Asia is likely to prove a 
 serious drawback to its development, although 
 the improvement in communications will largely 
 
58 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 remedy the defect. Since the acquisition of 
 Turkistan, the Government have made great 
 efforts to discover really productive coal-beds ; 
 but although coal exists scattered pretty widely 
 over Central Asia, all that has been obtained 
 hitherto is of inferior quality, and broken up 
 into small fields. As for other minerals, it is 
 curious, considering the trifling amount of gold 
 found in this part of Russia's new possessions, 
 that her first step towards Asia was initiated by 
 Peter the Great because he had heard so much 
 of the gold to be found on the banks of the 
 Oxus. Lead-ore is the most abundant mineral, 
 but this cannot be mined with any great profit 
 on account of the dearness of fuel and difficulty 
 of transport. 
 
 There are several different races inhabiting 
 Central Asia, but, broadly speaking, they are 
 all of Persian or Turkish descent. A part of 
 the country was undoubtedly inhabited in early 
 times by the Sacae, or Scythians, an Aryan race 
 who were to a large extent dispossessed and 
 driven out by the Turkish tribes who overran 
 the country. The descendants of this ancient 
 race are still found in considerable numbers, 
 often clustered together in mountain villages, to 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 59 
 
 whicli they have been gradually driven by the 
 succeeding waves of Turkish invasion. A curious 
 testimony to the antiquity of the race is the fact 
 that their language retains many words of Aryan 
 derivation which are not known in modern Per- 
 sian. The Tadjiks, as they are called, are dis- 
 tinguished, not only in appearance, but in 
 character, from the tribes of Turkish descent. 
 The typical Tadjik is large, thickly bearded, vain 
 with the childish vanity common in primitive 
 races, lazy, untruthful, and morally corrupt. He 
 despises his less subtle Uzbek neighbour, who 
 returns the sentiment, but is nevertheless com- 
 pelled to make use of the sharper wit of the 
 Tadjik. The Uzbeks, who form a large pro- 
 portion of the population in Central Asia, are a 
 tribe, or congeries of tribes, of much the same 
 origin as the Kirghiz, being founded by Turkish 
 immigrants who flocked into the country both 
 before and after the time of Genghiz Khan. 
 Unlike the Kirghiz, however, the Uzbeks have 
 little of the Mongol element. They speak a 
 Turkic dialect, and retain, at all events tradi- 
 tionally, their old division into clans or families, 
 the names of which in some cases perpetuate 
 long-forgotten tribes. One clan is that of the 
 
6o RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 Kiptcliaks, whose martial habits and traditions 
 made them a chief factor in the army of Khokand. 
 The most numerous race, in the western part of 
 Central Asia at all events, is the Kirghiz, also 
 perhaps the most interesting. 
 
 This tribe really consists of two distinct races : 
 the true one, the Kara or " Black Kirghiz," is 
 found principally in the valleys of the Thian- 
 Shan and Altai Mountains, and is unmistakably 
 of Turkish origin. Descriptions found in 
 Chinese writings of a very early date show that 
 at that time the prevailing type was charac- 
 terized by light hair and fair skin, which would 
 not apply to the average Kirghiz of the present 
 day, although such may still be met with here 
 and there. 
 
 The other race, which inhabits the greater 
 part of the province of Turkistan and the steppes 
 bordering it, called by the Eussians "Kassak- 
 Kirghiz," * is more impregnated with the 
 Mongol element than the Kara-Kirghiz race. 
 They have largely intermarried with the Kal- 
 muks, and their aristocracy, or " white bones," 
 claim descent from Genghiz Kian, while their 
 
 * The word " Kirghiz " has practically the same derivation as the 
 Russian " Cossack," and means " a wanderer." 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 6i 
 
 various traditions describe them as being de- 
 scended from a " red-baired dog," or (a more 
 poetical story) as veritable " Children of the 
 Mist," Both legends suggest the great antiquity 
 of the race, being usual with aboriginal tribes 
 of undoubted pre-historic origin, both in America 
 and Australia. The claim of descent from an 
 animal is found with other Asiatic tribes, and 
 is always supposed to denote considerable age. 
 Early travellers seem to have heard the legend, 
 and translated it with more picturesqueness 
 than veracity into actual fact ; for in the de- 
 scription of a journey through this country 
 made by the Christian king Hethum of Armenia, 
 in the thirteenth century, we have a thrilling 
 account of a race of which the men had the 
 shape of dogs. This story is repeated by an 
 Italian traveller, Carpini, and is also found, very 
 circumstantially, in the Chinese encyclopedia, 
 where the country is called " The Kingdom of 
 Dogs." 
 
 Although he has now lost his independence, 
 the Kirghiz still retains many curious and 
 characteristic traits, one of these being an in- 
 curable contempt for a settled or town life. 
 " Sart," the term applied to merchants and 
 
62 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 townsfolk, is used contemptuously, and would 
 be much resented by a true Kirghiz, who has a 
 scoffing proverb to the effect that " when a Sart 
 becomes rich he builds a house, a Kirghiz buys 
 more wives." When on the move they live in 
 kibithas, or felt tents, stretched on light wooden 
 frames, and resembling the Mongolian yourtas. 
 These kihitkas are exceedingly portable, and can 
 be packed for a journey in less than an hour. 
 The Kirghiz, as a rule, are of swarthy com- 
 plexion, and are short and sturdy in buUd, the 
 men shaving the head, but allowing the beard 
 to grow, while the women wind yards of cotton 
 stuff about their heads. The male attire consists 
 usually of a pair of baggy leather breeches, a 
 coarse shirt, and one or more rough coats, the 
 head being covered with a skull-cap and a 
 conical hood of sheepskin or felt. On special 
 occasions a red velvet coat and a tall felt hat, 
 with turned-up brim, are worn by the well-to-do. 
 Polygamy was adopted by the race at the time 
 when the Russians forced Mohammedanism upon 
 them, and the position of their women-folk is 
 not enviable. When a man wishes to marry he 
 buys a wife, or one is bought for him by his 
 relations, and once the halym, or purchase- 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 63 
 
 money, is paid, the wife becomes the mere chattel 
 of her husband, who generally treats her with 
 less consideration than he does his cattle. He 
 can divorce her with the greatest ease, and her 
 family may then attempt to sell her again. 
 However much she may be Ul-treated she has no 
 redress, the utmost that can happen being a re- 
 monstrance from her relations to the husband for 
 "depreciating her market value; " whilst, even if 
 he kUled her, under Kirghiz law he had no more 
 serious penalty to encounter than a fine. " A 
 woman has only half as much soul as a man," 
 says a Kirghiz proverb ; and the men of the 
 tribe evidently act up to this belief. The more 
 serious crimes are now amenable to Eussian law, 
 but smaller matters are settled before certain 
 chosen elders, who are not paid for their services, 
 but receive a portion of every fine they inflict. 
 Hitherto little has been done by Russia to civilize 
 the tribes under her dominion, and such a thing 
 as a Kirghiz school is practically unknown. 
 Although Mohammedanism is nominally their 
 religion, the Kirghiz do not trouble much about 
 doctrine, many of them stUl adhering to the old 
 ShaTnan, or devU-worship, while ancestor-wor- 
 ship is still largely practised. When a man of 
 
64 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 importance dies, two camels, led by priests, are 
 placed on either side of the corpse, and a form 
 is repeated, transferring the sins of the dead 
 man to the camels, which then become the 
 property of the priests. This is only one of 
 many curious customs connected with funerals, 
 and marriage ceremonies are equally interesting 
 and numerous. It may be said, perhaps, that 
 the principal object of Kirghiz existence is the 
 breeding of cattle and horses, to which nearly 
 the whole of their time is devoted. In bartering 
 his cattle the Kirghiz does not make a feature 
 of honesty, and will inevitably cheat whenever 
 he gets the chance. 
 
 Fond as he is of horse-flesh, his sheep — of 
 which he has a famous fat-tailed breed called 
 the Kurdiak— are perhaps nearest to the heart 
 of the Kirghiz. All over Central Asia, and in 
 Southern Siberia, mutton is the staple food, and 
 the nomads who inhabit the steppe regions are 
 accustomed to eat it in tremendous quantities. 
 The allowance for a Mongol driver of a caravan, 
 for instance, is a leg of mutton per man per 
 day ; but it must be added that, should meat 
 fail, the Mongol is not only capable of foregoing 
 his favourite food, but of existing on fare so 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 65 
 
 coarse and scanty that no European could sup- 
 port life on it. The nomads, as a rule, do not 
 take much trouble over the preparation of their 
 food, boiling it in a pot, and taking it out in 
 handfuls as it seems to them sufficiently cooked, 
 or gnawing the flesh from the bones, which they 
 return to the pot again. A very delicate dish, 
 and one set before honoured guests, is composed 
 of the tails of sheep ; and the shin-bone of this 
 useful animal is carried by superstitious Kirghiz 
 as an amulet, and is also used in divination, as 
 described elsewhere. His sheep are, indeed, 
 so important to the Kirghiz or Uzbek, or to any 
 native of Central Asia, that it is etiquette to 
 suppose, for the sake of courtesy, that every 
 man possesses flocks, and in greeting him the 
 first inquiry must be not for his health but for 
 theirs. 
 
 The favourite drink of the Kirghiz is made from 
 brick-tea ; but kumis, or mares' milk, is drunk, 
 as among the Mongols, to produce intoxication, 
 for which purpose also is used a kind of beer, 
 distilled from grain, called buza, which has a 
 stupefying efiect. 
 
 On the whole, the Kirghiz are a simple 
 and credulous people, not particularly brave. 
 
66 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 Owing to their skill as trackers, in which they 
 rival the Ked Indians, they make excellent 
 scouts. Politically, their great importance must 
 be acknowledged ; for, to quote again the words 
 of the Great Tsar, their land is " the key and 
 gate to all the countries of Asia." 
 
 The Kalmuks, with whom, as has been said, 
 the Kirghiz have largely intermarried, are 
 another race of Central Asian nomads, who 
 originated in a confederacy of Mongol tribes 
 living in Zungaria, on the north-western borders 
 of the Chinese Empire, and combining together 
 to resist the aggressions of another tribe of 
 kindred origin. This confederacy, known as the 
 Oirat, made attacks on China, and at one time 
 took the Emperor prisoner, and marched to the 
 walls of Peking. Internal dissensions, however, 
 broke the power of the Oirat, and some of the 
 tribes migrated to Siberia, probably receiving 
 at that time the name of " Kalmuk," which in 
 Turkic dialect means " remnant." Zungaria still 
 remained in the possession of the same tribes, 
 whose fratricidal wars and quarrels finally ended 
 in their becoming vassals to China. Meanwhile, 
 the Kalmuks had been driven further and 
 further, till finally they crossed the Ural, and 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 67 
 
 settled in the lower region of the Volga. 
 Finding her new subjects in Zungaria inclined 
 to rebel, China took a short way of quieting 
 them by a wholesale massacre, and as the 
 country was left desolate, towards the middle 
 of the eighteenth century military colonies of 
 Manchus were formed and Chinese criminals 
 sent, while large numbers of agriculturists 
 were deported from Eastern Turkistan. The 
 last-named became known as tarantcMs, and 
 occupied a position analogous to that of Russian 
 crown peasants. Although Mohammedans, they 
 lived among their Buddhist, neighbours quite 
 amicably, and the only difference made by the 
 preponderance of the Chinese element was in 
 the unveiling of their women. Another element 
 was added in 1771, when the Kalmuks, hearing 
 that their mother-country had been depopulated, 
 returned en masse, taking eight months on the 
 journey, and suffering much both from want 
 and the attacks of the Kirghiz. When they 
 arrived they found the country occupied by the 
 Chinese, and having no alternative, except 
 to fall into the hands of Kirghiz or Russians, 
 they settled down on the pasture lands, became 
 subject to the Chinese, and devoted themselves 
 
68 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 to the breeding of cattle and horses. The 
 Kalmuks are all Buddhists, and are completely 
 Mongolian in type and customs. This district, 
 known, from the name of the Manchu settlement 
 which dominated it, as Kuldja, was annexed by 
 Kussia, but returned to China on her fulfilling 
 certain conditions. 
 
 On the western side of Central Asia there 
 are many different families or tribes of Turko- 
 mans, who are somewhat similar in habits to 
 the Kirghiz, although some, like the Tekkes, 
 live partly in villages and are agriculturists. 
 No race offered more stubborn resistance to the 
 Eussians than the Tekkes, and none suffered 
 more. In the Turkoman campaigns orders were 
 given to spare neither age nor sex, and whole 
 families were slaughtered and entire districts 
 laid waste. 
 
 In most of the cities of Central Asia, 
 besides these, are found many fragments of 
 other races — Persians, originally brought as 
 slaves; Arabs, believed by some to have been 
 the original introducers of Mohammedanism ; 
 Hebrews, who have been settled in the country 
 for centuries, and who have the characteristics 
 for which their race is remarkable all over the 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 69 
 
 world ; Hindoos, who come aud go for com- 
 mercial purposes; and also many families of 
 gipsies, known usually as Liuli, who lead a 
 nomad life, trading in horses, while their women 
 tell fortunes, cure the sick, and carry on a small 
 traffic. 
 
 The Trans-Caucasus is inhabited by various 
 races — Georgians, Mingrelians, Gurians, Kuche- 
 tians, and others, all living from the oldest times 
 under sovereign princes who embraced Chris- 
 tianity at an early period. These voluntarily 
 became dependants of Kussia, when they found 
 themselves unable to repel unaided the attacks 
 of the wild mountaineer tribes of the Caucasus 
 or the incursions of Persian tyrants and robbers. 
 Besides the native races, Tartars, Kurds, Turks, 
 Persians, Russians, Germans, Frenchmen, and 
 Jews are settled in the Caucasus, and it is said 
 that in this district no less than 68 languages 
 are spoken, while the whole of Eussia includes 
 only 115. As previously noted, the troops of 
 the Caucasus are composed of the pick of the 
 Russian army. The romantic and gorgeous 
 country, the strange customs of the people, and 
 the generally excellent conditions of the garrisons, 
 make the life an agreeable one; and in former 
 
70 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 days there was always some sort of small war 
 going on, or an expedition against robbers, 
 which kept the Caucasian soldier on the qui vive. 
 The variability of the climate inures him to 
 both heat and cold. 
 
 The Cossack troops of the Caucasus are com- 
 posed of the pick of the Eussian regular army, 
 whilst officers of every nation are found in its 
 ranks. It may be incidentally mentioned here 
 that the Cossacks (originally known as " Kazaks," 
 i.e. wanderers, freebooters) are a mixed race of 
 Eussians, Poles, Tartars, and others, who originally 
 came from the south and south-east of Eussia. 
 They have always been of a warlike character, 
 and were at one time divided into two clans, the 
 Don and the Dnieper Cossacks, both being inde- 
 pendent of the Imperial Government. The 
 Dnieper Cossacks, however, in 1652 tendered 
 their allegiance to the Tsar, whilst the Don 
 Cossacks became Eussian subjects during the time 
 of Ivan the Terrible, the foundation of the 
 Cossack army of the Ural being laid in 1613-14, 
 when specified territories were offered to them 
 on condition of certain military services. 
 
 Every male Cossack who is fit is bound to 
 military service during war. From the age of 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 71 
 
 seventeen he is liable to stanitza* duty, and 
 from his twentieth year to regimental duty. 
 Formerly the term of service was for life, the 
 Cossack being exclusively a soldier from his 
 birth ; but the lifelong service has now been 
 reduced to from twenty to twenty-five years. 
 The conscription is made in each stanitza, and 
 those who escape pay a tax for the period of 
 obligatory service. The Cossack soldier provides 
 horse and equipment at his own expense, for 
 which he receives an allowance from the crown. 
 Every tribe, in addition, is granted so much 
 land to support themselves and their flocks, 
 and every Cossack possesses land in ratio to his 
 military rank. 
 
 The Cossacks in the Orenburg district have 
 no fixed quarters, but are constantly moving 
 about, and patrol the most remote corners of the 
 district. The Ural Cossacks are the descendants 
 of the old fighting race, which, in the time of 
 Peter the Great, made the first dash into Central 
 Asia ; the Orenburg Cossack are a difierent type, 
 and are descended from the more peaceful colo- 
 nists, who were sent to protect the fortresses 
 after they had been built. They have more 
 
 * Cossack posts or settlements. 
 
72 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 regular habits, and care more for home-life 
 and agricultural pursuits, so do not make such 
 dashing soldiers as their cousins the Ural Cos- 
 sacks. The latter are far more popular among 
 the troops of Central Asia. 
 
 The Orenburgers, moreover, are a mixed race, 
 for when, in 1755, an ukase ordered the organi- 
 zation of a Cossack army in the newly formed 
 province of Orenburg, the population was so 
 sparse that Don Cossacks, broken and impover- 
 ished noblemen from Poland and Russia, and, 
 in fact, any wastrels who could be found, were 
 induced to settle there — indeed, whole villages 
 of Tartars were persuaded to migrate. This in- 
 troduction of fresh blood was not very successful, 
 and efforts were made to get rid, at all events, of 
 the Tartar element. 
 
 Of late years education has been more care- 
 fully attended to ; but until 1858 there was no 
 sort of examination for non-commissioned officers. 
 During the sixties several schools were estab- 
 lished, private and military, and a cadet school 
 at Orenburg, which gives a purely military edu- 
 cation. The measures adopted did not, however, 
 seem conducive to the military spirit which the 
 Grovernment desires to foster, and, since then. 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 73 
 
 further steps have been taken. The comparative 
 peaceableness of the times gave the young 
 soldier little practical experience. In all the 
 schools the martial spirit is now carefully culti- 
 vated, and there is generally an old Cossack 
 veteran who drills and exercises the children. 
 It was not untU 1803 that a particular uniform 
 for the whole army was ordered. This has under- 
 gone various modifications, but now consists of 
 dark green coat and pantaloons — the Ural Cos- 
 sacks having red facings, red-striped breeches, and 
 red kolpahs. The breeches are tucked into high 
 boots, a grey cavalry pelisse is worn, and a fur cap, 
 known as the papacha, with blue or red kolpah. 
 In fighting with the Kirghiz, and other tribes 
 in Central Asia, the usual mode of procedure of 
 the Cossacks is to link their horses into a circle, 
 and, kneeling behind them, to fire, not in volleys 
 but in files, upon their opponents, picking ofi" 
 the leaders. It has been said that " the roll 
 of glorious deeds accomplished in Poland, in 
 Turkistan, and in the Kirghiz steppe, bear elo- 
 quent testimony to the great moral force the 
 Cossacks possess ; " but much more, we may add, 
 to their obstinate courage, which makes them 
 willing to die, but not to accept defeat. 
 
74 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 There is a Caucasian Militia corps, recruited 
 for the most part from Georgian or Tartar volun- 
 teers, and also irregular cavalry regiments, such 
 as the Daghestan horse, which took part in the 
 Khivan campaign. A squadron of these volun- 
 teer mountaineers, in their picturesque national 
 costume, forms the showy Circassian bodyguard 
 of the Tsar. 
 
 Alexandropol and Achalzych are the only 
 fortresses according to modern ideas — the posts 
 in the mountains were not built to resist guns. 
 Generally they consist only of walled towers for 
 the guns, connected by walls with loopholes, in 
 the centre of which enclosure stands the com- 
 mander's house, with the wells and store-house. 
 Sometimes they consist merely of a single tower, 
 and the guns, generally antiquated, are protected 
 by a wooden roof, or even lie unmounted on the 
 ground.* 
 
 * The steppe forts are constructed according to one of the 
 following methods : (1) A small redoubt, holding about one 
 hundred men, with two barbettes, and with powder magazines in 
 the thickness of the parapet. The redoubt, placed to command the 
 barracks, which are built outside, serves as a keep ; the walls of 
 the barracks (made of sun-dried bricks), where facing the country, 
 are pierced with loopholes. Sometimes a flank defence is provided 
 by throwing up a lunette, with a barbette. (2) A quadrangle, with 
 outer walls loopholed, in which are barracks, hospital, commissariat 
 dep6t, etc., and within the space enclosed by the quadrangle are 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE ;s 
 
 On the Central and Lower Terek still remain 
 some of tlie old Cossack watch-liouses — small 
 redoubts, with a wooden house for the accom- 
 modation of the garrison (often only from ten 
 to twenty Cossacks). Near this is a raised 
 wooden platform on which a sentry marches up 
 and down. Their duties are now purely of a 
 private and police nature, but in old times these 
 were posts of great danger, for, when the moun- 
 taineers swooped down suddenly, the Cossacks 
 could only give the alarm by fire to the next 
 post, and were often surrounded and killed 
 despite the most obstinate resistance. 
 
 In the Caucasus the peasantry, even when 
 following agricultural pursuits, are invariably 
 armed with sabre, dagger, or ancient gun. 
 
 Theoretically nearly all the native peoples of 
 Central Asia profess Mohammedanism, but many 
 of the tribes know little more of it than the 
 name of the prophet, and some not even that. 
 The nomads retain many practices which have 
 no connection with Islam, and it is only in the 
 large cities that there is any attempt at cere- 
 monial worship. Great religious laxity prevails 
 
 the Tininhabited buildings — stables, sbeds, armouries, etc. Lunettes 
 are provided, furnisbing artillery and musketry defence to the forces 
 of the fort. 
 
76 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 all over Central Asia, and the fanaticism ob- 
 servable among the Dervishes, who gain a 
 living by exhibiting themselves in a religious 
 frenzy and even torturing themselves at times, 
 is rather a matter of business than of true 
 devotion. 
 
 Education among the native inhabitants is 
 in the hands of the mullahs, or priests, and is 
 generally limited to such matters as have a 
 bearing on religion or law. The foundation of 
 colleges, where the higher religion and law are 
 taught, has for ages been a favourite form of 
 piety, and some stUl exist which were founded 
 four and five hundred years ago. Both 
 pupils and professors are supported from the 
 revenues of the college, the latter receiving in 
 addition voluntary gifts from parents of the 
 pupils. There are also primary schools, generally 
 attached to each mosque ; and here the boys from 
 the age of five are instructed first in the alphabet, 
 and then in the reading of the Koran and about 
 seven other books, which they read and copy 
 without understanding, as they are written in 
 Persian and Turki and never translated into the 
 dialect of the district. To know the Koran by 
 heart confers at once rank and sanctity on the 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE ^^ 
 
 happy accomplislier of that feat. This is usually 
 an effort entirely of memory, as few are ac- 
 quainted with Arabic, though many have read 
 illegal translations and know the substance of 
 what they recite. Superstition is extremely 
 rife, especially among the nomad tribes, who 
 attach mystic meaning to such events as the 
 appearance of crows (as in Western Europe), 
 magpies, and other birds and beasts. A favourite 
 method of divination is by roasting the shin-bone 
 of a sheep and watching its appearance as it 
 burns, from which the future is predicted by 
 certain signs. Such a bone is also carried as 
 an amulet. 
 
 As regards religion, the Russians have always 
 acted with the greatest wisdom and tolerance, 
 never in any way interfering with the worship 
 and practice of the conquered tribes, except that 
 they have abolished the native functionaries 
 whose business was to compel the performance 
 of religious rites. Missionary projects have 
 been by no means encouraged, although in the 
 garrisons and in one or two towns there are 
 Christian churches, and a Bishop of the province 
 of Turkistan. The Russians have acted with 
 less wisdom in arranging the administration of 
 
78 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 their new provinces; and, in trying to force 
 upon the natives systems foreign to their 
 customs and characters, they have earned a 
 great deal of unpopularity. One instance is the 
 method of local government by natives elected 
 by vote, under the surveillance of the Eussian 
 Government. This, with modifications, has been 
 tried among Kirghiz, Uzbeks, and in the chief 
 towns. The people left to themselves would 
 always elect men of influence and popularity — 
 their former leaders, — ^who, for obvious reasons, 
 are not acceptable to the Russians ; so that the 
 system has degenerated into mere farce, and is 
 viewed with contempt by the natives, the men 
 chosen being merely the tools of Government. 
 
 The native mind, especially at first, found 
 Russian taxes and laws extremely difficult of 
 comprehension, more especially as the former 
 were constantly changed, according to the will 
 and pleasure of the prefect of the particular 
 district, or, indeed, of any official who happened 
 to be in charge. Nor were the officials in 
 Turkistan of a high order. Very often they had 
 been sent there because their reputation was not 
 good enough to secure them home appointments, 
 and venality and corruption do not escape the 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE ^9 
 
 eyes of observant natives. Nor has official 
 Eussia always kept her promises or acted with 
 strict honesty towards her vassals. In the 
 Khivan campaign, for instance, 8800 camels 
 were commandeered for the army from the 
 Kirghiz in different districts, and these were to 
 be paid for at the rate of fifty roubles each if 
 they died. As nearly all perished a large sum 
 was due to the Kirghiz, but the Prefect of 
 Perovsky, thinking this a good opportunity to 
 show his zeal, bullied and threatened the people 
 into signing an address which made the camels 
 a present to the Government, which would, he 
 said, never pay for them anyhow ! The result 
 was that the people felt that they had been 
 robbed of their camels — their one possession. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA 
 
 Country and People — continued 
 
 The advent of the Kussians in Central Asia has 
 naturally made a great difference in many of 
 the towns, which, originally entirely Oriental in 
 character and appearance, now present the 
 curious contrast of European streets and squares, 
 occupied by oflScials and their families in the 
 unpicturesque garb of the Western world, side 
 by side with the native towns, old, in some 
 cases, with an age which makes such cities as 
 York mere infants ; trodden by countless gene- 
 rations of conquerors — Macedonians, Scythians, 
 Arabs, Persians, Mongols, — and which have 
 succumbed — is it for ever? — to a greater than 
 these, a race from the West. 
 
 The further one penetrates into the heart of 
 Asia the less has this modernizing influence 
 
 80 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 8i 
 
 made itself felt ; so that between Orenburg, 
 wbich is really on the borders of civilization, 
 and Samarkand there is a wide gulf. 
 
 Perhaps one of the most typical towns under 
 the new regime is Tashkent, the capital of the 
 province of Turkistan and a city of very ancient 
 origin. Mention is made in the seventh century 
 by a Chinese traveller of a city, either on the 
 same spot, or near the site of the present one, 
 called Tchatch or Jadj. This name, difl&cult 
 of pronunciation to the Persians, who became 
 later masters of the place, was probably altered 
 to Shash — " kent " being merely a Persian word 
 for town. The Turkish nomad tribes, who 
 are the ancestors of many of the present inhabi- 
 tants, would find no meaning in the word 
 " Shash," which they in all probability altered to 
 " Tash," a stone ; and so the city bears in its 
 name a record of the many hands through which 
 it has passed. 
 
 Briefly its history up to a certain point is the 
 story of the struggle between the two sovereigns 
 of Bokhara and Samarkand, and when both were 
 subdued by the Tartar chief, Genghiz Khan, it 
 remained in the possession of his descendants 
 until reconquered by a Khan who ruled over 
 
82 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 both Bokhara and Samarkand. Then came the 
 Kirghiz, who held it for more than a hundred 
 years, till it fell before an enterprising ruler of 
 Zungaria, and, after a short time, achieved a 
 semi-independence, being alternately overlorded 
 by Khokand and Bokhara. It was in the 
 struggle with Khokand that General Tchernaieff, 
 fearing that Tashkent would fall into the hands 
 of the hostile Amir of Bokhara, to whom the 
 inhabitants — between Scylla and Charybdis — 
 had appealed for help, invested the place with 
 a comparatively small army, and, being fortu- 
 nate enough to kill the Regent of Khokand in 
 the first engagement and to cut oflf the water- 
 supply of the city, entered by two gates 
 simultaneously, chased the Khokandians and 
 Bokharans out of the city, and received the 
 unconditional surrender of the natives. The 
 Russian rule was firmly established, and order 
 maintained by native police, who still seem to 
 work well under their new masters. 
 
 A Russian colony, with the Governor-General 
 in his palace as the centre, and the usual mili- 
 tary and civil officials and their families, has 
 now its own quarter, side by side with the 
 quaint Oriental town of Tashkent. The little 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 83 
 
 houses of Russian merchants and officials are 
 whitewashed, trim, and neat ; the governor's 
 palace has an ornamental garden round it, laid 
 out in artificial lakes and little hills and dales, 
 where a military band plays every evening. There 
 are stiff public buUdings, a wide square, an ugly 
 little church, and a new improved bazaar has 
 been erected at great cost, which has, however, 
 entirely failed in its object of drawing the trade 
 of the town from the native quarter, and so 
 subjecting it more completely to Government 
 influence. The natives did not take kindly to 
 this arrangement, and the trade of Tashkent is 
 stUl carried on in the old bazaar, which has 
 probably existed in much the same form for 
 hundreds of years. 
 
 The bazaaf is a most important feature of life 
 in all Oriental countries, and, as all bazaars in 
 Central Asia have a family likeness, that of 
 Tashkent will serve as a very fair type. No 
 changes or improvements have been effected in 
 it since the Russian occupation. The street, as 
 the gate is neared, grows narrower, and little 
 shops cluster on either side ; in the bazaar itself 
 it is exceedingly narrow, rough, and ill-paved. 
 A very favourite method of paving in Central 
 
84 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 Asia is by laying large blocks of stone, between 
 wMcli are channels of mud in winter, and in 
 summer of thick white dust. Over these the 
 Kirghiz bumps along on his camel, quite un- 
 concerned, and if the pedestrian does not keep 
 carefully to the raised side-walk of mud he 
 may be knocked over or jostled by these camels. 
 The shops are small wooden huts of one or, at 
 most, two rooms, the front of which is taken 
 down bodily to show the interior. In the centre, 
 on a mat, the seller sits cross-legged, or per- 
 haps it is a manufacturer with his tools in 
 hand. Round him are displayed his wares, and 
 there is little room for his customers, who must 
 stand outside to do their bargaining. One 
 thinks of the unfortunate man in the Arabian 
 Nights, who bought a tray of china, set it 
 down before him in his shop, and, while medi- 
 tating on the fortune he should make out of it, 
 fell asleep, and, dreaming of his future glories, 
 kicked out and over went the china ! — his castle 
 in Spain falling about his ears with a crash. 
 One would not be surprised to hear that such 
 events are a daily occurrence, but then there 
 is none of the hurry and bustle of European 
 shopping. The merchant displays no undue 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 85 
 
 eagerness to sell his goods, and the buyer is 
 equally self-possessed and leisurely. Theoreti- 
 cally there are thirty-two different trade guilds, 
 which must be represented in the bazaar ; 
 practically there are more. Each guild is 
 supposed to have thirty-two branches, and each 
 must have a different shop ; thus, in brass- 
 working (sometimes very beautifully done) one 
 shop will make the bowl or ewer, another the 
 bottom, another the lid, a fourth will solder 
 them together, while at a fifth, with a sharp 
 chisel, the decoration is worked out. Almost 
 every trade has its own street, the shops on 
 either side being devoted to shoe, or harness, or 
 crockery-making in all their different branches. 
 
 At a tea-shop, sometimes kept by a dancing- 
 boy, tea only can be obtained, and the natives 
 bring their own bread, or little round cakes 
 which they can buy at a neighbouring baker's 
 shop, and which they fold up in a corner of their 
 girdle, and spread out, using the girdle as a 
 tablecloth, when they desire to eat. 
 
 The jewellers have a little furnace and bellows, 
 and a few rude instruments, with which they 
 manufacture ear-rings, amulets, and anklets, 
 generally in silver or thin gold, set with 
 
86 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 turquoises or other stones of an inferior quality. 
 Some of the merchants have wooden booths with 
 awnings, and there are innumerable itinerant 
 vendors standing about the streets. Our own 
 ice-cream man finds his counterpart in an indi- 
 vidual who sells a sort of powdery white sugar 
 to boys for a trifling sum, while in a small 
 clearing, perhaps, is a crowd of grinning Sarts 
 watching the antics of a couple of comedians. 
 The Kirghiz have a special quarter of their 
 own in the great bazaar of Tashkent, and here 
 is sold the really beautiful felt made by the 
 women, also coarse carpets and other articles of 
 nomad manufacture. Here and there are arched 
 gateways, behind which are caravanseries, some 
 used by local merchants for storing their goods, 
 and others as hostelries for foreigners. Here 
 the merchandise lies about in piles, the camels 
 and horses stabled around the sides of the court, 
 while overhead the merchants " live, move, and 
 have their being " in an atmosphere which is, 
 luckily, peculiar to bazaars. 
 
 Every Mussulman city, to be en rigle, must 
 have a " Jumma," or mosque large enough to 
 hold all the inhabitants on Friday. Looking 
 from the platform of the mosque in Tashkent 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 87 
 
 (whence the mullah calls to prayers), one sees 
 apparently nothing but a flat clay plain, beyond 
 which rises a hill with another mosque, and the 
 domed roof of a bath. This plain is composed 
 of the mud roofs of the bazaar, for the streets 
 are so narrow that one can only see them from 
 below, and as the roofs are often overgrown with 
 grass and poppies, this adds to the illusion. 
 The barber's shop is also the chemist's, and here 
 soap — very unpleasant in smell — is sold, and 
 also the cosmetics which a good Mussulwoman 
 is enjoined to use in order to preserve her 
 beauty and so please her husband. 
 
 The natives of Tashkent are mostly Uzbeks, 
 with a few Tadjiks, Tartars, Kirghiz, Hindoos, 
 and others who come to trade. The popula- 
 tion is difficult to gauge, but is probably over 
 120,000. 
 
 The Hindoos are the great money-lenders of 
 Central Asia, and have their own caravanseries 
 in most towns, but under Eussian rule, unlike 
 that of the English in India, land does not pass 
 by sale and mortgage into their hands. The 
 Jews are also numerous, and have enjoyed 
 greater freedom (little though that be now) since 
 the advent of the Eussians. Formerly they 
 
88 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 were confined to a certain quarter, and treated 
 with much contempt, having very few civil or 
 municipal rights, and being compelled to wear 
 a girdle of common rope as a badge of their 
 nationality. 
 
 Cotton and silk goods, of course, occupy a 
 large portion of the bazaar, and in the booths 
 one can see the men at work with their rough 
 machines of wood, dexterously manipulating 
 reels and turning spindles. The embroidery of 
 robes is also done by men, and is in very great 
 demand, the robe or material being stretched 
 over a wooden hoop, the pattern roughly chalked, 
 and the work executed with a kind of crochet- 
 needle, with which the silken thread is pulled 
 into a chain-stitch. There is no liquid measure 
 in Central Asia, everything being reckoned by 
 weight, and the standard varies in almost every 
 town. The coins also, the most common of 
 which is known as the tenga, have different 
 values in different parts. The Russians have 
 tried to regulate this, and are introducing their 
 own money, which now passes current all over 
 Central Asia. 
 
 The native houses of the better class in Tash- 
 kent, as in other Central Asian cities, have three, 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 89 
 
 or at least two, courts. The first, if there are 
 three, is used as a stable for the animals, which 
 are accommodated in sheds round the sides. 
 The second is the man's court, on two sides of 
 which are the balconies of the house ; while a 
 third frequently has a sort of platform, used as 
 a terrace, where the master and his friends sit 
 to get the full benefit of the air. The house 
 generally contains one large room, opening on 
 the portico — the guest-chamber, with one or two 
 smaller ones opening into it. The doors are 
 often beautifully carved, and instead of hinges 
 they hang on a sort of pivot let into the lintel 
 and threshold. Windows, as a rule, there are 
 none, but a small open space above the doors, 
 with lattice-work let in, either open or covered 
 with white paper, glass being still uncommon in 
 the typical native house. The ceilings are very 
 curious and sometimes strikingly pretty, being 
 composed of small round willow boughs set in 
 between the rafters, and picked out in colours, 
 with an occasional touch of gold. The walls are 
 plastered and frequently painted with pictures 
 of fruit, flowers, or small arabesques, and there 
 are numerous niches with arched tops which act 
 as shelves, on which are stored books, clothes, 
 
90 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 crockery, or food. There is usually very little 
 furniture, unless the mercliant has become bitten 
 with the craze to imitate the Eussians, in which 
 case there are cheap tables and chairs of a con- 
 ventional type imported from Eussia, for such 
 things are not made in Tashkent. The truly 
 native house, however, contains little but rugs 
 and mattresses, with perhaps a small round 
 table, or a carved or painted wooden cupboard. 
 The women's quarters are very much the same 
 in arrangement and furniture, except that they 
 may have a broad bed — the charpoy of India — 
 made of a wooden frame with a network of 
 ropes, raised a few feet from the floor. The 
 usual bed is merely a rug or a thin mattress 
 stretched on the ground. In many of the rooms 
 a small basin is let into a corner of the floor, 
 with a jug standing by, for the numerous ablu- 
 tions required by the Mussulman's religion. An 
 honoured visitor to such a house as this is 
 always treated to what is known as a dostar 
 Jchan (literally, a tablecloth), which means that 
 a piece of striped calico or silk is laid down, and 
 dishes of sweetmeats or fruits are brought in 
 and placed on it. A favourite dish consists of 
 carrots chopped fine in honey, and little round 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 91 
 
 ^akes are much liked. The bread, which is thin 
 and wafer-like, is baked by being plastered on 
 the sides of a round oven. 
 
 The merchant who lives in this house is 
 attired in a pair of loose white trousers made of 
 cotton, and tied round his waist with a cord and 
 tassels. His shirt, also of light-coloured cotton, is 
 very long, with a small slit for the neck, and wide 
 sleeves ; over this he wears a tchapan, or two or 
 three, according to the weather. This garment 
 is a long coat, cut very sloping at the neck, and 
 with enormous sleeves, much too long for con- 
 venience, but satisfying the Asiatic sense of 
 propriety, which requires that the hands be 
 covered. The tcha/pan is of cotton or silk in 
 summer, often striped or patterned in the most 
 gorgeous colours ; in winter, one gown will be 
 made of cloth and lined with fine sheepskin or 
 fur. A scarf or small shawl is twisted round 
 the waist, and a turban, either of striped cotton 
 or, if the wearer is a mullah or distinguished for 
 piety, of white material, is wound round the 
 head over a little embroidered skull-cap. 
 
 The dress of the women is very similar, but 
 their gowns are more often of silk, and many 
 strings of beads, gold, and gems are worn round 
 
92 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 the neck, with bracelets, anklets, hair-ornaments, 
 and sometimes nose-rings. Outside they wear 
 a thick veil of woven horsehair, and a dark-blue 
 or green cloak with long sleeves. The class of 
 women who go abroad unveiled is such that 
 even Jewesses and others, whose religion does 
 not demand it, cannot venture out without these 
 hideous garments. This applies, however, only 
 to the purely Mussulman cities. In the east, 
 where the Buddhist element is strong, an 
 unveiled woman is not unknown, while the 
 custom has never obtained among the Kirghiz 
 and other nomad tribes, whose Mohammedanism 
 is even less than skin deep. 
 
 Although there are hotels in Tashkent, and in 
 many other Central Asian towns, they are by no 
 means according to Western ideas of comfort, 
 resembling in arrangement the caravanserai 
 already described. The food of the country is 
 mutton, mutton, mutton ! In the town there is 
 some attempt to vary the method of cooking; 
 but, as a rule, the dishes are too greasy and 
 insipid for European palates. Wine can be got 
 in Tashkent, imported from Russia, at fabulous 
 prices ; but the native drink is green tea, black 
 tea having been only introduced by the Russians, 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 93 
 
 and this is sometimes thickened with cream or 
 melted tallow, and sometimes flavoured with a 
 small dried lemon. 
 
 The walls of Tashkent are said to have been 
 sixteen miles round, but were largely demolished 
 by the Kussians, to make barracks and parade- 
 grounds. Outside these walls and the gardens 
 surrounding them is the open steppe, over which 
 are dotted numerous villages, mostly inhabited 
 by either Tartars or Kirghiz, the races who 
 mingle in the city keeping apart here. One is a 
 sort of summer residence for the governor and 
 his little court, and at another is a large establish- 
 ment for the breeding and improvement of horses, 
 nominally a private enterprise, but in reality 
 subsidized by Government, which realizes the 
 importance of a plentiful supply of horses from 
 a strategical point of view. 
 
 Altogether, Tashkent is a curious and typical 
 example of East meeting West. The modern 
 Russian soldier and his Paris-dressed wife rub 
 shoulders with the Uzbek or Kirghiz, whose 
 ancestors were Khans and Beks in this country 
 at a time when Eussia was a mere congeries of 
 half-savage states ; or with the Mongols, whose 
 warrior kings in days of old not only conquered 
 
94 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 Russia, but a great portion of the then known 
 world ; or with the Tadjiks, of almost prehistoric 
 origin, former owners of the soil, who were dis- 
 possessed by Kirghiz and Mongol alike, but 
 still retain their individuality. All these vary- 
 ing peoples have accepted the yoke of their 
 Western conquerors. The Oriental is, above all, 
 a fatalist, and he recognizes the inevitable wave 
 of Eussian advance. Once the White Tsar had 
 proved his power, the Sart, at all events — for 
 the nomads are less tractable — ^bowed his head 
 and made the best of things. And such will 
 be the case even in Afghanistan, as Russia 
 moves forward towards India. 
 
 Another typical town, interesting from many 
 points of view, but more especially the historical 
 and antiquarian, is Samarkand, closely connected 
 with the history of Alexander the Great. It 
 first comes into notice as Maracanda, capital of 
 Sogdiana, at the time of its capture by Alex- 
 ander a large and flourishing city. Here he 
 made his headquarters while he was subduing 
 the mountain tribes, and during the celebrated 
 expedition against the Scythians across the 
 Syr Daria. This river was mistaken by the 
 Macedonians for the Don, and so occasioned 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 95 
 
 the well-known words of Alexander, " No more 
 worlds to conquer ! " He thought he had 
 made the circuit of Asia and returned to Europe 
 — a mistake which was imitated by later geo- 
 graphers out of compliment to the Macedonian 
 conqueror. It was in Samarkand Alexander 
 killed his friend Clytus in a drunken fit. In 
 this district legends of Iskender Dulkarnian (the 
 " two-horned," as he was called) abound, and the 
 city of Alexandria which he founded is usually 
 placed at Hodjent. Many of the petty princes 
 in the mountain countries of the Upper Oxus 
 claim descent from him, but very little trace 
 remains of the Greek culture which he is said 
 to have introduced. The dynasties which he 
 founded in Central Asia, calling the two pro- 
 vinces Bactria and Sogdiana, lasted until about 
 130 B.C., when a nomad tribe known as the 
 Yuetchi became masters of Samarkand, and were 
 probably in possession of it when, in 7" 10 A.D., 
 the Arabs forcibly introduced Mohammedanism. 
 For many years after, Samarkand remained a 
 Christian See and had a bishop, and notwith- 
 standing the successive conquests of the city by 
 Persians, Turks, and eventually by Genghiz 
 Khan, in the middle of the thirteenth century 
 
96 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 the Christians were stUl a flourishing com- 
 munity, while Marco Polo, though he did not 
 personally visit the city, tells us that the Church 
 of St. John the Baptist still existed. When 
 Timur came and overthrew the dynasty of 
 Genghiz, he made Samarkand his capital, and 
 his tomb still remains, in a fairly good state of 
 preservation, one of the most interesting sights 
 of this interesting city. The great Baber, after- 
 wards Emperor of India, made it a favourite 
 resort, and his memoirs, written in the year 
 1497, have a glowing description of its beauties, 
 more especially of the gardens, mosques, and 
 palaces. An ambassador from King Henry of 
 Castile, the good knight Don Eoy Gronzalez de 
 Clavijo, also gives a description of the mag- 
 nificence of the city, but from his time onward 
 little was known of it until its capture by the 
 Eussians in 1866. When and how the Chris- 
 tian community and religion so completely dis- 
 appeared we do not know, but there are no 
 remains of a Christian church. A small modern 
 one has been built since the Russian occupation, 
 A quaint story is told in connection with a high 
 bare hill just outside Samarkand. When the 
 original Arab missionaries were journeying to 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 97 
 
 spread the doctrines of Mohammed, they stopped 
 to rest on this hill, and cutting up and boiling 
 a sheep (a method of divination which reminds 
 one of the Kirghiz of the present day), they 
 agreed to decide by lot their future destination. 
 One drew out the head, which gave him the first 
 choice, and he decided to remain at Samarkand ; 
 another, drawing the heart, desired to return to 
 Mecca ; while the third, getting the hind quarter, 
 preferred to go to Bagdad, — hence Mecca is 
 called the heart and Samarkand the head of Islam 
 to this day. He who remained at Samarkand 
 was given the name of Tchupanata, " Father 
 Shepherd," and the hill is called after him to 
 this day. 
 
 A curious relic, which reminds one of the 
 famous Scone stone in the throne of Great 
 Britain, is the Kok-tash, an oblong block of grey 
 marble, ten feet four inches wide and two feet 
 high. This is said to have served as the founda- 
 tion for the throne of Timur, and Baber mentions 
 the custom that every prince of the race of Timur 
 had to be crowned on this throne. This custom 
 grew into a superstition until it became a legend 
 that the stone had fallen from heaven, and would 
 allow none but those of the blood of Timur to 
 
 H 
 
98 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 sit on it. As late as 1772 the people rebelled 
 against their Amir because he had not fulfilled 
 this condition. The Eussians have placed a 
 brass railing round the stone to preserve it from 
 too curious travellers, and the building in which 
 it stands, once an Amir's palace, has been con- 
 verted into a military hospital. Most of the 
 beautiful mosques and other buildings in Samar- 
 kand, now in decay (among which must be men- 
 tioned the splendid Medress^, or College, built 
 by the wife of Timur), bear distinct evidence of 
 Persian influence, and the Persian lion adorns 
 many of the interiors. 
 
 It is impossible to give any adequate descrip- 
 tions of all the ancient and historic towns which 
 have so recently fallen into the hands of Eussia, 
 but passing mention must be made of Turkistan, 
 the town which has given its name to the pro- 
 vince, originally a stronghold of Khokand 
 and celebrated as containing the finest and 
 most revered mosque in all Central Asia. It 
 was a place of pilgrimage for people of the 
 highest rank, and contains the tombs of many 
 of the Kirghiz Khans of the Middle and Lesser 
 Hordes. This mosque was begun by Timur in 
 1397, and is built over the tomb of one of the 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 99 
 
 most celebrated saints in Asia, Hazret Hodja 
 Akhmed Yasavi, who died about 1120 and is 
 regarded by the Kirghiz as their patron saint. 
 The great hall under the dome is over a hundred 
 feet high, and decorated with alabaster work in 
 the style common to Moorish buildings, such as 
 the Alhambra. The whole mosque at one time 
 must have been most beautifully decorated, but 
 is much despoiled, both by earthquakes and by 
 the hand of man. The Eussians, when besieging 
 Turkistan (or Hazret-i-Turkistan,* as it is called), 
 directed their fire particularly at the mosque, 
 which would have been entirely ruined, had not 
 the Shiekh-ul-Islam, whose headquarters are 
 here, mounted the parapets with a white flag. 
 The town itself is poor and dirty, but Oriental 
 in character, and therefore picturesque. 
 
 The town of Orenburg is the centre for trade 
 between Kussia and Central Asia, and as such is 
 the gathering-place of all the nations engaged in 
 it. It was founded in 1735, and since then has 
 been twice transplanted. It is both European 
 and Asiatic, possessing in one part elegant build- 
 ings, theatres, museums, palaces, restaurants, and 
 
 • Practically, " Sacred Tm-kistan " — Hazret meaning "presence " 
 or " majesty " when applied to kings, or " sanctity " when referring 
 to saints. 
 
lOo RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 pleasure-gardens, where one may see in the even- 
 ings ladies, dressed in the latest Paris fashion, 
 listening to the military band. In another part 
 is the Cossack quarter, with low wooden houses, 
 and broad, sandy, unpaved streets. Here Eng- 
 lishmen, Germans, Frenchmen, and Eussians live 
 peaceably together. On the south of the city 
 stands a huge bazaar, which attracts all the 
 tribes and nations of Central Asia. Kirghiz, 
 Khivans, and Bokharians, in their strange 
 native garb, wander through the streets, and 
 one meets the cunning-looking Mongol and 
 Bashkir, and the pious and subdued Persian. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA 
 
 Country and People — continued 
 
 The Mohammedan religion, almost universal in 
 Central Asia, gives little encouragement to those 
 who seek pleasure and recreation, save in the 
 exercise of religious duties and such mild ex- 
 citement as learning to recite the Koran by 
 heart. Human nature is, however, the same in 
 the East as in the West, and the Bokharan, 
 Khokandian, or Tashkentian, when he desires 
 relaxation, turns to music and dancing, and 
 even, if he is able, to horse-racing. As regards 
 the first, the Russians of course, in such cities as 
 Orenburg, have introduced military bands and 
 American organs ; but the purely native instru- 
 ments are drums, variations of the zither and 
 guitar, whose very names betray their relation- 
 ship to the instruments familiar to us ; trumpets, 
 with perhaps one deep note, and some elementary 
 
 101 
 
I02 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 wood wind instruments. The music is quite 
 unlike our own, the intervals between the notes 
 being less, and the notation consequently ex- 
 tremely varied. The eflfect is weird and unmelo- 
 dious to the unaccustomed ear ; but it is certainly 
 more in keeping with the character and appear- 
 ance of the natives than a Eussian military 
 band playing the latest opera selections. Most 
 of the instruments, and probably much of the 
 music, were brought from Persia, and the latter 
 has retained its pristine rudeness of construction 
 with a conservatism peculiar to these parts. 
 Another instrument which is a great favourite, 
 and found so generally all over the world 
 that we are forced to believe it embodies 
 some unspoken sentiment common to all man- 
 kind, is the Jew's harp, which bears here the 
 very appropriate name of tchang. The nomad 
 tribes, and particularly the Kirghiz, have mourn- 
 ful, monotonous songs of great length, some not 
 at all unpleasing to the ear, which differ a good 
 deal in style from the music of the towns, and 
 probably owe their inspiration to the Mongol 
 and not the Persian element. 
 
 The tambourine in different forms is much 
 used, and is the favourite accompaniment to 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 103 
 
 dancing. The latter is not really permitted to 
 the true believer, nor are women allowed to 
 appear in public and dance ; but that does not 
 interfere with the desire for a recreation which 
 appeals to the sense of beauty and love of grace 
 inherent in the most primitive race. Youths and 
 boys are therefore trained to take the place of 
 dancing-girls, and are a recognized institution 
 all over Central Asia, although most in vogue 
 in Bokhara and Samarkand. It was formerly 
 the custom for every Bokharan gentleman of 
 wealth to have one or more of these dancing- 
 boys, or batchas, in his train of servants, while 
 two or three men, if individually too poor to 
 keep one, would club together in order to have 
 a batcha to amuse them in their leisure hours. 
 These boys receive as much attention as the 
 most popular actress in other quarters of the 
 globe, and experience'in the same way the fickle- 
 ness of public favour, for when they become too 
 old for dancing, they find a difiiculty in starting 
 in any other line of life, the name batcha 
 being often affixed as a sort of stigma, when 
 their short reign of popularity is over. A 
 favourite method with the patrons of the batcha 
 is to set him up in a tea-shop, of which he can. 
 
I04 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 if he is clever, make a great success. More 
 often the batcha is spoilt and demoralized 
 by the life and the attentions bestowed on 
 him, takes to smoking opium or drinking 
 kukhuar, and soon dies of dissipation. The 
 dances are generally mere posturing accompanied 
 by songs, or a kind of pantomime of the 
 emotions ; while others consist of gymnastic 
 feats, somersaults, leaps and springs, and all 
 to the music of tambourines and the measured 
 clapping of the audience, who follow the move- 
 ments spell-bound. The dancers are usually 
 dressed in long silken robes, and in some of the 
 most popular dances are attired as women, with 
 long braids of false hair, tinkling anklets, and 
 bracelets. Since the Eussian conquest restric- 
 tions have been placed on these performances, 
 and the number of dancers has decreased. 
 
 Besides dancers, there are comedians, such as 
 are seen in India and other Eastern countries. 
 These, with whitened faces (which remind one 
 oddly of the pantomime clown so well known to 
 "Western playgoers), and a bit of rag or a few 
 cloths to simulate various garbs, will act small 
 comedies, often very obscene and vulgar, but 
 undeniably clever ; representations of familiar 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 105 
 
 street scenes, buyer and seller, Kazi and suitor, 
 teacher and scholar ; or will mimic animals in an 
 extremely life-like manner. 
 
 The festivals of saints, some of whom were 
 merely successful warriors, with no particular 
 claim to sanctity, are great opportunities for 
 recreation, which usually takes the form of a 
 pilgrimage to the tomb, and a kind of fair and 
 picnic combined. Booths are erected, and the 
 ground is covered with tents and little enclo- 
 sures, in which music and dancing are largely 
 patronized. 
 
 There are certain epochs in the life of a 
 Mussulman in Central Asia which are also marked 
 by feasting and merry-making. The ninth day 
 after his birth must be observed with more or 
 less ceremony, according to the means of his 
 parents. The most elaborate feasts take place, 
 however, when the boys are circumcised, which 
 in Central Asia is usually between the ages of 
 seven and ten. It is de rigueur at these times 
 that the friends of the family should be invited, 
 regaled with all the delicacies that can be pro- 
 cured, and afterwards entertained with music 
 and dancing, so that the festival is an expensive 
 one. Two or three men, having sons to be 
 
io6 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 circumcised, frequently join together in giving 
 a feast. 
 
 Among the Sarts — the dwellers in towns 
 (practically the merchant and artisan classes of 
 Central Asia) — a boy is considered marriageable 
 from the age of fifteen or sixteen, and a girl 
 between eleven and fifteen, or even earlier, 
 although this is becoming rare. The courtship, 
 as in all Mussulman countries, is carried on 
 through a third person, who arranges the amount 
 of kalim, or purchase-money, which is not always 
 paid to the parents, as among more primitive 
 tribes, but is a kind of marriage settlement. 
 Before the marriage feasts are given by the 
 bride to her friends, and by the bridegroom to 
 his, and on the weddkig-day a grand feast to 
 all friends and relations is given in the bride's 
 house. The marriage ceremony is performed by 
 a mullah, or priest, but neither of the contract- 
 ing parties is present, being represented by 
 male relatives. The wedding presents are usu- 
 ally given by nines, that being the sacred 
 number; and the guests not only bring, but 
 receive, gifts. When the ceremony is over, the 
 bridegroom can go to the women's court and 
 claim his bride. Probably she will be concealed 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 107 
 
 amidst a group of women, and lie must find 
 her liand before he can lead her out — no easy 
 task, as he has most likely never seen her 
 before ! 
 
 The position of women in Mussulman countries 
 can never be enviable, but in Central Asian towns 
 she has certain rights, and if her husband does 
 not provide for her in the way his means allow, 
 or that by rank she is entitled to, she can com- 
 plain to the Kazi, or judge, a native functionary 
 who in many places has been allowed by the 
 Eussian conquerors to continue in his former 
 position. The Kazi, if he think fit, can empower 
 her to borrow money on her husband's account, 
 or even sell his property to obtain what she 
 wants. Divorce is, however, easy for the hus- 
 band, who need give no reason, but must, if he 
 parts with her, return to his wife all her belong- 
 ings. She can also obtain a divorce if she can 
 show good reason ; and there is no obstacle to 
 her remarriage unless her husband curses her, as 
 he may if she has been guilty of any heinous 
 crime. 
 
 The nomads naturally cannot afford the feasts 
 which are the great indulgence and dissipation of 
 the Sarts. Still, they have their own idea of 
 
io8 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 amusements, and foremost among these are 
 horse-racing and a game played on horseback 
 called Kok-bura, or " grey wolf." The latter 
 reminds one strongly of polo, if one can imagine 
 polo played on a vast steppe, with sometimes as 
 many as a hundred players. One man has a 
 dead kid slung from his saddle-bow, and the 
 object of the others is to bear away this kid and 
 carry it safely to the judge. The skill of the 
 Kirghiz in managing their horses, and the keen 
 zest with which they enter into the game, make 
 it very exciting and interesting to watch. As 
 for horse-racing, it is a passion with all the 
 nomads ; and camel-racing is also popular, the 
 ungainly beasts being sometimes driven by 
 women or girls. The number of entries for a 
 single horse-race got up at Orenburg not many 
 years since was over a thousand. Eather a diffi- 
 cult post must be that of starter on a Central 
 Asian racecourse ! 
 
 The Kussian Government does everything in 
 its power to foster the breeding of horses — a very 
 important matter in such a vast territory, where 
 the maintenance of order is largely dependent 
 upon irregular mounted troops. There are large 
 studs for cavalry and artillery remounts in the 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 109 
 
 Orenburg district and Turkistan ; but, indeed, 
 wherever a Cossack is found, there will be horses. 
 These hardy soldiers, themselves only second 
 cousins to the Kirghiz whom they have subdued, 
 are, like the nomads, born horsemen ; but, unlike 
 them, they take an interest in the improvement 
 of their breed of horses. In Trans-Caucasia 
 particularly there are many large private studs, 
 and here the finest breeds are the Don, Kalmuk, 
 and Kirghiz steppe horses, while elsewhere are 
 found the Don Cossack and the two beautiful 
 mountain breeds of Karabag and Kabardin. 
 The Don Cossack, a most hardy and serviceable 
 animal, is largely bred in the Governments of 
 Orenburg and Ufa. Good agricultural horses 
 are also bred here, and a draught horse of great 
 power, known as the Bitygen, which shares with 
 the camel and the huge Orenburg ox the whole 
 inland trade between Eussia and Asia at present. 
 The steppe horses are all good for the saddle, 
 more especially the Don, which, when impraved 
 with a strain of Arab or Persian, is noted above 
 all Russian horses for lightness and speed, com- 
 bined with endurance. 
 
 In Turkistan the two chief breeds are the 
 Argamak and the Kirghiz, the former being of 
 
no RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 mixed breed, large and showy, and when well 
 bred very expensive. Although, a native of 
 Central Asia, this horse has given his name to 
 the Imperial stables at Moscow, which are still 
 called the stables for the Argamaks — doubtless a 
 reminiscence of the days of Mongol supremacy, 
 when the Golden Horde dictated fashions to the 
 Muscovite court. The Kirghiz is a much 
 humbler animal, of no great speed, ugly and 
 light in colour, and when in native hands is too 
 often a victim to the passion of his master for 
 humis (soured mares' milk), which not only 
 exhausts the mares, but prevents the foals from 
 being well nourished. Nevertheless, the Kirghiz, 
 living all the year round in the open air, is a hardy 
 and useful horse, and remarkable for his retentive 
 memory — an especially useful trait in the almost 
 trackless steppes. As a light draught horse this 
 animal does excellently, and will doubtless be 
 largely used in. Central Asian warfare in the 
 future. A third breed, the Turkoman, is found 
 in these parts ; but it is seldom that a good one 
 can be bought, so highly are they prized by their 
 native owners. They are somewhat like Arabs 
 in appearance, and are exceedingly reliable and 
 hardy. The Kalmuk is an ugly horse, small, 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE iii 
 
 rough, and long-eared, but hardy and serviceable 
 for light cavaby. 
 
 The Karabag, a native of the mountain regions 
 of Turkistan, holds the same rank among Asiatic 
 horses as the English thoroughbred among 
 European, and is a most beautiful, elegant 
 animal, with marvellously sure foot, very faith- 
 ful and docile. The Kabardin is a mixture of 
 Arab and mountain horse, and is not quite so 
 fine and graceful as the Karabag, but has more 
 endurance, and is both strong and fiery. 
 
 Travelling in Central Asia is usually accom- 
 plished either on horseback or in a cart resem- 
 bling the Russian taratass, and is neither 
 comfortable nor speedy unless good animals 
 have been procured. The Russian post-roads in 
 Central Asia are not level chaussees, but merely 
 show the direction of the track, which is marked 
 out by post relays, and a few settlements and 
 towns. The posting-stations are generally kept 
 by a rich Cossack, who manages this in addition 
 to farming and keeping an inn. He has to pro- 
 vide by contract a certain number of post-horses 
 and telegas. The postal communications are 
 under the control of a smoitritel, usually an old 
 soldier who examines all the passports, and has 
 
112 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 also to see to the replenishing of the inevitable 
 samovar, getting a few copecks for his trouble. 
 The station has a bare whitewashed room for the 
 convenience of travellers, containing little furni- 
 ture but a table, some wooden stools, and the 
 tea apparatus. Sometimes the posting-station is 
 only a Kirghiz tent, and in past days not un- 
 frequently consisted of nothing but a water-cask 
 and a post besmeared with the Russian colours. 
 The telega, or posting-car, is a small open 
 wooden cart scarcely five feet in length, resting 
 on four small wooden wheels, and running on 
 two wooden axles. In the steppes the wheels 
 frequently have neither metal rims nor boxes, so 
 that the axles catch fire in spite of being per- 
 petually greased. A feather and a jar of grease 
 are an essential part of a traveller's equipment, 
 and he must personally and at short intervals 
 superintend the greasing if he wishes to avoid 
 a breakdown and the serious consequences. On 
 the front box of the telega the coachman, or 
 jemschtchik, is perched, and the traveller must 
 make a seat of a bundle of straw, or his bag 
 lashed to the cart. To this he must stick as 
 closely as he can, while the Cossack horses 
 gallop madly with the telega, which is 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 113 
 
 innocent of springs, across the trackless steppe, 
 over streams and hills and trunks of trees. 
 The traveller after a few days of this sort of 
 journey is almost deprived of feeling, indeed 
 of any sensation, and those unaccustomed to 
 it require some time to recover. Yet the 
 couriers, who carry important despatches, travel 
 so night and day for several days, only waiting 
 at each posting-station for tea, while fresh horses 
 are brought. Innumerable glasses of tea, a few 
 biscuits and eggs, frequently form their diet on 
 the journey, and sometimes not even this. The 
 difficulty of transporting troops and arms in 
 such a country and for such distances may 
 readily be imagined, and it is marvellous to 
 think that Tamerlane traversed these deserts 
 with a million men. Modern armies, with their 
 elaborate organization, — especially intricate com- 
 missariat and ambulance — ^can never accomplish 
 what has been done in the past on many occa- 
 sions by hordes of nomad horsemen ; subsisting 
 like the hardy animals that carried them on 
 what they could pick up on the almost barren 
 steppe — roots, dried meat, or a bird shot and 
 hastily cooked. 
 
 A common and picturesque sight is a caravan 
 
 I 
 
114 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 starting, let us say, from Orenburg. The long 
 snake-like procession of waggons is drawn by 
 the powerful Eussian ox, or the gigantic Asiatic 
 buffalo, and winds slowly across the steppes, the 
 ungreased wooden wheels creaking and groaning, 
 the Cossack coachman calling every now and 
 then to his team from his seat in a kennel 
 of straw erected at the top of a bale of goods. 
 Halting before a Cossack stanitza, they form 
 the waggons into a sort of little fortified camp 
 or laager ; and as we rattle by in our telega 
 we see the light of the camp fire, round which 
 the weary drivers bivouac until the dawn, 
 just like Boers on the trek. 
 
 One of the most characteristic features of life 
 in all parts of Central Asia is the custom of 
 present giving, which has attained proportions 
 undreamt of in western lands, though even there 
 it is still an important factor in social life. 
 Presents in Central Asia are by no means 
 voluntary or spontaneous, being given and re- 
 ceived as a matter of course, and it is not 
 customary to return thanks for gifts until one 
 is congratulated on receiving' them, when thanks 
 must be returned — not for the gift, but for the 
 congratulations. They would become a serious 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 115 
 
 tax were it not that whoever receives a present 
 must promptly give one in return. Among the 
 Kirghiz (who carry the custom to great lengths, 
 despite the fact that their only wealth consists 
 practically of the tent they live in and their 
 flocks), etiquette demands, for instance, that at 
 a funeral feast every mourner who attends must 
 receive a present ; but then he must always bring 
 one with him, and the two must be of equal 
 value, so that the proprieties are satisfied, and 
 no one is either loser or gainer in this game of 
 forfeits. Amusing stories are told of gifts sent 
 to each other by the rulers of the various 
 Khanates, in pre-Kussian days, which eventually 
 found their way back to the original sender ; 
 and one is reminded of the lady who settled in 
 Germany, and found some difficulty in thinking 
 of a suitable gift for the birthday of a friend, 
 which according to the custom of the country 
 could by no means be neglected. Finally she 
 sent a brass candlestick, which was greeted with 
 effusion, and followed on her own birthday by 
 the gift of a matchbox. Next year the problem 
 again presented itself, and in some trepidation 
 she packed up the matchbox and sent it to join 
 the candlestick, A letter of most effusive 
 
ii6 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 thanks was again received, and on her birthday 
 — the candlestick returned intact ! Now, it is 
 said, they exchange matchbox and candlestick 
 every year, plus two letters of polite and 
 " heart- warmest greetings." This system, very 
 closely followed in Central Asia, is a great 
 nuisance to a stranger, who, wishing to join 
 at all in social life, is confronted at the outset 
 by what seems an overwhelming tax on his 
 resources and ingenuity. A native who offers 
 the smallest civility or present — a bunch of 
 grapes or flowers — will remark, as he does so, 
 " Sillau heryah" — a present is necessary. 
 
 All over Central Asia we find traces of a 
 civilization so old that it has been entirely 
 forgotten, and nothing remains to tell us 
 what were the races who dwelt there, or how 
 they fell from their high estate. On the north 
 bank of the Syr Daria, all along the valley, 
 are numerous ruins which mark the sites of 
 former cities ; and legend says that this district, 
 now a wilderness with an occasional Eussian 
 fort or small half-savage town, was once so 
 densely populated that from Kashgar to the Sea 
 of Aral " the nightingale could fly from branch 
 to branch, and the cat walk from house-top to 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 117 
 
 house-top." No investigations have as yet 
 given a clue as to the identity of the once busy 
 dwellers in this fertile valley, nor why their 
 towns fell into decay. The country is quite 
 capable of supporting a population ; in summer, 
 plants and flowers of many varieties bloom on 
 the steppes, and the brush which grows on the 
 river banks forms a cover for quantities of 
 pheasants, geese, partridges, and other game. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting and mysterious 
 of these relics of bygone ages are found in the 
 country around Lake Issyk-Kul, and on the 
 banks of that lake itself. Here, no doubt, in 
 ancient times were several cities, and under 
 water there are ruins visible, which make it 
 appear likely that the lake has risen, or else that 
 there has been a subsidence of the soil. Very 
 curious relics are washed up — large tiles and 
 bricks, covered with red and blue glaze, broken 
 pottery, human bones, and metallic vessels. A 
 traveller in 1876 was shown a lamp with an 
 inscription on it in an entirely unknown lan- 
 guage. Chinese maps of an early period place 
 a city named Tchi-gu on the shores of Issyk- 
 Kul, and on the Catalan map of 1375 there is 
 marked on the southern shore a Nestorian 
 
ii8 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 monastery containing the bones of St. Matthew. 
 The great route which runs through Central 
 Asia from east to west passes between Lake 
 Issyk-Kul and Tashkent, through ground of 
 classic, or one might almost say pre-classic 
 memory. On one of the mountains which lie 
 south of the little country town of Aulie-ata, 
 legend has it that Noah's ark rested after the 
 subsidence of the deluge ; and the fact that this 
 is told of at least half a dozen other mountains 
 in Asia does not prevent a certain number of 
 believers from visiting it to behold the remains 
 which are still to be seen. This, too, was un- 
 doubtedly the country of Prester John, that 
 mysterious Napoleon of the Middle Ages, who 
 has been identified with a successful Khan and 
 conqueror known as Yeliu Tashi. His capital, 
 Bala Sagun, the chief city of the Karikidans, 
 has vanished completely ; but perhaps one day, 
 when the buried cities of Asia are properly 
 investigated, and railways run from one "inte- 
 resting ruin " to another for the benefit of 
 tourists, the capital of Prester John may be 
 discovered, buried in the sand, and we may yet 
 learn the rights of the marvellous story of the 
 Christian pagan, half pope, half king, who 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 119 
 
 loomed so large on the imagination of mediaeval 
 times. 
 
 Over this road passed the earliest traveller 
 whose records remain to us — Zemarchus, an 
 ambassador from the Emperor Justinian in 569, 
 who was sent to visit Dizabulus, probably Dalo- 
 bian Khan, a powerful chief living on the 
 northern slope of the Thian Shan. The next 
 traveller came from the east, sixty years later, in 
 the person of Hiuen Tsiang, a Buddhist pilgrim 
 and student. He peoples the mountains and 
 Lake Issyk-Kul with terrible monsters and 
 dragons, but describes enthusiastically a lovely 
 valley, " the place of a thousand springs," where 
 the Turkish Khan had his summer residence, 
 and where beautiful woods were full of tame 
 stags all adorned with bells and rings. This 
 spot is probably the triangle formed by the 
 river Tchu and its tributary, the Kurgati. 
 
 Nearly all the tribes who, until the Russian 
 era, possessed the soil in Central Asia, date them- 
 selves back to Genghiz Khan ; but an account of 
 his conquests, given by a Chinese statesman who 
 accompanied that warrior during his progress 
 West, in the early years of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, gives a description of towns which existed 
 
120 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 then and are still standing, suck as Hodjent, 
 Samarkand, and Bokhara. It is almost certain 
 that Central Asia was never under a homo- 
 geneous rule. Genghiz Khan, sweeping from 
 east to west, gathered up all the little tribes, 
 and destroyed many ancient kingdoms ; but 
 he immediately divided his immense territories 
 between his sons, and they, when their turn 
 came, did likewise, so that the family of Genghiz 
 became a sort of hereditary aristocracy over the 
 whole of Central Asia. Thus, among Kirghiz, 
 Kara-Kirghiz, Kalmuks, Uzbeks, and all tribes 
 which have any of the Mongol element, the 
 " white bones " still love to boast of their descent 
 from the great conqueror. 
 
 In the twelfth century two other Chinese 
 travellers also braved the perils of the route 
 through Central Asia, and both describe the 
 country of the " Karakitai " as fuU of ancient 
 ruins. In 1253 we have an account of a 
 missionary journey, undertaken by Eubruquis, a 
 Flemish friar, at the instigation of St. Louis of 
 France. He found the Nestorians already estab- 
 lished, but notes that in many of the cities the 
 people worship idols, while others are entirely 
 Mohammedan. He also mentions with surprise 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 121 
 
 a little village, which was inhabited by " Sara- 
 cens, speaking Persian, though such a huge way 
 from Persia," just as the Tadjik of our own day 
 speaks an Aryan dialect with words of Persian 
 derivation which have dropped out of use in 
 their native land. The most imaginative 
 traveller, however, was King Hethum of Cis, in 
 Cilicia, a Christian monarch who went to visit 
 Mangu Khan. His account of the " Kingdom 
 of Dogs " has been referred to in the description 
 of the Kirghiz. 
 
 One of the Chinese travellers already alluded 
 to notices a city near Aulie-ata, the remains of 
 which are still to be seen, and are among the 
 most curious ruins in the world. Native legend 
 says that this city was built by a prince of the 
 Divs, or mountain spirits, who fell in love with 
 a maiden who lived near, and wishing to build a 
 city for her to live in, threw down great stones 
 from his mountain. These ruins are thirty miles 
 east of Aulie-ata, and their extent, and the size 
 of the stones used to build them, excuse some 
 stretch of the imagination in order to account for 
 their presence. An immense unfinished building, 
 600 feet by 450, is built of reddish sandstone, 
 some stones used in the lower layers being seven 
 
122 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 feet long by four broad. LercH, who investigated 
 the ruins, thinks they may have been intended 
 for a Buddhist monastery. The same traveller 
 mentions certain great grave mounds which 
 stand to this day, silent but eloquent witnesses 
 to the transience of human fame ; for doubtless 
 the long-forgotten race who built them meant 
 them as an enduring monument to some national 
 heroes, whose memory they hoped would thus 
 be immortalized. 
 
 When one considers the numbers of races 
 which have met, amalgamated, or in many cases 
 simply settled down side by side in Central Asia, 
 one cannot be surprised at a certain amount 
 of confusion in their method of reckoning time. 
 Simplest of all, the Kirghiz, having no era from 
 which to date their y^ars, use a twelve-year 
 cycle, and give to each cycle the name of an 
 animal, the names being arranged in a certain 
 sequence. The day of the year is hot regarded 
 at all, every one born in the same year being 
 considered as of the same age. The Kirghiz 
 day is divided into four parts — sunrise, eating- 
 time, midday, and sunset. Seven days make a 
 week, or atna, while the year is divided into 
 twelve solar months, bearing names corresponding 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 123 
 
 to the signs of the zodiac in Arabic. These 
 Arabic names were translated from the Greek, 
 and the Greek names, say Assyriologists, were 
 originally borrowed directly, or through Egypt, 
 from those given to the months by the Chaldean 
 and Babylonian astronomers. These were not 
 connected with agricultural occupations, but 
 with the periodic changes in the heavenly bodies, 
 to each of which names had been given which 
 had become part of the mythology of the people. 
 The deities thus evolved were embodied in 
 emblematic figures, and these figures remain 
 much the same to this day — Virgo, for instance, 
 having originally represented the Goddess Ishtar ; 
 while some of the signs have lost their original 
 meaning, and are improvements on the earliest 
 signs, such as Aquarius, which is an amplifica- 
 tion of the water-paU, and so forth. These 
 names, which describe the different periods of 
 the solar year, must have been introduced into 
 Central Asia at a very remote period, and are 
 still in use there in their original form. This 
 calendar is far more complete and sensible than 
 that now being introduced by Kussia — the Julian, 
 which is already more than twelve days out of 
 its reckoning. Besides these zodiacal names. 
 
124 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA, 
 
 the Kirghiz, like all simple people, have given 
 titles to the months descriptive of their occu- 
 pations at different times of the year; and, 
 much as the English labourer talks of sowing- 
 time, harvest, and hay-harvest, the nomad 
 speaks of lambing-time, mare-milking season, 
 and the slaughtering season. The Kirghiz are 
 well acquainted with the stars, by which they 
 steer their path in the desert, as well as using 
 them to calculate time. The same solar year, 
 with twelve months named after the zodiacal 
 signs, is in use among all agriculturists, the 
 months having in Tashkent alternately thirty 
 and thirty-one days, while the last month has 
 in ordinary years only twenty-nine, with an 
 extra day every four years. In other cities 
 another system is adopted, rather less regular, 
 and containing one month of thirty-two days 
 and two of twenty-nine — a method common 
 to agriculturists in Persia as well as Central 
 Asia, and in the former country also used by 
 Government in the assessment of taxes. A 
 rhyme, resembling our own " Thirty days hath 
 September," is commonly used in both countries 
 to keep the different days of the month in the 
 memory. There is also the ordinary Mussulman 
 
COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 125 
 
 calendar, consisting of a lunar year, used in all 
 religious documents and by tlie educated classes 
 generally ; and since the Julian calendar has 
 been introduced by the Kussians, great confusion 
 has inevitably ensued. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 
 
 There is little room for doubt that, with a wise 
 policy which must at once be bold and resolute, 
 while India herself remains contented and loyal, 
 Britain has little to fear in her Eastern Empire 
 from foreign aggression. So long as she can 
 thoroughly depend upon the support of both 
 the native agricultural masses and military 
 element, she is strong for defence. So much 
 being granted, it would seem a politic measure 
 to discover, as far as possible, to what extent 
 she can rely upon such support. Statistics as 
 to the prosperity or progress of the country are 
 no doubt valuable enough in their way; but, 
 in order to arrive at anything like an accurate 
 conclusion as to the internal strength of Britain's 
 Indian Empire, it is necessary to investigate 
 beyond these, and to find out what is the 
 
 126 
 
THE BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 127 
 
 prevailing feeling amongst tlie natives towards 
 their rulers, both, local and imperial. 
 
 Is India so governed as to ensure the con- 
 tentment and, should circumstances so require, 
 the loyal support of her people? Unpleasant 
 though the truth may be, the answer to this 
 question is, to say the least, problematical. 
 The entire population of the country amounts 
 to about three hundred millions, two hundred 
 and fifty millions of whom are agriculturists, 
 who "scratch the soil, harvest the crops, and 
 pay heavy taxes." Of the remaining fifty 
 millions, a proportion of from one-half to two- 
 thirds are fighting men, settled principally in 
 the Punjaub, but also to be found in Eajputana, 
 Oudh, and other provinces. The people are far 
 from homogeneous, as shown later, and are of 
 different creeds as well as races. In the adminis- 
 tration of such a mighty empire, England has 
 no easy task to perform. Her system of govern- 
 ment may be — and probably is, all things con- 
 sidered — a better one than the natives could 
 hope for under any other rule ; but, even so, 
 there is much that needs reform. And without 
 question one of the first reforms should be to 
 ofive to the British rule in India less of a 
 
128 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 machine-like aspect, and to introduce more of 
 the personal element. At present the people 
 are unknown to their rulers and the rulers to 
 the people. It has been aptly remarked that 
 before the Mutiny " the people had rulers ; now 
 they have only rules." The majority of the 
 officials, mixing almost exclusively as they do 
 with their English colleagues, and finding the 
 greater part of their time fully occupied in 
 transacting the vast amount of detailed work 
 connected with their respective departments, 
 have little opportunity for acquiring an intimate 
 knowledge of, or a practical sympathy with, 
 the native population ; and should any one of 
 them, indeed, attempt to introduce a reform, 
 he receives but small encouragement from the 
 Indian or the Home authorities. Eeformers are 
 even less popular in India than elsewhere. 
 
 The Central Government and high officials 
 live, in fact, in a world of their own, and will 
 not hear of any such thing as discontent — still 
 less that it can be due to the best possible 
 system in the best of worlds. None the less 
 is the evil at work, and to a dangerous extent. 
 The tendency in India is increasingly towards 
 bureaucracy of a hard-and-fast type. The 
 
THE BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 129 
 
 avenue to a career or rapid promotion in India 
 is througlx the portals of the Secretariat — the 
 official " Holy of Holies ; " and the governments 
 are composed of men who, endowed with in- 
 dustry, a ready pen, and the art of report- 
 writing, have yet never been outside the walls 
 of the Secretariats in Calcutta and Simla. Such 
 men know little more of the native of India — 
 his aspirations, his hopes, his fears — than might 
 an average permanent official in Downing Street. 
 The " paper-rule " system of India — an imper- 
 sonal one — has grown to such an extent that 
 it is a grave danger. From the poor peasant 
 in his field to the Secretary of State for India — 
 through all the successive stages of district 
 officer, provincial administration, and the Gov- 
 ernment of India — is a far cry. Laissez faire 
 and Surtout pas trop de zUe are the watchwords 
 of this highest form yet known in the evolution 
 of Circumlocution. 
 
 In the place of laws issued by a far-distant 
 Government, and administered by unknown and 
 unsympathetic officials, the people want a more 
 personal rule : they want judgments they can 
 follow and understand. Justice, at the price 
 which they now have to pay for it, is beyond 
 
 K 
 
130 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 their means, and so it comes about that the 
 poor, who constitute the vast majority of the 
 population, are oppressed, while the wealthy 
 classes flourish. There can be little doubt that 
 to continue to force on the people a code of 
 laws suitable only to Western civilization, or to 
 attempt the introduction of democratic govern- 
 ment, would be at the present time, whatever 
 it may be in the future, a vast mistake. In 
 reality, India consists of an assemblage of nations 
 of difi'erent interests, languages, and creeds — a 
 congregation of races and tribes in no sense 
 of the word homogeneous, who are, in fact, 
 antagonistic, and the vast majority of whom 
 are but little higher in the scale of humanity 
 than the natives of Africa. Eadical differences 
 exist among the numerous tribes with regard 
 to caste, intelligence, and many other charac- 
 teristics, rendering the advent of Western ideals 
 for many generations to come an impossibility. 
 
 The chief difference is, of course, in the fight- 
 ing quality, which varies in a peculiar degree 
 and differentiates the various races. Speaking 
 generally, the Mohammedan is warlike, the 
 Hindu is not ; the one is masterful and 
 courageous, the other supple and craven; the 
 
THE BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 131 
 
 one represents force, the other words — points 
 which should never be lost sighf of. 
 
 " The strong, fierce, independent warrior of the north," 
 says Sir Lepel Griffin, " has a deep-rooted contempt for 
 the smooth, subtle, and cowardly lowlander, who is 
 neither fit to fight or to govern, but who is his superior 
 in the art of intrigue, who can beat him in every com- 
 petitive competition, and to whom will fall the whole 
 weight of any pohtical concessions that agitation can 
 wring from the timidity of the Government. The world 
 is ruled by strength and courage, and not by competitive 
 examinations." 
 
 Once we lose sight of this truth, we may pre- 
 pare for the " barbarians from the north, who 
 cannot read or write, but who seal their treaties 
 with the pommel of the sword." The backbone 
 of the Indian army is supplied by the Sikhs and 
 Eajputs, who are unsurpassed as soldiers, and 
 whose courage and devotion have been tested on 
 many battle-fields and in many lands. Led by 
 British officers, they are probably superior to 
 ordinary Russian troops. To give power to the 
 Bengalis, troublesome in time of peace and 
 useless in time of war — as would surely be the 
 effect of a further development of democratic 
 government, with its representative institutions 
 — would be to alienate the Sikhs and Eajputs, 
 
132 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 with whom the Bengalis have absolutely nothing 
 in common. In fact, the doctrine of equality, 
 as preached in the West, is totally inapplicable 
 to India at the present time. 
 
 What is required is a simpler law with a less 
 complex administration. Western law has been 
 introduced into — indeed, forced upon — this 
 Oriental land, without due regard for the customs 
 and sentiments of its many millions of poverty- 
 stricken people. What is suitable for highly 
 educated Europe, with its complex society, is 
 quite unsuited for these toiling and moiling 
 millions, who simply want " to fill their bellies, 
 pay their taxes, and meet the interest due on 
 their debts." 
 
 " In England," says Thorbum, " a lawsuit is a costly 
 luxury, indulged in by the rich and quarrelsome alone ; 
 in India it is, owing to over-government, a necessity for 
 aU classes, a debt-collecting instrument for creditors, 
 and the only means open to agriculturists for the settle- 
 ment of their generally simple disputes inter se. It has 
 no terrors for the mercantile and money-lending classes. 
 They have money at command, education, and subtle 
 intelligences, which delight in the intricacy and surprises 
 of a good case in court. But for the peasant, artisan, 
 or village menial, who form the bulk of the peoples of 
 India, it often means ruin." * 
 
 * S. S. Thorburn, " Asiatic Neighbours." 
 
THE BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 133 
 
 Such being the state of affairs, it is little 
 wonder that discontent is on the increase, and 
 that the natives are becoming less trustful, less 
 confident in England's strength — a state of mind 
 which is ready to accept the growing belief in 
 the power of the great Northern Colossus that 
 aspires to dominate Asia. 
 
 Another unfortunate feature, and this closely 
 affecting the whole social life of the people, is to 
 be found in the widespread influence of the 
 Hindu money-lending class, an influence which 
 is especially dominant in the Punjaub, where 
 many of the old village communities have been 
 replaced by the " rule of usurers." Since the 
 time of the Mutiny a large proportion of the 
 cultivated land in this district — a proportion 
 estimated, indeed, at ten per cent, for some 
 localities and even twenty-five for others — has 
 been wrested from the peasantry by the money- 
 lenders, who are gradually but surely under- 
 mining the prosperity of the agricultural 
 population, the latter being always ready to 
 blame the Government for their misfortunes in 
 this direction. The farmers, and the peasantry 
 generally, borrow money in order to pay their 
 debts and to avoid lawsuits of any description, 
 
134 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 knowing well that their chances of success against 
 a wealthy opponent, who can afford to employ a 
 clever lawyer, are but small. If they do find 
 themselves in the courts, they have to borrow 
 money for their defence, with the natural conse- 
 quence that the money-lender, who charges a 
 high rate of interest, in the end becomes 
 possessed of the borrowers' land. In this way 
 a large proportion of the cultivated land has 
 passed into the hands of the usurers, the peasantry 
 becoming tenants instead of proprietors, being 
 eventually, perhaps, evicted ; and it goes with- 
 out saying that such a state of affairs gives rise 
 to much discontent and bad feeling, the blame 
 being laid, as has been said, on the method of 
 civil administration favoured by the Indian 
 Government. It is only to be expected that the 
 peasantry will eventually become incensed at 
 their ever-increasing impoverishment, and that 
 they will be ready to take advantage of any 
 opportunity that offers to emancipate themselves. 
 Probably they would long ago have made a 
 stand for their rights, were it not that they 
 occasionally receive the sympathy of the local 
 English officials, who do what they can to render 
 the law less oppressive; whilst another reason 
 
THE BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 135 
 
 for their patient endurance may be found in the 
 fact that they still cherish a hope that Govern- 
 ment intervention will come to their aid. There 
 is no doubt that this is essentially a matter to 
 be dealt with by the Indian Government itself. 
 That reform of some sort is urgently needed 
 is a self-evident fact, and, as a simple act of 
 justice, as well as a measure of policy, it should 
 no longer be delayed.- 
 
 The present condition of affairs undoubtedly 
 renders the struggle for existence a hard one, 
 as may be realized when it is considered that 
 a vast population of about three hundred 
 millions, distributed in the proportion of between 
 500 and 800 to the square mile of cultivated 
 land, suffers not only from the inevitable 
 droughts which so frequently occur, but also 
 from a narrow and short-sighted Imperial policy, 
 which places every obstacle in the way of 
 industrial development, and imposes heavy taxes 
 on the struggling people. With the peasantry 
 as a whole, and especially those on the north- 
 western frontiers, discontented and dissatisfied 
 with their present rulers, a most favourable 
 opportunity is presented to Russia to make her 
 influence felt, and, later on, when she has been 
 
136 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 able to approacli still nearer to the frontier, to 
 ensure to herself a welcome. She might even, 
 as she herself anticipates, be greeted as a 
 " deliverer." And, indeed, according to various 
 authorities, her demands upon landowners in her 
 Central Asian possessions are not so exacting as 
 are ours in India, for the British Government 
 insists on a fifth of the produce, making no 
 allowance for good or bad years ; while Russia 
 is said to ask only a tenth, and to allow for 
 variations of production. 
 
 Only if some reform is made in the abuses 
 noted can Britain hope to preserve, under all 
 circumstances, the loyalty of her Indian subjects. 
 Meanwhile, all assurances regarding the loyalty 
 of the native princes and people, and of the 
 enthusiasm for British rule, must be received 
 with extreme reserve. By what ties are they 
 bound to their masters ? Not those of blood, or 
 creed, or common aims and aspirations ; merely 
 that of self-interest, which will side with the 
 British so long as they are strong, and so long as 
 there is no cause for discontent. The loyalty of 
 a hungry and over-taxed people to an alien, a 
 distant and impersonal power, cannot be relied 
 upon. And, in any case, let it never be forgotten 
 
THE BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 137 
 
 that the British element in the Indian army is 
 the keystone of all loyalty, for it is that of 
 strength. 
 
 It must not, however, be assumed that the 
 money-lenders are solely to blame for the poverty 
 and the generally reduced status of the agri- 
 cultural population. Another fruitful cause is 
 the over-taxation which is prevalent. The 
 manner in which, for instance, the Punjaub 
 peasantry are " squeezed " in order to counter- 
 balance the loss of revenue in Bengal consequent 
 upon the "Permanent Settlement" effected by 
 Lord Comwallis in 1793, is a source of discontent 
 amongst a brave and hardy population whose 
 value to England from a military point of view, 
 in the event of invasion, cannot be over- 
 estimated. 
 
 By the " Cornwallis Settlement " it was 
 arranged that the farmers and others holding 
 land under the then current decennial settle- 
 ment should become the "landlords" of such 
 " estates " for ever, on condition of paying to 
 the State the assessments then in force. This 
 arrangement, carried out without survey or 
 investigation of titles, was of course most 
 advantageous to the farmers who happened to 
 
138 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 hold land in 1793; but the result has been the 
 loss of fabulous amounts to the Imperial ex- 
 chequer, and the creation of a dangerous degree 
 of discontent amongst the peasantry, upon whom 
 a consequently higher taxation than would 
 otherwise be the case is forced. 
 
 The danger from over-taxation is indeed 
 extreme. India is poor and cannot bear the 
 burden.* She is gradually being pushed towards 
 a state of insolvency. Protests have on various 
 occasions been made against the taxation of such 
 necessary articles as salt, etc. Much ill-feeling 
 has also been from time to time aroused in 
 connection with the cotton duties, which have 
 been enforced or abolished without any con- 
 sideration of the prosperity or otherwise that 
 might be entailed thereby, the sole object, in 
 every case, being to forward the interests of the 
 Lancashire operatives, whose votes are required. 
 It is well to emphasize the fact that it is far 
 from an unusual proceeding on the part of 
 Britain to subordinate the interests of her great 
 dependency to party motives — a mistaken policy 
 
 * " I do not hesitate to say that half our agricultural population 
 never know from year's end to year's end what it is to have their 
 hunger satisfied " (Sir Charles Elliott, late Member of the Viceroy's 
 Council, and Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal). 
 
THE BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 139 
 
 which hastens India towards insolvency, and can 
 only have the effect of weakening her rule in her 
 Eastern Empire. That, in order to secure a few 
 votes, some feeble Ministry should, to conciliate 
 sectional interest or philanthropic faddists, 
 allow the imposition on India of measures 
 disastrous both to her exchequer and to her 
 people, is not likely to be productive of good 
 feeling between rulers and ruled, and warnings 
 on this point have not been absent. 
 
 Such matters are quickly seized upon as subject 
 for agitation, against both the Indian and Imperial 
 Governments, by the army of sedition-mongers 
 who have sprung into existence as a consequence 
 of the practically free education offered to all 
 classes in India. 
 
 And in this connection it may be said that 
 education is, in many respects, well carried out. 
 The State itself provides for the teaching of 
 all elementary subjects, and village schools are 
 numerous. The higher education is, to a large 
 extent, carried out by means of municipal or 
 private benevolence ; but Government grants are 
 made to such schools as are willing to adopt 
 Government methods, and to permit inspection 
 and examination. The agricultural population 
 
140 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 have not, on the whole, taken advantage of their 
 privileges to the extent which might have been 
 expected, and therefore it is the town-dwellers 
 who have benefited most largely. There is still 
 much to be desired. 
 
 " Education on English lines," says Thorbum, " carried 
 out in India imparts learning of a sort without principle, 
 makes a Bengali into a prig, a Mohammedan into a poor 
 imitation of a vicious Englishman, an up-country Hindu 
 into a selfish agnostic, and all who fail to make money 
 or get Government service into grievance-mongers. An 
 English boy starts in life with the moral force called 
 principle ingrown in him: an Indian student — after 
 cramming moral text-books for years — with nothing 
 developed in him but self-seeking. Half the former's 
 education is from his healthy home and school surround- 
 ings. Of these the latter can know nothing." 
 
 Introduced into the country with the best 
 intentions, these educational advantages have 
 by no means invariably produced happy results, 
 for, as has been said, they have given rise to the 
 existence of an immense number of superficially 
 educated men who, finding the supply of lucra- 
 tive posts inadequate, are either unable to 
 secure employment or have been forced to 
 accept almost nominal salaries, and, thus dis- 
 appointed in their ambition, have turned their 
 
THE BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 141 
 
 attention and energies to agitating against the 
 Government, and generally to the promotion of 
 sedition. 
 
 In order to arrive at some clear idea of 
 Britain's true position in India, one of the points 
 requiring careful consideration is her policy 
 with regard to the hill-tribes, and her adminis- 
 tration generally on the north-western frontiers. 
 These tribes fall naturally into four divisions : 
 (1) those between Peshawur and the Gilgit 
 Agency, (2) those inhabiting the mountainous 
 country between the Khyber pass and the 
 Kurram valley, (3) the Waziri and other tribes 
 found in the Suliman mountains, (4) those in 
 Beluchistan controlled by the British agent. 
 The inhabitants of the deserts and hills of 
 Beluchistan are said to be of Arab descent, 
 and were formerly merely marauding nomads. 
 At one time their occupation of the Punjaub 
 and Sindh was imminent, but they were 
 overcome by force of British arms. These 
 tribes, devoted to their chiefs, are more difficult 
 to deal with than the Afghans, who can gene- 
 rally be bought, and who are always amenable 
 to superior force. Much money has already 
 been expended in the country for the purpose 
 
142 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 of securing British, interests. In tlie earlier 
 days of the British occupation, and even after 
 the Sikhs themselves had been finally conquered, 
 lawlessness in the north-western districts was 
 rampant. The hill-tribes continually made raids 
 into the lowlands, plundering the villages, 
 seizing the cattle, and even killing the inhabi- 
 tants. Gradually, however, order was to some 
 extent introduced, the task being entrusted to 
 selected officers to whom an exceedingly free 
 hand in the matter was allowed. And, indeed, 
 by reason of the vast distances separating thenj 
 from the central authorities, it would have been 
 practically impossible for the latter to exercise 
 effective control. Various were the methods 
 resorted to for the establishment of a system 
 of security for property and life. Amongst 
 some of the tribes the leading natives were 
 dealt with, and power and authority given to 
 them over their own districts. This system, 
 however, did not always produce satisfactory 
 results, for these native leaders discovered that, 
 by exciting the tribes to the point of revolt, 
 and then taking credit for pacifying them, they 
 frequently could secure increase of salary and 
 other benefits from the Government. 
 
THE BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 143 
 
 A more successful metliod was tliat of con- 
 verting many of the hill-men into frontier police, 
 and by giving them a fixed salary, doing away 
 with all inducement to marauding expeditions. 
 As in China, the system of communal respon- 
 sibility was adopted in order to insure the 
 detection and punishment of offenders ; that 
 is to say, when any offence was committed, the 
 whole village or tribe, as the case might be, 
 to which the offender belonged, was held re- 
 sponsible until the evU-doer was handed over 
 to the authorities for punishment ; failing his 
 production, a fine was levied on the community 
 concerned. This system was not altogether 
 pleasing to the hUl-tribes, and consequently 
 gave rise to frequent disturbances amongst the 
 more turbulent, occasionally even resulting in 
 a declaration of war against the Government 
 by some more than usually aggrieved tribe. To 
 quell these risings expeditions were sent, at 
 great expense, to the field of action, the whole 
 affair being perhaps eventually settled, without 
 much loss on either side, by the exaction of a 
 nominal fine. These expeditions, in fact, were 
 frequently awaited by the tribes with a feeling 
 rather of expectation than of dread, for the 
 
144 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 natives had already learnt that an extremely 
 humane policy towards them was to be relied 
 upon ; and the introduction of so many troops 
 into a district brought with it opportunities for 
 trading and other benefits. Matters assumed 
 a different aspect, however, when the Snider 
 breech-loader was introduced amongst the troops 
 of the native army, for the hill-men found that 
 their antiquated matchlocks were of very little 
 use in opposing such weapons. So great, indeed, 
 was their admiration for the new breech-loader 
 rifle that the Government troops found the 
 greatest difficulty in preserving their weapons 
 against theft. 
 
 Hitherto no Government has been able to 
 effectively tame the trans-frontier tribes, and, 
 even after fifty years of endeavour and lavish 
 expenditure, Britain has succeeded only in estab- 
 lishing her influence over certain of the AMdis, 
 a small number of the Baluchis, and a few 
 others. Such a result would seem to augur ill 
 for the success of any British scheme to con- 
 ciliate or subdue the remaining wild and inde- 
 pendent tribes existing in Afghanistan and on 
 its borders. But it is open to question whether 
 the leniency exercised by the various punitive 
 
THE BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 14S 
 
 expeditions which have from time to time been 
 sent against the border tribes has been the 
 wisest course to pursue. These turbulent and 
 warlike people learn no lesson from a mere 
 exhibition of strength, and it is possible that 
 a rigorous and decisive assertion of authority 
 would be a quicker, cheaper, and in every way 
 more effective mode of enforcing order. 
 
 In late- years the whole system of frontier 
 administration has been improved and strength- 
 ened, the law being adapted as far as possible 
 to the requirements of the people, whilst direct 
 communication between tribal leaders and the 
 British officials has been encouraged, with satis- 
 factory results. Communications have been 
 developed, and strategic railways constructed, 
 rendering a concentration of troops at any given 
 point a comparatively easy matter ; whilst 
 Quetta and New Chaman, within 400 miles of 
 Kandahar, have been connected by rail with the 
 frontier, and roads have been rendered practi- 
 cable for vehicular traffic. The expenditure 
 necessitated by this vigorous policy has naturally 
 been large, but the advantages obtained cannot 
 be over-estimated. The tribesmen are beginning 
 to see where their true interests lie, and are 
 
146 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 devoting themselves, though slowly, to peaceful 
 pursuits, to the benefit, not only of themselves, 
 but of the Empire at large. 
 
 With regard to the tribes beyond our actual 
 border, who may yet be considered practically 
 under British control, it is a significant fact 
 that, even to the present day, little progress has 
 been made in turning them from their wild and 
 lawless condition. Expeditions have been from 
 time to time sent into the little explored country 
 which they inhabit, but with little result. Owing 
 to the mountainous and generally difficult nature 
 of the country, many of these tribes live in a 
 state of isolation so far as the outer world is 
 concerned ; their power for offence is small, for 
 their weapons are crude and antiquated, but, as 
 in the case of South Africa, the impregnable 
 nature of the mountain fastnesses would render 
 the task of subduing these clans a costly affair, 
 and one necessitating the expenditure of much 
 time and many lives. Most of these frontier 
 tribes are priest-ridden, but the introduction of 
 British authority generally produces a change in 
 this respect. One of the most turbulent of the 
 trans-frontier populations is the Mohmand tribe, 
 which has on more than one occasion caused 
 
THE BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 147 
 
 trouble. In the Afghan war of 1880 they even 
 attempted to block the Khyber pass, but were 
 quickly dispersed by the British troops. The 
 Afridis, in the neighbourhood of the Kohat 
 district, are another powerful fighting race, 
 many of whom have in recent years enlisted in 
 the native Indian army, and have from time to 
 time rendered efiective assistance to the British, 
 notably during the Mutiny. The Khyber and 
 Kohat passes are both under the domination of 
 this tribe, and Government annually pays them 
 a large sum in order that travellers shall not be 
 interfered with. 
 
 The area occupied by all these independent 
 trans-frontier tribes includes many thousands of 
 square mUes, and their total number amounts to 
 something like a million, of whom a fifth may be 
 regarded as fighting men. The task of convert- 
 ing them into orderly and friendly neighbours is 
 a gigantic one, and would seem almost impossible 
 of achievement, for these Pathans are an obsti- 
 nate and fanatical people, on whom, as a rule, 
 nothing has any influence but force. Neverthe- 
 less, the Indian Government has set itself to 
 the task, and, though it may necessitate time, 
 patience, and serious expense, it is evident that 
 
148 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 whatever measure of success is attained is a step 
 in the right direction. 
 
 Taking a general survey of the situation, it 
 would appear that there are dangers threatening 
 Britain in India, not merely from without, but 
 also from within : dangers arising from over- 
 government, and an attempt to prematurely 
 force on the country Western ideas and institu- 
 tions ; the sacrificing of Indian interests to party 
 considerations in England; unwise or impolitic 
 administration generally, as exemplified in the 
 tolerance of money-lending extortions, interfer- 
 ence with native customs, and unjust taxation, — 
 all these breeding discontent and alienating the 
 loyalty of our best friends, who are the fighting 
 men of the Punjaub. 
 
 The present policy of defence, merely guard- 
 ing the passes which debouch on the plains next 
 the Indus — altogether insufficient for the defence 
 of the Empire, as will be shown later on — is 
 making increasing demands upon the financial 
 resources of the country, demands which are 
 difficult to satisfy. The closer approach of a 
 great military Power like Russia— especially 
 when in command of important strategic posi- 
 tions in Afghanistan— will entail upon India 
 
THE BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 149 
 
 "such an intolerable amount of expense, in the 
 shape of additional fortifications and other 
 measures of defence, as would become absolutely 
 intolerable, and would be less preferable than 
 any other alternative, however serious." * 
 
 It is to be hoped that the necessary internal 
 reforms wiU be carried out, and the measures 
 needed for effective defence of the Empire, indi- 
 cated later on, will be boldly undertaken. Britain 
 must share the cost of defending India, for on the 
 security of her Eastern dominions depends the 
 stability of the British world-empire. Only then 
 wUl India be secure from internal disaffection, 
 and unassailable by any hostile foreign influence 
 from without. 
 
 ♦ The Marquis of Dufiferin and Ava. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 
 
 It is now necessary to consider the parts likely 
 to be played by Afghanistan and Persia respec- 
 tively in the fateful world- drama now being 
 enacted in Central Asia — a drama whose further 
 development holds such momentous possibilities 
 for the whole of Europe and the United States, 
 but especially for Great Britain. 
 
 The Indo-Eussian question sprang into exist- 
 ence in 1800, when, as already said, Napoleon 
 and Paul contemplated the conquest of India by 
 the ancient route of invasion, one followed from 
 Alexander to Nadir Shah. Briefly stated the 
 British policy has been, by various means, to 
 retard the advance of Russia towards India, to 
 use Afghanistan as a buffer and thus create an 
 eflBcient Indian frontier defence. Towards this 
 end we have had wars with Persia and Afghanis- 
 tan, and diplomacy has been applied to Central 
 150 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 151 
 
 Asia, with no success. The present Amir is our 
 subsidized ally ; but his term of life is uncertain, 
 and his people still remain the unruly, fickle, 
 treacherous, independence-loving people they 
 ever were. With the Amir's death there will be 
 anarchy, inviting the intervention of Russia and 
 England, and perhaps other Powers. 
 
 The two Afghan wars of 1838-42 and 1878-80 
 cost Britain over forty-five millions sterling, the 
 expenditure on other wars beyond the Indus 
 bringing the total up to seventy millions. The 
 calamitous first Afghan campaign, the Sikh and 
 Crimean wars, the Sind and Punjaub annexations, 
 and the Sepoy Mutiny, made any forward 
 movement of England in Afghanistan impos- 
 sible for many years. After the suppression 
 of the Mutiny, Russia, then sufficiently re- 
 covered from the Crimean war, was allowed 
 unopposed to pursue her advance in Central 
 Asia. Within the years 1860-68 she had 
 advanced her frontiers to the neighbourhood of 
 Afghanistan, and with insignificant expenditure 
 of men and money. Afghanistan, now become 
 the sole territory lying between the two great 
 Asiatic Powers, was in a state of grave disorder, 
 weak, and impotent. She became the buff'er 
 
152 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 between Eussia and India. Two British schools 
 arose, termed respectively " mischievous activity " 
 and "masterly inactivity," of which the most 
 able exponents were Sir Henry Eawlinson and 
 Mr. Wyllie, of the Indian Foreign Office, the latter 
 expressing the views of the great Indian Viceroy, 
 Sir John Lawrence. The former, a statesman in 
 the best sense of the word, a diplomatist and man 
 of action, showed clearly the dangers involved 
 by the Russian advance, and laid special stress 
 on the danger attaching to a Russian occupation 
 of Herat ; the latter ridiculed the " phantom of 
 a Eussian invasion." 
 
 "The panic-mongers of the press," wrote Wyllie, 
 "military men, whose professional instincts lead them 
 to sniff the battle afar off, and to mistrust our existing 
 frontier line, whether along the Indus or at the foot of 
 the Khaibar and Bolan passes beyond that river, as 
 false to the principles of the art of war, — these are 
 they who, to prove the possibility of invasion, cite the 
 conquests of the Macedonian Alexander, of Timur, and 
 of Nadir Shah, and who, in the so-called will of Peter 
 the Great, the traditional policy of his successors, the 
 treaty with Napoleon at Tilsit, and the immense 
 development southward which the Siberian boundary 
 has undoubtedly received, find cumulative evidence of 
 Eussia's determination to make the possibility an 
 accomplished fact. According to these alarmists, what 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 153 
 
 we have to expect is as follows : In a very short time 
 the Eussians will have military colonies on the Oxus, 
 at Charjui and Takhtapul. From Charjui troops wiU 
 be thrown across the desert to Merv, and from Merv 
 the fertile banks of the Murgab offer easy access to 
 Herat. Simultaneously, a smaller column will proceed 
 through Takhtapul and the defiles of the Hindu Kush 
 to occupy Kabul. Persia, of course, will act in alliance 
 with the invaders, and at Herat the force from Charjui 
 will be joined by large Kusso-Persian reinforcements 
 marching in from the shores of the Caspian Sea and the 
 districts of Khorasan. Some delay must occur at 
 Herat, for that city, the key of the position, wiU have 
 to be fortified and provisioned, and a chain of smaller 
 forts on either side will have to be established, stretching 
 as far as Takhtapul in the north and Lake Seistan in 
 the south. But the interval will be well redeemed by 
 disarming the hostility and securing the co-operation 
 of the Afghans. The darhng dream of the whole nation 
 is to plunder India, and Eussia wiU. offer them that 
 guerdon, and the restoration of their old provinces of 
 Peshawar and Kashmir to boot. Then some fine 
 morning early in spring . . , 40,000 disciplined 
 troops of Eussia and Persia, in conjunction with a 
 countless horde of wild Afghan auxiliaries, will be 
 launched, resistless as an avalanche, upon the doomed 
 plains of the southern El Dorado, and there at once is 
 the end of our Eastern empire." 
 
 "Politicians of another and far higher stamp," 
 wrote Wyllie, in reply to the views of Eawlinson, as 
 chief opponent of the "no-advance" school, "while 
 they see clearly that any immediate or approximate 
 
1 54 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 danger of a Eussian invasion is chimerical, never- 
 theless look forward with uneasiness to the inevitable 
 day when the Eussian and English Empires shall be 
 conterminous, and the presence of a first-class European 
 State on our border shall have the power at any- 
 time to fan into a flame those elements of sporadic 
 disaffection which, of necessity, are ever smouldering 
 in any country won and held, as India was and is, by 
 an alien sword. For political reasons of obvious weight, 
 they believe ijiat it would be ia the last decree 
 dangerous, should war arise, to have India as a battle- 
 field; and on grounds of military strategy, they are 
 convinced that, sooner or later, we ought to occupy 
 certaiti positions beyond our present frontier as out- 
 works of the Empire. Therefore, advancing from 
 Jacobabad, which is now our uttermost station on the 
 Scinde border, they would proceed up the Bolan pass, 
 through Shawl, iato Afghanistan, and, leaving Kabul 
 and Ghazni untouched, they would take possession of 
 Kandahar and eventually also of Herat, and establish 
 at these two points fortresses ,of exceeding strength, 
 to be to India what the Quadrilateral had been to 
 Venetia, strongholds such as no invader would dream 
 of trying to mask. And the long process of a regular 
 siege would, it is argued, be an almost hopeless under- 
 takiag in consequence of the natural poverty of the 
 country, the distance of the enemy from their base, 
 and the previous destruction of the crops of the 
 besieged." 
 
 Events have amply proved whicli of the 
 schools was correct. The picture painted by 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 155 
 
 Wyllie, in ridicule, might stand as a faithful 
 record of what is being accomplished, indeed, is 
 almost completed. 
 
 Mr. Wyllie's own opinion deserves reference, 
 as a brilliant statement of the case from the 
 " non-intervention " point of view. 
 
 " Were the Eussian frontier," he said, '' pushed forward 
 from the line of Jaxartes to the foot of the Hmdu Kush, 
 were there war in Europe between England and Eussia, 
 or even if both these contingencies came upon us at the 
 same time, there would still be many grave reasons for 
 pausing before we fairly committed ourselves to the 
 project of defendiag the British boundary by means of 
 an advance into Afghanistan. In the first place, there 
 is the nature of the country and its inhabitants, both so 
 untractable that, except in the last resort, the task of 
 dealing with them had far better be left to a rival or 
 an enemy than undertaken by ourselves. It is a land, 
 in Lord Wellesley's contemptuous phrase, of ' rocks, 
 sand, deserts, ice, and snow,' and the men it breeds are 
 warlike, turbulent, fanatical and perfidious. Take a 
 small force into the country, and you are beaten ; take 
 a large one, and you are starved. Then there is the 
 financial argument to be considered. The army that 
 made its way up the Bolan pass iu 1839, all counted, 
 was only 19,000 strong, yet the Afghan war cost us 
 from first to last fifteen miUions sterling. Whence is to 
 come the money for a repetition of the experiment ? 
 As it is, the finances of India are with difficulty kept at 
 a bare ecLuOibrium, and the ways and means for any 
 
iS6 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 extraordinary expenditure could only be provided either 
 by an increase of taxation or an addition to the public 
 debt. The latter alternative manifestly hampers the 
 resources of the Empire for a future time of, perhaps, 
 sorer need; and the dangers of popular discontent 
 arising from the former are so great that, sooner than 
 incur them. Lord Canning declared his readiness to 
 dispense with the services of 10,000 English soldiers. 
 Lastly, there can be no question that, however desirable 
 from a strategic point of view the establishment of out- 
 works at Kandahar and Herat might be, there are, 
 •per contm, certain solid advantages in the present con- 
 centration of our strength on the Indian side of the 
 passes which would be forfeited, and some perilous 
 responsibilities would have to be incurred, in connection 
 with the proposed advance. Eor instance, the troops 
 now quartered on our frontier are available equally for 
 the repulse of foes from without and for the suppression 
 of insurrection from within; whereas every red-coat 
 dispatched beyond Jacobabad, and committed a hostage 
 to fortune among an unfriendly race, would be so much 
 strength taken from, so much anxiety added to, the 
 internal garrison of India. That garrison would have 
 to be largely increased. And whence are the men to 
 be obtained ? " 
 
 Sir John Lawrence was altogether against any 
 steps which would inevitably arouse the sus- 
 picions and enmity of the Afghans, or violate 
 the spirit, if not the letter, of our engagements 
 with Afghanistan. In his opinion, whethei; 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 157 
 
 Britain advanced as friend or foe, the final result 
 would be the same. Any advance, therefore, 
 towards Kandahar or Kabul would be but the 
 prelude to an occupation ; Quetta and Kuram 
 were mere stepping-stones to Herat and Kabul, 
 in the event of a Russian forward movement. 
 These positions, whose strategic importance he 
 acknowledged, could not be garrisoned except at 
 what would be a prohibitive expenditure of men 
 and treasure, for the garrisons would have to be 
 added to the existing army. Afghans in any 
 considerable number would be dangerous, Goor- 
 khas were not to be had, and Hindustanis and 
 Sikhs would object to service in Afghanistan. 
 To advance would be to dangerously increase 
 the interval between our advance posts and our 
 effective base, while decreasing the distance 
 Russia would have to traverse. On the other 
 hand, should the Russians elect to attack India, 
 they would, on their way to the Indus, have to 
 execute long and wearing marches through a 
 most difficult and miserably poor country, in- 
 habited by a bold and fanatical people, a country 
 lending itself admirably to defence ; would reach 
 the^ field of battle — which could be selected by 
 the British commanders — with their forces worn 
 
IS8 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 out and broken down. In a Eussian occupa- 
 tion of Afghanistan, the former would run the 
 risk of insurrection and of the tribes siding 
 against her. Finally, troops massed along the 
 frontier would be better able to control dis- 
 content than if locked up beyond the mountain 
 ranges of Afghanistan. 
 
 " Taking every view, then, of this great question," to 
 quote Sir John Lawrence's own words, " the progress of 
 Eussia in Central Asia, the effect it will, in course of 
 time, have on India, the arrangements which we should 
 have to make to meet it, I am firmly of opinion that 
 our proper course is not to advance our troops beyond 
 our present border, nor to send English of&cers into 
 the different States of Central Asia, but to put our own 
 house in order by giving the people of India the best 
 government in our power, by conciliating, as far as 
 practicable, all classes, and by consolidating our resources. 
 I am greatly in favour of opening up lines of com- 
 munication of every kind which, on full consideration, 
 are likely to prove useful, so far as the means will 
 permit; but I strongly deprecate additional taxation 
 to any important extent, and I am greatly averse to 
 increasing our debt on unproductive works." 
 
 Such were the views of the " non-interven- 
 tion " school, which, though an advance has been 
 made in search of a scientific frontier, prevail to 
 this day. 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 159 
 
 The present-day opponents of any further 
 British, advance towards or beyond Kabul are 
 influenced in their opinions by both financial 
 and political considerations. Where is the 
 money to come from to maintain such an 
 army as would be necessary for an advance ? 
 And, should England defeat the Eussians at 
 some point on the advance, what would be the 
 gain ? The Eussians would merely fall back 
 into their own territory, while the English would 
 have behind them the treacherous Afghans ; and 
 further, they say, chiefly British troops would 
 have to be employed, since the Indians are 
 averse to fighting in Afghanistan. The efiect 
 on India's exchequer would be ruinous ; even 
 now the smallest movements of troops, to quell 
 unruly tribes, is costly, and causes disorganiza- 
 tion of the internal transport. 
 
 Again, in Eussia it is the mujih on whom 
 falls the burden of taxation, while in India it 
 is the agriculturist who suffers most. The im- 
 posing of further taxation, in either country, 
 would be attended with danger. And even were 
 the money forthcoming, the difi&culty of waging 
 war in the unproductive mountainous country 
 or desert lands of Afghanistan would be equally 
 
i6o RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 great for either Power. No advance is to be 
 advocated beyond Jalalabad, which offers a good 
 position for the development of military defence, 
 and also for the extension of railways. Should 
 Eussia then attempt to occupy Kabul, Britain 
 could, from Jalalabad, supply arms and men to 
 aid the Afghans in the defence of their capital. 
 Indiscriminate creation of outposts is costly, and 
 valuable troops are wasted in garrisoning them. 
 
 In answer to the theory that Russia, by 
 pushing her way further into Afghanistan, will 
 be able to obtain there innumerable recruits, 
 who will aid in her further advance upon India, 
 they say it is probable that the Afghans would 
 prefer the better pay and the better treat- 
 ment they would be likely to receive from the 
 British. Finally, if Eussia armed the natives, 
 they would be as ready to plunder Russians as 
 English, and in the end Russia would possibly 
 find them more of a menace to herself than to 
 her opponent. 
 
 The views of the " forward " school may now 
 be briefly given. They maintain that Kandahar 
 and Kabul should be occupied by the British, 
 declaring that from these places a Russian in- 
 vading army could be easUy checked by a 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA i6i 
 
 comparatively small force, who could destroy 
 each detachment emerging from the narrow' 
 mountain passes. Those who hold the view that 
 a further advance ought thus to be made, express 
 the opinion that the cost would not be so great 
 as anticipated. They say also it is not neces- 
 sary to conquer and hold Northern Afghanistan. 
 The Afghans could be readily enlisted as sup- 
 porters of the British, if the latter offered to 
 them a tribal, and therefore popular, form of 
 government, in lieu of the oppressive rule of 
 the Amir ; such tribes as refused support could 
 be easily subdued and disarmed. 
 
 Such, briefly stated, are the pros and cons of 
 the question from the " advance " and " no- 
 advance" point of view. Of late years a 
 section of the British public has inclined to 
 regard the Russian advance with equanimity, 
 as in the interests of humanity and civiliza- 
 tion, and so forth. 
 
 Afghanistan is in the unpleasant position of 
 being "between the deil and the deep sea." 
 She can no longer preserve a passive independ- 
 ence ; for, as she has learnt from experience, she 
 has no alternative but to throw in her lot with 
 one or other of the two European nations 
 
 M 
 
i62 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 between whose territories she is, unfortunately 
 for herself, the sole remaining buffer. Whether 
 Eussia or England should be her ultimate choice 
 as ally, the result to her own territory will 
 probably be the same — namely, gradual absorp- 
 tion by the stronger Powers, Both these 
 nations have, in fact, on various occasions given 
 her cause for distrust. It is not so very long 
 since England, in return for the support given 
 her by Dost Muhamed during the Mutiny, 
 declined to lend either men or money to his son, 
 Shere Ali, when his succession was disputed ; 
 leaving him unaided to fight out his battles with 
 his brothers, and only acknowledging him when, 
 after a five years' struggle, he had eventually 
 himself succeeded in establishing his supremacy. 
 Kussia, to whom later on he turned in des- 
 peration, proved herself no more reliable ; for, 
 although she promised him help and support, 
 she left him to his fate when matters culmi- 
 nated in England declaring war against his 
 country. 
 
 At present, of course, matters are on a friendly 
 footing between Abdur Rahman and the Indian 
 Government, but what may happen on the death 
 of the present Amir is what no man can foretell. 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 163 
 
 There is no doubt that, when this event occurs, 
 internal dissensions will ensue, and the final 
 outcome, as regards Kussia and Britain, is a 
 matter beyond the power of prophecy. Possibly, 
 however, even before Abdur Eahman quits this 
 life, matters may have been brought to a climax 
 by a Kussian occupation of Herat, or of some 
 other important point, and an advance towards 
 the Persian Gulf ; in which case Britain will be 
 forced to a decision regarding the policy she 
 intends to pursue for the ultimate defence of 
 her Eastern Empire. 
 
 It must, however, be borne in niind that the 
 Amir himself is not the chief factor in the 
 problem which must at once receive considera- 
 tion. Amirs may come and go, but the country 
 and people remain. The general nature of the 
 country from a physical point of view, its 
 capabilities for offence and defence, and the 
 characteristics of its inhabitants, especially of 
 the warlike and still semi-barbarous tribes 
 dwelling on its eastern borders : all these 
 matters must necessarily have a bearing on 
 future events. A brief survey of these points 
 is therefore necessary. 
 
 The country consists almost entirely of 
 
i64 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 mountainous territory, and, with the exception of 
 a projection on the north-east towards the Pamirs, 
 is almost square in form. On this north-eastern 
 frontier the great Hindu Kush mountains, 
 extending for 400 miles in a south-westerly 
 direction, rear a natural barrier between the 
 Afghans and the Mongols, forming at the same 
 time the water-shed of the Oxus, the Helmand, 
 and the Indus. The passes in these mountains, 
 all of them considerably more than 11,000 
 feet in altitude, are difficult, and in some 
 cases almost impracticable ; whilst the interior 
 of Afghanistan itself, with its innumerable 
 mountain fastnesses, is admirably suited for 
 defence, and as a consequence is not easy of 
 invasion. 
 
 Afghan Turkistan, the Herat province, with 
 neighbouring Khorasan and Seistan, form the 
 glacis of Afghanistan, just as Afghanistan is 
 the outwork of India. Plains lead up to Herat 
 on the Persian side. Abandon the Herat and 
 Afghan Turkistan provinces to an enemy, and 
 you enable her to sap up to the ravelin repre- 
 sented by the line Kabul-Kandahar, now acknow- 
 ledged to be the British line of principal defence, 
 which must be connected by rail, and again with 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 165 
 
 the Indian railway system, to enable it to be 
 held securely. 
 
 The question of supremacy at Herat has 
 always been one of communications. A railway 
 to Seistan should have been made years ago. 
 Such a line would have rendered Herat secure 
 against Eussia, and Kussia then would never 
 have dreamt of a railway skirting Beluchistan 
 to the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean, such as she 
 now intends. 
 
 It has been maintained, indeed, that in the 
 mere matter of food an tuvasion of India would 
 be impossible ; that Afghanistan is able to pro- 
 duce scarcely enough for self-support, and that 
 an army would there find no supplies. On the 
 other hand, the most competent authorities now 
 believe that with a proper development of roads 
 and railways, and improved cultivation of the 
 soil, the productive powers of the land would 
 be materially increased. Colonel Mark S. Bell, 
 who has a title to respect as perhaps the best 
 military observer in these regions possessed by 
 England, is of opinion that — within the time 
 required to open up any part of Afghanistan 
 they may occupy, and to prepare communications 
 for a future advance — the Eussians could support 
 
i66 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 a considerable army in the Herat province. In 
 
 ten years' time this district alone would, under 
 
 good rule and State-aided irrigation, be capable 
 
 of supporting an army of 60,000 men and more, 
 
 and besides the Herat country, there are Afghan 
 
 Turkistan and neighbouring Khorasan and 
 
 Seistan, There would seem, therefore, to be no 
 
 sound reason in the view largely held in bygone 
 
 days, that the Herat valley was worthless. 
 
 "The Herat valley," wrote Sir George Eidgway,* 
 " is by no means a smiling garden flowing with milk 
 and honey. Surrounded by barren mountains, on the 
 lower slopes of which are a few scattered hamlets, its 
 central part, through which the river runs, contains the 
 only valuable and culturable land. A strip on each 
 side of the river, varying from two to five miles in 
 width, is fairly well cultivated, and as the villages and 
 fields here he close together, and the principal roads 
 run through them, the hurried traveller may be excused 
 if he generahzes from what he sees, and imagines that 
 the whole valley is equally cultivated. But if he were 
 to follow one of the roads along the outskirts of the 
 cultivation, he would be soon undeceived. As for 
 fertihty, if I remember rightly, the average yield of 
 the cultivated land is only fivefold, or, in exceptionally 
 fertile spots, tenfold. Trees are few and far between, 
 for it is a rule, whenever Herat is threatened, to cut 
 down every tree within a radius of five miles. The 
 
 * Nineteenth Century, October, 1889. 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 167 
 
 population is poor and struggling, while Herat city 
 is a mass of mud hovels, sheltering some 5000 souls, 
 exclusive of the garrison." * 
 
 It is said by those who deride the possibility 
 of Russia being able to advance through 
 Afghanistan, that they must depend solely on 
 one line of communication — a single line rail- 
 way, liable to interruption by the action of 
 floods, snow, or moving sands ; exposed to flank 
 attack from Persia ; liable to the raids of Afghan 
 tribes, who would take arms against Eussia. 
 But Russia enjoys a great advantage in the fact 
 that the population of Afghanistan is not homo- 
 geneous ; the Hazaras, Turkomans, Aimaks, 
 Heratis, and others are ready for the advent of 
 Russia ; the Trans-Caspian line will be provided 
 with sidings, as on the Trans-Siberian Railway, 
 
 * " The exaggerated fears of RusBian power and intrigue enter- 
 tained by Ellis, McNeil, Bumes, and Wade, the flame of which was 
 communicated by them to the British and Indian Governments, 
 invested Herat with a fictitious importance wholly incommensurate 
 with the strength of the place, and its position in regard to Kandahar 
 and the Indus. To speak of the integrity of the place as of vital 
 importance to British India was a hyperbole so insulting to common 
 sense as scarcely to need refutation, and which ignorance of the 
 countries west of the Indus, and inexperience of military operations 
 in the East, could alone palliate" (Sir Henry Durand, at one 
 time Military Member of the Viceroy's Council, and afterwards 
 lieutenant-Governor of the Punjaub). 
 
i68 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 to meet all possible emergencies ; the difficulties 
 of nature can be overcome here as elsewhere ; 
 Northern Persia is rapidly becoming Eussian, 
 and will at any rate probably act with Eussia ; 
 the Afghan tribes will side with those who are 
 strong. Beyond their railway terminus, the 
 Eussians would, it is true, have serious difficulties 
 — those of transport through very difficult coun- 
 try ; but these are not insurmountable. 
 
 There is some doubt as to the origin of the 
 Afghan people. The first historical allusion to 
 them describes them as a tribe dwelling on the 
 western side of the Suliman range. At the pre- 
 sent day the country is inhabited by the tribe 
 known as true Afghans, otherwise the Abdalis or 
 Durranis, by the affiliated tribe of the Ghilzais, 
 not regarded as true Afghans, and by a number 
 of other affiliated Afghan tribes, more or less 
 independent and warlike, and collectively known 
 as Pathans. The Ghilzais, who are probably of 
 Turkish origin, although perhaps not numerically 
 so strong as the other tribes, are without doubt 
 the most powerful ; and without their support 
 no ruler could for long hold his own in Kabul. 
 Their occupations are chiefly pastoral, but they 
 make good fighters, and their commercial ability 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 169 
 
 is by no means to be despised. As a whole, the 
 Afghan people may be regarded as extremely 
 patriotic, fanatical to a degree, somewhat avari- 
 cious, and not to be depended upon for fidelity 
 to their allies. That it is possible to develop 
 manufactures and other industries in their midst 
 has been abundantly proved. Already at Kabul 
 foundries and factories have been created on a 
 considerable scale, where an unlimited command 
 of men and money have enabled Sir Salter Pyne, 
 a mechanical engineer employed by the Amir, to 
 make great progress with the manufacture of 
 arms and ammunition.* 
 
 The majority of the people profess Mohamme- 
 danism, and, as elsewhere noted, are exceedingly 
 fanatical in their beliefs. The mullahs exercise 
 great power. They have no priestly position — 
 there is none in the Mohammedan religion — but 
 are merely " learned in the law," their chief 
 duties being to celebrate marriages and work 
 out the intricate arithmetical problems presented 
 
 * Some time back the arsenal was capable of turning out 7000 
 Martini and 9000 Snider cartridges per day ; a gun and rifle factory 
 has been established ; soap, candles, and boots are also manufactured ; 
 while gunpowder, shells, fuses, swords, as well as many other 
 articles, can now be produced at the capital ; and workshops have 
 also been erected at Jalalabad. 
 
I/O RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 by the Moliammedaii law of inheritance. In 
 case of war, especially a holy war, when Islam is 
 considered to be attacked, the mullahs incite to 
 disorder, zeal, and fanaticism, and then become 
 all-powerful. 
 
 In addition to the country and the people, 
 there is another, a still more important point to 
 be considered, and that is the present relative 
 positions of Russia and England in Afghanistan. 
 It cannot be denied that the delimitation of a 
 frontier which took place immediately after 
 the Panjdeh incident was far from unfaA^ourable 
 to the Russians ; and, with the Trans-Caspian 
 railway completed to Kushk, Herat is practically 
 within a week of the Caucasus and Moscow.* 
 It has been said that Russia does not intend to 
 " occupy Herat." Does anybody doubt that, 
 with her railway extended to within seventy 
 miles of that town, she is practically in possession 
 
 * " The Minister of War has made an experiment in regard to the 
 movement of a detachment of troops from the Caucasus to the 
 Ttans-Caspian territory. The detachment was transported by rail- 
 way from Tiflis to Baku, and by sea from Baku to Krasnovodsk, 
 and thence by railway to Kushk, where it arrived on December 20 
 (January 1, N.S.). This experiment may be regarded as havmg 
 been entirely successful, for it proves that in case of necessity a 
 column forming the head of an army corps, sent from the Caucasus, 
 might reach Kushka in eight days" (Telegram from St. 
 Petersburg). 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 171 
 
 of the place ? Her policy is to push on until the 
 Hindu Kush range is reached, and to occupy 
 the entire Herat province. This achieved, she 
 would ere long be able, whenever opportunity 
 offered, to attack India from her own territory. 
 To quote the words of General Sobolev, Chief of 
 the Asiatic Department at St. Petersburg : " It 
 is in the logic of facts that the Hindu Kush, the 
 natural boundary of India, should shortly form 
 the frontier of Eussia, and that the province of 
 Herat should fall into Russia's hands." 
 
 The question of the moment is, Shall England 
 look quietly on while this forward policy of 
 Russia is carried out to its final issue, devoting 
 her entire attention to the strengthening of her 
 present defences in India 1 Or shall she herself 
 make a further advance into the Amir's country, 
 and prevent Russia's nearer approach to the 
 Indian frontier ? The principle so constantly 
 afiirmed by British statesmen, that Afghanistan 
 is the " outwork of India," and " outside the 
 sphere of Russian influence," will be hard to 
 maintain, having regard to the steady progress 
 which the Russians have been, and still are, 
 making into the very heart of the country. The 
 policy of preserving a neutral zone, so vigorously 
 
172 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 advocated by Lord Clarendon, is, in fact, every 
 day becoming more and more impracticable. 
 There is no doubt that Kussia is bent on absorb- 
 ing Afghanistan, and the question to which an 
 answer is now urgently needed is, Shall Britain 
 allow her to do so unchecked ? To carry out the 
 undertaking given to the Amir by Britain, i.e. 
 to maintain the integrity of his country against 
 aggression, is not only Britain's duty, but neces- 
 sary for the safety of the Indian Empire, for the 
 purpose of keeping Russia at bay ; but it is a 
 guarantee which the progress of events renders 
 increasingly difficult of fulfilment. So far, 
 Eussia cannot directly threaten India, although 
 she may squeeze Britain and force her into war. 
 Should she, however, be permitted to advance as 
 far as the Hindu Kush, afiairs would at once 
 assume a totally different aspect, and India would 
 be directly threatened, and nothing but a most 
 determined sortie from India, one involving the 
 very greatest sacrifice in blood and treasure, 
 could then possibly save that Empire. 
 
 With an advance into Afghanistan, in case of 
 conflict with Russia, a large proportion of the 
 Indian army would have to be moved from 
 where they are now needed to maintain the peace 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 173 
 
 of India, and the greater part of the military- 
 strength employed would be separated from 
 India, not merely by the Afghan-Indian moun- 
 tain defiles, but also by a large tract of Afghan 
 territory, threatening seriously the long line of 
 communications ; and it has to be remembered 
 that a modern army is such a complicated 
 organism that any interruption in its communi- 
 cations tends to break up and destroy its very 
 life. And should large bodies of men be needed at 
 Quetta, Eawul Pindi, and various other frontier 
 posts, there is no army at present available, 
 without denuding India of its proper garrisons. 
 Such an experiment in a recently conquered, 
 impoverished, and overtaxed country like India 
 would be a most dangerous one, especially at 
 a time like the present, when, owing to the 
 turn which events have taken in the South 
 African campaign, Britain is in difficulties and 
 her prestige low. 
 
 Britain has, of course, already made an impor- 
 tant advance towards the Amir's country, in the 
 search for a "scientific" frontier, which, how- 
 ever, recedes as she moves forward. After the 
 Panjdeh incident, which created so much excite- 
 ment in England, the construction of the railway 
 
174 RUS'SIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 from Sibi to Pishin was resumed, and the line 
 opened in 1887 ; tlie Kwaja Amran range, tlie 
 western limit of the Pishin district, was tunnelled, 
 and a powerful post created in Afghan territory 
 at New Chaman, the railway terminus. Here 
 rails were stored ready to carry the railway 
 forward to Kandahar. The construction of a 
 great military road between the Indus and Pishin, 
 via the Borai valley, was undertaken, while the 
 fortified lines of Quetta were extended. Local 
 opposition was met by military expeditions, 
 troops being stationed in the new territories, to 
 bring under British influence the country between 
 the Amir's actual dominions and that of India. 
 This occupation involved a large increase of the 
 garrisons of Quetta and the Pishin valley. It 
 may here be noted that there are already three 
 railways connecting Quetta with Sibi — one up 
 the Bolan pass direct to Quetta ; another up 
 the Hurnai valley to Bostan, in Pishin, twenty- 
 one miles in advance of Quetta, and united to 
 that place by a branch line ; and a third via the 
 Mushkaf valley. 
 
 By 1887-88 an increase of nearly 30,000 to 
 the Indian army was found necessary, and in 
 this quarter of the frontier as much as 43,000 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 175 
 
 square miles were added within fifteen years to 
 the Indian Empire. In the north-east of Afghan- 
 istan fresh responsibilities were incurred on and 
 beyond the Kashmir frontier ; and the Kuram 
 valley, abandoned in 1881, was reoccupied. In 
 1894 Waziristan was reduced to submission, 
 roads were constructed, and fortified posts 
 created. The occupation of Chitral followed, 
 and made India and Afghanistan eo-terminous. 
 The next advance, if made, must be into Afghan- 
 istan itself. 
 
 Finally, before leaving the question of Af- 
 ghanistan, it must be remembered that Eussia 
 has never entered into any undertaking to refrain 
 from the invasion of Afghanistan ; and that she 
 considers herself free to treat that country not 
 as a dependency of India, but as an independent 
 State. Britain, moreover, has never formulated 
 any declaration to the eff"ect that an infraction of 
 frontier would be a casus belli. That complica- 
 tions are likely to arise in the near future is a 
 foregone conclusion. Even now, it is said, the 
 Amir contemplates receiving agents at Kabul, 
 and it will be difficult for Britain to prevent 
 the advent of emissaries from both Eussia and 
 France. There may be less cause for anxiety so 
 
176 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 long as the present Amir holds the throne ; but, 
 as has been said, his death would probably be 
 the signal for internal warfare, with what final 
 results cannot be foreseen. 
 
 To turn now to Persia. Eussia has her own 
 plans with regard to that country. She desires 
 an accredited agent at Kabul, but she is also 
 ambitious of running a railway southwards, and 
 obtaining a port on the Persian Gulf. The 
 reason she advances, in pressing for such a port, 
 is her alleged fear that Britain intends to extend 
 her Indian line of railway through Beluchistan 
 to the Persian Gulf, to join Germany in Asia 
 Minor, and thus to complete the Indo-European 
 system, and cut Russia off from the Indian Ocean. 
 And so Russia advances her claim to a Persian 
 port, " in order to be before the Germans." Her 
 right to such a concession is becoming an article 
 of faith, and on the banks of the Neva will 
 shortly be considered as a sort of bureaucratic 
 " Monrogdoctrine." There is no doubt that her 
 occupation of such a port, by means of a railway 
 carried south and skirting Beluchistan, would be 
 a most serious menace to India. The present 
 Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, some years ago 
 reo'arded the concession of a port upon the 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 177 
 
 Persian Gulf to Russia by any Power, "as a 
 deliberate insult to Great Britain ; as a wanton 
 rupture of the status quo, and as an intentional 
 provocation to war ; and he should impeach the 
 British Minister, who was guilty of acquiescing 
 in such a surrender, as a traitor to his country." 
 This view can be well understood when it is 
 considered that through Southern Persia, as has 
 been frequently pointed out by those who have 
 studied the subject, lies the easiest overland 
 road from Europe to India. Afghanistan is a 
 difficult country to cross, and, for many years 
 to come, an invading army could only traverse 
 the mountain passes of the Hindu Kush in com- 
 paratively small numbers. Beluchistan, on the 
 other hand, with its vast expanse of level 
 ground, desert though much of it be, offers 
 much greater facilities, and Persia is the base 
 for operations in this direction. 
 
 That Britain has some right to dispute inter- 
 ference in Persia will be readily seen when we 
 glance briefly at the history of her connection 
 with that country, and the interests involved. 
 
 The first intercourse between Britain and 
 Persia was in the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, when commercial relations were established 
 
 N 
 
178 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 with Teheran, Some time after this, an English 
 traveller obtained permission from the Shah for 
 Christian merchants to develop trade with the 
 whole of Persia; and subsequently, when the 
 expulsion of the Portuguese became necessary, 
 a treaty was entered into between Persia and 
 Britain, whereby to the latter was conceded the 
 right to " keep two men-of-war constantly to 
 defend the gulf." In the year 1800, when 
 Kussia and France were premeditating a com- 
 bined attack on India, Napoleon, not slow to 
 recognize the value of Persia in the carrying 
 out of the scheme, sent envoys to Teheran to 
 secure, if possible, the Shah's co-operation. Little 
 result, however, was achieved, and subsequently 
 England despatched officers to attempt an 
 improvement in the Persian army, and to 
 counteract the influence exercised by Napoleon's 
 envoys ; an alliance, offensive and defensive, 
 being ultimately effected, whereby the Shah 
 agreed to assist in the defence of India against 
 the Western Powers. Notwithstanding this 
 treaty, however, whole provinces were later on 
 given up to Kussia, to whom was granted the 
 sole right to place warships on the Caspian. 
 The Shah, indeed, invoked England's help. 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA 179 
 
 especially when he was compelled to yield Erivan 
 and Nakhitchevan to his northern neighbour ; 
 but just as Shere Ali had been abandoned in 
 Afghanistan, at the time of need, so now was 
 the Persian monarch left to his own resources. 
 No wonder that he came to the conclusion that 
 " England's friendship and promises were of little 
 avail in a pressing emergency." 
 
 Since the early part of the present century 
 Russian influence has made itself increasingly 
 felt. On two occasions Persia has, at Russian in- 
 stigation, even attempted, though unsuccessfully, 
 to obtain possession of Herat ; and at the present 
 time the whole of the province of Khorasan, in 
 Northern Persia, may be said to be practically 
 under Russian domination, a consummation in 
 part efi"ected by the completion of the Trans- 
 Caspian railway. The population here, as in 
 other parts of Persia, are discontented and ripe 
 for revolt. The weak rule of the Shah, the 
 corruption amongst officials, and the general 
 bad government have engendered in them an 
 antagonistic feeling towards their present rulers ; 
 a fact of which Russia, with her well-known 
 faculty of ingratiating herself with Orientals, 
 has not been slow to take advantage. The 
 
i8o RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 disadvantages to Britain in allowing a Eussian 
 absorption of Persia are obvious. India would 
 be menaced at the weakest point of her frontier, 
 British trade in Persia — and practically the 
 whole of the carrying trade is under the British 
 flag — would suffer extinction, and the present 
 British line of sea communications, and the 
 future overland route, would be threatened 
 by the establishment of a Eussian naval base, 
 and the presence of Eussian ships in the Persian 
 Gulf It is indispensable that Britain should 
 retain control of the gulf, if she wishes to 
 preserve the trade with Soutiiern Persia, which 
 she alone has been instrumental in developing, 
 after having, at the cost of many lives, not 
 to speak of immense sums of money, freed 
 the coast from the depredations of the pirates 
 and slave-dealers, who at one time infested 
 the shores. The impossibility of England 
 opposing Eussia in the north with any de- 
 gree of success, and the supreme importance 
 to England of the command of the Persian Gulf, 
 are now acknowledged. The Persian Gulf is, 
 and should remain, a British lake. It has been 
 so since the beginning of the century, and it is 
 to be hoped that Britain will not recede from 
 
AFGHANISTAN AND PERSIA i8i 
 
 that position. That England to some extent 
 realizes her responsibilities in this direction is 
 evidenced by the fact that the gulf is patrolled 
 by British vessels, so eflfectively, indeed, that 
 the Persian and Arab coast population believe 
 that England supports and maintains Persia's 
 authority in the gulf. 
 
 The task of opposing Russia in Persia will be 
 no easy one. At the present moment she is 
 devoting to her interests in this country all the 
 time and energy that she can spare from Far 
 Eastern affairs. Immense sums are to be spent 
 on the development of railway lines — primarily, 
 if not entirely, strategic — which will bring the 
 Russian armies within striking distance of the 
 Perso-Afghan frontiers and of India by way 
 of Beluchistan. It is probable that a railway 
 will be carried, bit by bit, towards the Persian 
 Gulf. If such a scheme be carried out, Herat 
 may technically not be occupied, and the 
 line may in fact avoid the town ; thus Russia 
 would diplomatically refrain from directly 
 wounding the susceptibilities of the Amir and 
 of Britain. But it is imperative that, before 
 such a line can be constructed, Britain should 
 safeguard her interests by developing her Indian 
 
i82 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 railway communications, open Beluchistan and 
 Seistan, complete her overland connection with 
 Europe and, for further security, increase her 
 land forces. Should these steps not be taken, 
 and Russia be allowed to move in Afghanistan 
 or Persia, as now is her intention, the conse- 
 quence would require Britain to arm as a nation 
 to preserve the Empire, 
 
 It is Russia's policy to take advantage of 
 the slightest opportunity oifered her by her 
 adversaries, and she sees one now in the 
 extremity of Britain, Has Britain forgotten 
 how Merv was occupied while she was busily 
 engaged in the Soudan? Is she prepared to 
 sacrifice her Eastern Empire, so carefully built 
 up, and giving such promise for the future, or is 
 she ready to make the necessary sacrifices to 
 defend that great Empire ? If the present 
 British apathy and ignorance of the situation in 
 Asia continue, the great Eastern Empire which 
 has risen like an enchanted palace, w:ill as swiftly 
 pass away. Nor would it avail for the whole 
 nation to spring to arms ; what is wanted is, 
 not men, but a man — a leader. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 RUSSIA IN CE>fTRAL ASIA 
 
 The present chapter will be devoted to a brief 
 investigation of the causes which have led to the 
 present domination of Eussia in Central Asia, 
 and to a slight outline of her progress, territorial 
 and influential, in that part of the world ; to- 
 gether with a consideration of her present limits 
 and of probable future developments in her line 
 of action, as those developments are likely to 
 affect, directly or indirectly, Britain's Eastern 
 Empire. 
 
 Russia's policy of expansion is of no recent 
 growth. It has now been in progress for some 
 centuries, and was in the first instance imposed 
 upon her by forces of nature irresistible in their 
 strength. To see what these forces really were, 
 and to a certain extent still are, it is necessary 
 to look into the natural characteristics of the 
 
 183 
 
i84 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 country, the early history of the nation, and the 
 condition of its inhabitants. 
 
 In the north, the land of the Slav consists of 
 vast expanses of gloomy forest, alternating with 
 icebound morasses and frozen lakes. These give 
 place, in Central Eussia, to the " black land ; " 
 vast plains on which corn is cultivated in large 
 quantities ; while in the south are the steppes, 
 the more western of which are to a certain 
 extent under cultivation, while those further 
 east are nothing but dreary wastes, through 
 which formerly roamed bands of nomads, plun- 
 dering and murdering any hapless intruder who 
 came in their path. 
 
 The whole country is practically destitute of 
 roads, and locomotion and communication gene- 
 rally are therefore carried on chiefly by means 
 of the rivers ; sledges being employed during 
 the long winter, whilst boats are used during the 
 brief time of thaw, when for a few months 
 the surrounding country is in a state of liquid 
 mud. Russia's seas are of little practical use to 
 her ; for two of them, the Baltic and the White 
 Seas, are icebound for six months of the year, 
 whilst the Caspian is in reality merely a huge 
 lake, and the Black Sea rendered of little value 
 
RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA 185 
 
 to the White Tsar owing to the fact that its 
 approaches are commanded by foreign Powers. 
 With regard to climate, the long and rigorous 
 winter and the short, hot summer give rise to 
 drought and famine, which, indeed, are probably 
 never absent from the land. 
 
 With such a country and such a climate, it 
 is little wonder that the people are apathetic 
 and inert. Devoted to a superstitious idolatry, 
 although nominally Christian, the average mujih, 
 or Slav peasant, who may be taken as a type 
 of the true Russian, averse to all labour, un- 
 willingly gives his time to the tilling of the 
 ground or to the care of the herds and flocks, 
 indifferent to all higher considerations, and seek- 
 ing solace in vodka. In Eussia, to-day, the chief 
 idea contained in the system of government is 
 to obtain revenue from the masses, whilst at the 
 same time keeping them as ignorant as possible. 
 This policy differs radically from the British 
 plan of rule in India, which at least attempts 
 to establish a just and free system of govern- 
 ment, and by education to fit the natives for 
 the Imperial citizenship which officially was 
 granted to them in 1858. The Slav peasants, 
 known as Great Russians, compose the most 
 
1 86 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 important part of the population, both, as re- 
 gards numbers and the influence they exercise 
 over the non-Slav races. From early times 
 they have been of an inherently migratory 
 nature, feeling no love for their homes, and 
 always ready to seek fresh fields, if by so doing 
 they could hope to better their lot, and escape, 
 perhaps, from the monotony of their lives and 
 their chronic state of poverty and serfdom. 
 South and east they endeavoured to migrate, 
 merely to fall into the hands of the marauding 
 nomads. Then they pushed their way north- 
 wards, there to find only a frozen, barren 
 country. Military settlements continually fol- 
 lowed in the wake of the peasant migrations, 
 and thus were formed the Cossack colonies on 
 the Volga, the Don, and the Dnieper. Exten- 
 sion to the west was attempted, but here Sweden 
 and Poland for a time barred the way, until, 
 indeed, Peter the Great introduced Western 
 ideas and methods, and organizing a peasant 
 army, secured to his country immunity from 
 the domination of those Powers. Towards the 
 middle of the thirteenth century, the great 
 movement of migration and expansion was 
 checked by an incursion into Russian territory 
 
RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA 187 
 
 of Tartars, known as the " Golden Horde," from 
 the northern districts of China, who, having 
 carried devastation throughout Northern China 
 itself, and thence through Turkistan and Bok- 
 hara, eventually made a descent upon Southern 
 Russia, and subsequently carried their incursions 
 to the very heart of the empire. For two hun- 
 dred years they held dominion over the country, 
 and, in order that the collection of taxes might 
 be facilitated, did their best to put an end to 
 the peasant migration and colonization. Even 
 under the rule of Ivan III., who delivered 
 Russia from the Tartar domination, the lot of 
 the peasants was but little improved, and, with 
 the despotism established by that monarch's 
 grandson, Ivan the Terrible, in the middle of 
 the sixteenth century, they lapsed into an even 
 more abject state of slavery, their condition 
 becoming worse and worse as time went on. 
 Even under Peter the Great they were not much 
 better off, and it is matter of history that, under 
 the Empress Catherine II. (1762-96), absolute 
 powers over the serfs were conferred upon the 
 landlords, who were permitted to sell or give 
 away any or all peasants over whom they held 
 sway. The Empress herself, it is said, gave 
 
188 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 away many thousands to her own personal 
 favourites. It was not till 1855, when Alex- 
 ander II. came to the throne, that any serious 
 attempt to improve their condition was made. 
 That monarch, with intent to introduce some 
 reform, set about the abolition of serfdom, to 
 which end freedom was immediately granted 
 to Crown serfs, whilst, as far as possible, those 
 belonging to private landlords were allowed 
 to recover their traditional acres on condition of 
 paying dues to the late proprietor and taxes to 
 the Crown. Theoretically the measure was 
 entirely beneficent, but practically its effect has 
 not been so satisfactory as was expected. The 
 reform was, for one thing, too precipitately 
 introduced, and the peasantry, after their long 
 years of servitude, were not fitted to take ad- 
 vantage of it. Not only have they had to work 
 equally hard, but they have been compelled to 
 borrow money in order to pay the legal dues 
 demanded, with the result that they are now 
 as much serfs to their creditors as formerly they 
 were to the landlords. Under these conditions 
 their desire for migration, called " colonization " 
 by the Kussians, still lives ; the wretched mujik 
 has, in fact, no inducement to stay in his 
 
RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA 189 
 
 icebound, unproductive native country, and his 
 readiness to leave it is evidenced by tbe eager- 
 ness witb which he seized upon the opportunity 
 offered him of migrating to Siberia, to which 
 land of promise many thousands annually emi- 
 grate. The recent acquisition of Manchuria 
 opens a veritable paradise for these down- 
 trodden people, and there can be little doubt 
 that, with the help of the new railway, immense 
 numbers wiU in a short time make their way to 
 this fertile and beautiful country, the " Garden 
 of Kussia." 
 
 The Kussian Government, actuated by the 
 same desire for expansion, for political purposes, 
 have ever sought an enlargement of boundary. 
 Ivan III. having to all intents and purposes 
 overcome the Tartars, thus practically liberating 
 his country from their yoke, it was left for his 
 grandson, Ivan the Terrible, to carry on the 
 war against them. He did not, however, rest 
 on such laurels as this campaign brought him, 
 but waged war also on Swedes and Poles. 
 Later, that is to say, at the end of the seven- 
 teenth and the commencement of the eighteenth 
 century, Peter the Great, aided by his mujik 
 army, finally crushed Sweden and other enemies 
 
igo RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 of his country, and proceeded to considerably 
 enlarge his domain. His dictum was that 
 Eussia, at all hazards, must obtain access to the 
 open sea ; and finding her advantages in this 
 direction limited to the Arctic Ocean, his great 
 ambition was to open to her the Baltic and the 
 Black Sea. Having effected his object so far 
 as the Baltic was concerned, he then turned his 
 attention to the Black Sea ; but his expedition 
 in this connection against the Turks not only 
 ended in failure itself, but led to the loss of his 
 previously acquired territories in a similar 
 direction. It was not, indeed, till more than 
 fifty years later, in the reign of Catherine II., 
 that the Black Sea came under Eussian control ; 
 and even now the benefit to her in this respect 
 is greatly minimized owing to the command 
 exercised over the straits by the Turks, supported 
 by certain European Powers. 
 
 In 1800 the Eussian Tsar, Paul I., carried 
 away by Napoleon's brilliant successes, conceived 
 the grand idea of co-operating with him in 
 attempting the expulsion of the British from 
 India ; and the gravitation of Eussia and Britain 
 towards each other in their Central Asian spheres 
 may be said to date from this time. The scheme. 
 
RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA 191 
 
 of course, was soon abandoned ; but not without 
 an attempt being made to carry it into effect. 
 A body of Cossacks actually crossed the Volga, 
 and the proposed invasion of India might have 
 been seriously attempted had not difficulties of 
 transport and commissariat checked the advance 
 between the Caspian and the Indian frontier. 
 These difficulties might possibly have been 
 overcome in time ; but the campaign was pre- 
 maturely cut short by news of the assassination 
 of the Tsar, and was never afterwards renewed. 
 It was this scheme which first gave rise to the 
 distrust of Eussia which has never since ceased 
 to influence the British nation, and which has 
 caused the expenditure of millions of money, 
 largely extracted from the natives, in the en- 
 deavour to secure the approaches, by way of 
 Persia and Afghanistan, to the Anglo-Indian 
 Empire. 
 
 By the time of Paul I.'s assassination, the 
 Russian peasants, owing to the various Western 
 campaigns in which they had taken part, had 
 begun to recognize the fact that their condition 
 at home was not what they had a right to 
 demand, and, actuated by the example of the 
 other and freer peoples with whom they had come 
 
192 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 in contact, they began to turn their attention 
 towards revolutionary movements. The new- 
 Tsar, Alexander I., who had >egun his reign 
 with attempts at improvement amongst his 
 subjects, later became fearful of revolution ; and 
 to prevent this, introduced repressive measures, 
 which were still more stringently enforced in 
 the time of his successor, Nicholas I. In this 
 reign national risings took place in Poland and 
 Hungary, but were put down with a ruthless 
 hand. A war, for the purpose of championing 
 Greece, was commenced with Turkey, and en- 
 couraged by success, the Tsar endeavoured to 
 seize certain territories on the Danube. England 
 and France, however, who had formerly been 
 his allies, refused to countenance these aggres- 
 sions, and took up arms against him, compelling 
 his withdrawal. That he was unwise to provoke 
 the hostility of his former allies he doubtless 
 realized when the Crimean War took place. 
 
 A further campaign against Turkey was un- 
 dertaken in 1876-78, ostensibly with the object 
 of rescuing the Bulgarians and Eoumelians from 
 Turkish oppression. The real object, however, 
 was to obtain possession of the two provinces, 
 and to effect an occupation of Constantinople, 
 
RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA 193 
 
 whicli Eussia has always coveted. The other 
 Powers interfered, and Russia's scheme was 
 frustrated for the time being. 
 
 Finding it impossible to further extend her 
 empire in Europe, unless, as has been said, at 
 the cost of many lives and vast expenditure, 
 Russia turned her attention to Asia, in which 
 continent she could foresee grand opportunities 
 for empire-building. Yes ! Asia was open to 
 her ! There, with the exception of England, 
 she would find no Power prepared to oppose her 
 schemes, no country with strength sufficient for 
 its own defence. And Russia is gradually ex- 
 tending her empire in Asia. Siberia, previously 
 acquired, she has developed and colonized, as we 
 have seen ; Manchuria has quietly passed into her 
 hands ; Caucasia is receiving Russian immi- 
 grants ; Turkistan is in her possession ; and 
 Afghanistan and Persia are now about to enter 
 upon a course of exploitation. Finally, she means 
 to force her way to the sea, to a seaport on the 
 Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean, where she can 
 create another Vladivostock. With forethought, 
 energy, and fertility of resource, Russia is leading 
 the way, and showing the world how to conquer 
 by railways. She alone has recognized how much 
 
 
 
194 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 more valuable are communications than mere 
 army corps ; how necessary in the conduct of a 
 nation's affairs is a fixed plan. Eussian railways, 
 made by Russians for Russia, now run right 
 across Asia, under Russian guard, from Moscow 
 to the China Sea, and from Batum through 
 Trans-Caspia to the "Western gates of the Chinese 
 Empire, and to the Herat province (not the 
 town) — the key of Afghanistan, which is the 
 outwork of India. Both in the region of 
 the Far East and of Central Asia, the Russian 
 railways are also gradually to be carried further 
 south — through China to the Yangtze valley, 
 and through Persia to the Indian Ocean. At 
 the same time she is pushing her feeder lines 
 southwards also into Europe's sphere of influence 
 to gain a commanding influence in Turkey 
 and Persia. New lines will join her present 
 Trans-Caspian system with the Trans-Siberian 
 railway, and with the European-Russian system, 
 and thus provide alternative routes to the 
 present inconvenient trans-shipment across the 
 Caspian. Is there no danger to all Europe and 
 to the United States in this constant extension 
 of dominion and growing control of the world's 
 highways ? 
 
RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA 195 
 
 Is it to be supposed that this continual absorp- 
 tion of Central Asian provinces is solely for 
 purposes of commerce and colonization ? Russia 
 has already many thousand miles of country 
 destitute of population, Siberia alone being 
 spacious enough to meet her requirements in 
 this respect for centuries to come. The inference 
 is that, whatever may have been the moving 
 power in the past, she is now influenced by 
 political motives. And, indeed, she herself 
 attempts no concealment as to her true aim. 
 India to Russians is still the land of fabulous 
 wealth. Her method of effecting her object, 
 however, has undergone a change. The old idea 
 of a direct military invasion of India has been, 
 for the time at least, abandoned, and in its 
 stead the plan has been adopted of commanding 
 Central Asia, Persia, and Afghanistan, by means 
 of railways, and of reaching India's north- 
 eastern frontier by way of China. Probably 
 only in the event of England showing a 
 determination to offer opposition, at any sacrifice, 
 would any immediate military demonstration 
 be made towards the Indian frontier — "the 
 vulnerable heel." The time is not yet ripe. 
 
 It is frequently pointed out that Skobeleff, 
 
196 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 who talked of hurling "masses of Asiatic 
 cavalry" into India, is said later to have re- 
 canted his earlier views, and to have ridiculed 
 the idea of a Russian invasion of India, pointing 
 out the insuperable difficulties of transport for 
 the 150,000 men required, and asserting that 
 the Russians would have to fight the Afghans 
 en route. Skobeleff found it prudent to adopt 
 this line. But Afghanistan, with orderly govern- 
 ment, could in time raise considerable supplies, 
 and the Afghans would side with the Russians, 
 if they appeared the stronger. It may also be 
 noted that the "masses of Asiatic cavalry," 
 which have been so much ridiculed by certain 
 British authorities, were not those already at 
 the disposal of Russia, but those to be organized 
 in Afghanistan and Persia and the borderlands 
 generally. Therefore it is Russia's policy to 
 develop the resources of Afghanistan, and as 
 with this country, so with others in Central 
 Asia. Where she can develop cultivation, she 
 will provide storehouses for the time when she 
 wishes to introduce an invading army. Where 
 she can develop her railway systems, she will 
 have the means of transport ready to her hand. 
 She aims at re-creating the fertility of the 
 
RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA 197 
 
 Central Asian steppes, and thus forming fresh 
 bases for further advance. This difficulty of 
 providing food for her armies has always been 
 one of her hindrances, and she has hoped to 
 find in some point abroad a territory where 
 her troops could be fed, the necessity naturally 
 growing as her advance proceeded. At first 
 Tashkent was looked upon as a possible granary, 
 then Bokhara, then Khojent, and the country 
 between the Jaxartes and Oxus, known as the 
 Garden of Central Asia. But now, at last, in 
 the Herat province and Khorasan, granaries can 
 be created of great value. 
 
 Any thought of a rising against her in Central 
 Asia is out of the question. The Turkomans, 
 Kirghiz, and other tribes, have been hopelessly 
 crushed. They have nothing to hope from 
 rebellion, no hope of support from England ; 
 whereas in India the case may one day be quite 
 the other way. The British have some reason 
 to fear an outbreak of close on three hundred 
 millions of natives of India ; the Russians none 
 from the eight or ten millions in Central Asia. 
 In the event of risings of individual tribes, 
 Russia would no doubt find herself quite able 
 to deal with them, as she did with the Akhal 
 
igS RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 Tekk6s, and as she has done in innumerable 
 other instances. 
 
 Her method of dealing with tribes, whom it is 
 her object to subdue, presents a great contrast 
 to that adopted by the British, The latter 
 make a display of force, which has but little 
 effect on the warlike natives, with the result 
 that, so soon as the troops are withdrawn, dis- 
 turbances again arise. Kussia pursues quite a 
 different plan. When she sends out a punitive 
 expedition, no mercy is shown, even women and 
 children being sacrificed in order to further her 
 aim of a complete subjection. Consequently a 
 single lesson of this nature amply suffices for the 
 tribe concerned. The manner in which Caucasia 
 and Central Asia have been subdued by the 
 Cossacks is but an example of what, no doubt, 
 Eussia would be able to effect in any other 
 portion of the territory she acquires in Asia. 
 
 Sooner or later, however, Eussia must make 
 her final blow. She may await the completion 
 of her railways, the development of her 
 territories, and a closer approach to British 
 frontiers, before bringing matters to a climax; 
 or, on the other hand, she may find favourable 
 opportunity (such, for instance, as that provided 
 
RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA i^ 
 
 by England's present pre-occupation in South 
 Africa), may be forced by circumstances — " in- 
 exorable circumstances," the Russians term it — 
 to hurry matters. Even as Constantinople was 
 and is her aim in Europe, so in Asia is India the 
 prize she covets. Peter the Great is reported to 
 have said in his will (although the version con- 
 taining the words is disputed), " Approach as 
 near as possible to Constantinople and India. 
 He who establishes himself in those two places 
 will be the true sovereign of the world." And, 
 whether the words are authentic or not, Eussia 
 has relentlessly pursued the scheme they indicate, 
 using all means coming to hand in furtherance 
 of it — extension of territory ; subjugation of 
 opposing tribes ; treaties for favourable frontiers 
 (e.g. after the Panjdeh incident) ; alliances ; 
 making and, when convenient, breaking of 
 promises ; construction of railway lines ; acquisi- 
 tion of ports ; — anything, in fact, likely to assist 
 her. In the words of Sir Henry Eawlinson : 
 " Any one who traces the movements of Eussia 
 towards India on the map of Asia, cannot fail 
 to be struck with the resemblance which these 
 movements bear to the operations of an army 
 opening parallels against a beleaguered fortress." 
 
200 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 And at the present moment the only remaining 
 obstacle to be overcome is that supplied by 
 the strip of mountainous territory in Afghan- 
 istan, or, if she elect to make her attack by 
 way of Persia, the easily traversed plains of 
 Beluchistan. A further occupation of Afghan- 
 istan, therefore, can only be looked upon either 
 as a direct provocation of hostilities, or as 
 providing her with a better position for future 
 attack ; for under no other hypothesis can such 
 a move be explained. If commercial develop- 
 ment merely were the object, there is plenty of 
 room on the Asiatic continent for such develop- 
 ment, without encroaching on India's defences. 
 But even if purely commercial aims were in 
 question, although Eussia might be within her 
 rights, Britain would be perfectly at liberty to 
 combat her policy, so far as possible ; for, 
 although the latter early obtained a practical 
 monopoly of the best markets of the world, she 
 has thrown those markets open, welcoming all 
 competitors, while Eussia aims at exclusion, and 
 replies to Free Trade by Protection, each step of 
 her progress meaning loss to Britain. But com- 
 mercial considerations are not at the root of the 
 matter ; and when Eussia by further aggression 
 
RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA 201 
 
 or other unmistakable challenge has once thrown 
 aside all further concealment of her designs, 
 there remains but one course for Britain to 
 pursue, and that is to attack her, not only in 
 Asia, but all over the world, on sea or on land ; 
 and to do this while she is engaged in moving 
 her troops over the space intervening between 
 European Eussia and India. 
 
 Eussia has her own theories as to future pos- 
 sibilities. Doubtless her ideas on the subject 
 have altered little since the time when SkobeleflF, 
 in his scheme of invasion in 1878 already referred 
 to, said — 
 
 " Should our enterprise not result in complete success 
 — that is, if a rebellion should not break out in India — 
 and if we should faU. to cross the frontier, we should 
 nevertheless compel the British to keep the whole of 
 their Indian army in Hindustan, and make it impossible 
 for them to utOize any portion of it in Europe. They 
 would, in fact, be compelled to transfer some of their 
 troops from Europe to India. We could, hi short, to 
 a great extent, paralyze the land forces of England, 
 either in a European war, or in the choice of a new 
 hne of operations from the Persian Gulf through Tabris 
 to Tiflis ia conjunction with the Turkish and Persian 
 armies." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 
 
 " For I hold it to be an essential principle that under 
 no conceivable circumstance would it be compatible, 
 either with the good faith of the contracting Powers or 
 the safety of the Empire, that the agreement come to 
 by us with Eussia, on behalf of the Amir, ia regard 
 to the northern boundary of Afghanistan, should ever 
 be modified or ignored. Any further approach of a 
 great foreign military Power towards the confines of 
 India would entail upon the latter country such an 
 intolerable amount of expense in the shape of additional 
 fortifications and other measures of defence as would 
 become absolutely intolerable, and would be less prefer- 
 able than any other alternative, however serious." — The 
 Marquis of Duffekin and Ava, ex- Viceroy of India, 
 at the Ghdldhall, May 29th, 1889. 
 
 " The more powerful Eussia becomes in Central Asia, 
 the weaker does England become in India, and, con- 
 sequently, the more amenable in Europe." — A. Sobolev, 
 
 These words of Lord Dufferin and General 
 Sobolev accurately place before us the present 
 situation of Britain in India, whilst clearly 
 
 202 
 
MAP ILLUSTRATING POSSIBLE LINES & BASES OF OPERATIONS BETWEEN CENTRAL ASIA & N.W. INDIA. 
 
 TIFLI3 "^^ 
 
 30 
 
 London dr J7e^- Jork . Jlarpe^ Ar brothers . 46 ^AlhemaHe, St . W . 
 
 Reference . 
 
 Couniry iuyoxzrable^ to nell^ offlcere-ci vrregular troops dr a- wttr of rrunor opercdioTiS EZ 
 
 S/ixhyyjys operv 
 
 Main liTtes of comrwuriLcaiijOTv 
 Tiouj-ixlcLriAis^—- 
 
 CourUry foA-otunbU to regular- tt^oops and gener^aZ' engagemerUs.^ 
 RailMXiys proposed, ,._ 
 
 Scale of Miles . 
 
 O 50 lOO 200 
 
 1 ' — t u -^ 
 
 FS^eUer.I.R.Gr.S.6J^ 
 300 
 
THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 203 
 
 indicating her only possible course of action if 
 the integrity of her Indian Empire (and with it 
 the interests of her Eastern colonies) is to be 
 maintained. 
 
 India may in fact be regarded as the centre or 
 pivot of Britain's Empire in the East ; and for this 
 reason alone, setting aside all other considerations, 
 must be defended against foreign aggression. It 
 is not only British supremacy in that country 
 itself which is at stake ; the uninterrupted 
 intercourse with her Eastern colonies, and 
 consequently the well-being of the colonies them- 
 selves, would at once be threatened, should foreign 
 invasion take place. Those who either ignore 
 unpalatable truths, or advocate the policy of 
 submitting to what they regard as the inevitable, 
 and who adopt a line of conduct which must 
 lead to Britain's gradual efFacement in Asia, in 
 preference to opposing Eussia's onward march, 
 are certainly not the men who have built up the 
 British Empire, and they are not the men who 
 will help to preserve it. There is no valid reason 
 for Britain yielding her pride of place. It is true 
 that her strength, as represented in her colonies, 
 spread over the globe, is in great part beyond 
 the immediate control of the mother-country ; 
 
204 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 while Russia, on the other hand, has complete 
 command of her ever-increasing population and 
 resources, and thus is able to concentrate her 
 forces, whenever it pleases her, on the Indian 
 frontiers. But Great Britain is no isolated 
 Power. Her interests are the interests of count- 
 less thousands throughout the world ; her wars 
 — as evidenced in the case of South Africa — are 
 not by and for herself alone ; they are of 
 Imperial importance, and she can depend on 
 loyal support from all her colonies. 
 
 It is generally assuhied in Britain and the 
 United States that Eussia, strong for defence — 
 on account of its immense area, the homogeneous 
 character of its people and their stolid patriotism 
 — is peculiarly weak for purposes of offence. 
 The vast distances, the incomplete communica- 
 tions, the barrenness of the country, the extremes 
 of heat and cold, the inefficiency of commissariat 
 and transport, the corruption and incompetence 
 of the commanders and officers, are all adduced 
 to prove the impossibility of an advance through 
 Afghanistan or Beluchistan. But, as we have 
 already said, the communications are being per- 
 fected, supplies can be grown, the Eussian 
 soldier can support any extreme of climate, and 
 
THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 205 
 
 finally, life is cheap in Russia. " We have the 
 men, you have th,e money," is the Eussian cry. 
 It may be taken for granted, of course, that if 
 Eussia were now from her present base to 
 attempt a direct invasion of India across the 
 whole extent of Afghanistan it would fail. But 
 does any one in his senses suppose Eussia is 
 going to embark on such a foolhardy enterprise, 
 when, with the experience of her continued 
 success, she can, without sacrificing the life of a 
 single Cossack, without any great expenditure, 
 do now as she has done before, creep on bit hy 
 hit, so as to avoid arousing the susceptibilities of 
 the British public ? The Eussians have made a 
 close study of the British character, under the 
 influence of a democratic Parliamentary Govern- 
 ment. The apathy and indifference to every- 
 thing except the safety of the present second, 
 embodied in the sayings, " A long way off," and 
 " It will last our time," are powerful allies of 
 Eussia, and well she knows it. She is more 
 likely to embark on a war with Japan for Corea, 
 or with Turkey, when opportunity offers, for 
 the possession of Constantinople — a war which 
 would find high favour in Eussia as holy — and 
 to gradually continue the absorption of Persia, 
 
2o6 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 Afghanistan, Beluchistan, and China. She can 
 gain what she wants by gentle sapping and 
 mining, and the next steps are probably the per- 
 fection of her communications southward to the 
 open sea, the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean, 
 leaving, perhaps, the official occupation of Herat 
 and Afghan Turkistan till some later date. Such 
 a step has always been considered in Britain as 
 impossible, except on the hypothesis that it 
 would at once involve Russia in war with 
 England. Exactly such a situation has arisen. 
 Are we prepared to meet it ? 
 
 While the ability of Eussia to disquieten 
 India and to drain the finances on military 
 expenditure has greatly increased, the British 
 public has been fed more and more on Eussian 
 " assurances " — with what degree of success 
 events in the Far East can tell — and has seem- 
 ingly embarked on the attempt to create an 
 African Empire, an Empire which is to stretch 
 from the Cape to Cairo ; an adventure which, as 
 emphasized elsewhere,* means gradual eflfacement 
 of Britain in Asia. Meanwhile, certain steps 
 have been taken. The frontier defences of India 
 have been made stronger, though not impregnable, 
 
 * " China in Transformation," 
 
THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 207 
 
 at Quetta and Eawalpindi ; Britisli railways 
 run to New Chaman, within sixty miles of 
 Kandahar, which is connected with Kurrachi 
 and the whole course of the Indus. The 
 masterful Amir, too, is friendly, and the wild, 
 fanatical tribes are held down by an iron hand. 
 But the Amir may die any day, and what then ? 
 Then will come still one more opportunity for 
 Russia to further shake the British position in 
 India, by acquiring a commanding position in 
 Afghanistan and Beluchistan, and smoothing 
 the way for the final stage — the preparation 
 of the Indian populations for the advent of 
 their northern " Liberator," the Mistress of 
 Asia. 
 
 It is often said that the Russian troops in 
 Central Asia are generally not equal to the 
 British, or even the best Indian troops serving 
 in India. The Central Asian officers are notori- 
 ously not the fine fieur of the service. The 
 isolated life, the inhospitable character of the 
 country, the feeling of exile, are too much for 
 the ordinary Russian, a man of little culture 
 and few resources. With the advent of the 
 railway, however, the morale of the troops 
 — the officers especially — will be raised. The 
 
2o8 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 corruption, tlie want of business ability and 
 precision, the carelessness of Kussian military 
 officials, are always invoked by those who deride 
 the possibility of any hostile movement on India. 
 But, as has been said before, one thing the 
 Eussians possess, plenty of men imbued with an 
 ardent, if somewhat loutish, patriotism, and 
 officers in profusion, who have no qualms about 
 sacrificing their men wholesale. Another advan- 
 tage Russia has over Britain in the quarter of 
 the world under discussion — throughout Central 
 Asia, Persia, Afghanistan, as well as elsewhere 
 in Asia — a superior and rising prestige. Com- 
 pared with British methods, — the punitive expe- 
 ditions, the bourgeois state maintained by her 
 officials, the feeble diplomacy and futile talking of 
 the Government, — Russia's methods of warfare,* 
 — 'her showy Asiatic magnificence, her iron hand 
 under the velvet glove, — impress the Asiatic, and 
 her reputation in Central Asia is correspondingly 
 great, probably in excess of her real strength. 
 With the increase of the visible signs of power 
 
 * At tlie capture of Geok Tdp^ by Skobelefif there was an indis- 
 criminate slaughter of 8000 Turkomans — ^men, women, and children. 
 Such wholesale slaughter, which broke the spirit of the whole of 
 Central Asia, is claimed by the Russians as not only cheaper, 
 quicker, and more effective, but in the end more humane. 
 
THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 209 
 
 — her strategic railways and garrisons — must 
 inevitably come a further rise in prestige. 
 
 The greater portion of the Eussian army is 
 quartered in her European possessions, espe- 
 cially in Russian Poland : in the Caucasus, she 
 has a force of over 100,000 men on a peace 
 footing ; her strength in Central Asia and 
 Siberia, till lately small, has been considerably 
 increased, and with the aid of the railways can 
 be augmented rapidly whenever wished. For 
 service in the Amur province and Manchuria, 
 troops are sent round by sea as well as over- 
 land by the Trans-Siberian railway. Until 
 lately, before it was largely increased, the 
 Central Asian force had work enough to do 
 in Turkistan and Northern Persia, on the Trans- 
 Caspian line, and in keeping open communi- 
 cations. How far it has been strengthened is 
 not yet known, but there can be no doubt 
 that large bodies of men are being moved to 
 the Afghan frontier, the efficiency of the Trans- 
 Caspian railway having recently been tested by 
 an " experimental " despatch of a body of troops 
 from the Caucasus to the frontier post of Kushk, 
 near Herat. 
 
 As regards the railway, in case of any serious 
 
 p 
 
210 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 move into Afghanistan, the single line will be 
 improved by the provision of a large number 
 of sidings, or by doubling the line. Khorasan, 
 the northern province of Persia, would be 
 annexed and strongly garrisoned — an easy 
 matter. As has been already said, there is no 
 chance of the Turkomans or other tribes rising, 
 and this fond delusion, still cherished by some, 
 had better be abandoned at once. 
 
 It is a favourite form of argument with 
 English politicians to demonstrate the antecedent 
 improbability of Kussia embarking on an " in- 
 vasion of India." They find consolation in the 
 thought that millions would have to be spent 
 on her Central Asian communications with 
 Europe and Siberia, and that the lines would be 
 financially unproductive. Granted; yet these 
 millions are being spent, and why? Not for 
 any wild adventure, such as a direct and brutal 
 attack on India would be at present, but to 
 strengthen her offensive power against that coun- 
 try through Afghanistan — the fulcrum of the 
 lever which will open the way for her first to 
 the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean, and eventu- 
 ally to the Mediterranean. The whole aim of 
 Eussia's advance into Central Asia has been 
 
THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 211 
 
 with this object, to be able to " squeeze " 
 Britain in India through Afghanistan ; and now 
 she is in a fair way to taking yet another step 
 in this direction — a further occupation of Afghan 
 territory, and a move southwards by railway 
 towards the Persian Gulf. The acquisition of 
 Port Arthur has whetted her appetite for 
 strategic positions on the open sea, and she 
 now aspires to one on the Indian Ocean. 
 Having succeeded in this policy in the past, 
 is she likely now to desist, when at last she 
 is in a position to exert a more powerful pressure 
 than ever on India ; when she will be still more 
 strongly established as years go by ? No, not 
 unless Britain takes up the question of the 
 defence of India in the only way in which it 
 can be effectively done, by putting herself in a 
 condition of complete counter-preparation ; and 
 this cannot be accomplished merely by adhering 
 to the present expensive defences, and so await- 
 ing " the inevitable " within our frontiers, but 
 by adopting a bold and comprehensive policy. 
 What that policy should be will be outlined 
 later on. 
 
 The opinion is held by many that a passive 
 defence within the Indian frontiers is all that 
 
212 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 is necessary to preserve the Empire, it being 
 argued in support of this opinion that the cost 
 is less, transport difficulties are practically nil, 
 and that Britain, on her own territory, would 
 have a great advantage over an enemy many 
 hundreds of miles from their base of action. 
 It may be conceded that the immediate expen- 
 diture would be less, but the eventual cost to 
 Britain of such an inadequate defence would 
 probably be very large — what, indeed, might 
 not be its price ! With regard to the third 
 argument, Russia has already, by means of her 
 railway lines, overcome many of the difficulties 
 as to transport and communications. One of 
 the greatest objections to the scheme of passive 
 defence is that it presents so long a frontier 
 line to the enemy on which to operate, whilst 
 at the same time involving grave dangers in 
 the event of a reverse. History has before now 
 illustrated the fact that such a frontier line, 
 even when elaborately defended, is by no means 
 impregnable. 
 
 Another proposal is to depend on the Sulei- 
 man range as a barrier, carrying on a passive 
 defence behind these mountains by means of 
 entrenched positions at Pishin, Quetta, and 
 
THE DEFENCE; OF INDIA 213 
 
 other points. But, used merely passively, these 
 advanced positions are of practically little value. 
 If Eussia were allowed to bring her troops as far 
 as the neighbourhood of these posts, she could, 
 whenever it suited her, compel evacuation, for 
 she could outflank the garrisons, and thus cut 
 off communication with the British base in India. 
 Clearly then, Quetta, Pishin and neighbouring 
 positions are only of value if used as a 
 base for pushing forward active measures of 
 offence. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest danger consequent on 
 passive defence, either within the Indian 
 frontiers or behind the Suleiman range, is 
 that Russia is left free to push her way to- 
 wards the Persian Grulf, and, as pointed out,* 
 her domination in these regions is far from 
 being desirable. It would mean the control 
 and, later, the ownership by Eussia of Belu- 
 chistan, — some day, as the Eussians hope, of 
 Afghanistan ! In any case, to allow Eussia to 
 become the neighbour of India, whether through 
 Afghanistan or Beluchistan, with only the Indus 
 as dividing line, cannot but be considered a 
 suicidal policy. Eivers, as is well known, do 
 
 * Chapter VII, 
 
214 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 not constitute a sure defence. A further argu- 
 ment is that, should Britain decide to rely 
 on the Indus as the line of defence, the garrison 
 of India, vastly increased though it might be, 
 could not conceivably be made equal to the task 
 of opposing on such an extended line an army 
 numbering perhaps 500,000 men ; * and, when 
 in Russian possession, the resources of Afghan- 
 istan in men and food supplies would enable 
 such an army to be created and maintained. 
 
 In the writer's opinion, the true defence of the 
 British Indian Empire is to preserve Afghanistan 
 and Beluchistan as real barriers, which can only 
 be done by developing and extending communi- 
 cations to Kabul, Kandahar, and Seistan. There 
 is no alternative. The policy of passive resist- 
 ance should be at once abandoned in favour 
 of an active scheme, which would embrace 
 the domination of Kabul, Ghazni, and Kandahar, 
 
 * " The greatest want, in my opinion — and, I know, in the opinion 
 of the Commander-in-Chief — ^is an increase to the number of British 
 ofBoers in the Indian army. We have endeavoured to meet this 
 by establishing a reserve of officers, but the attempt has been a 
 failure. . . . Yet upon the outbreak of war we ought to increase 
 the number of European officers with every unit of the Native army, 
 and we should require some hundreds of officers for transport duties 
 and various staff appointments in the field. Where to lay hands 
 upon these officers is a problem that has not been solved " (Sir H. 
 Brackenbury, late Military Member Viceroy's Council). 
 
THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 215 
 
 the establishment of outposts in the Hindu 
 Kush, and the power to advance still further 
 towards Seistan and Herat, should circumstances 
 require. This view of the situation is supported 
 by that of the strategist Hamley, who, so long 
 ago as 1884, was of opinion that the defence 
 of India would be best ensured by " a strong 
 British Government at Kandahar, wielding an 
 army whose advanced posts should be at Kabul 
 and Herat, based on Karachi, with railway com- 
 munication at least thence to Kandahar." 
 
 The Indus plains must be defended, but 
 actively defended, in Afghanistan. It is no 
 longer enough to merely block the mouths of 
 the passes. The present mode of defence, 
 effective where only untrained Afghans were 
 concerned, would be of no avail against large 
 numbers of trained troops, valuable as these 
 passes are as natural barriers against invasion. 
 A more active policy must be pursued too, if we 
 are to take full advantage of these natural 
 features of Afghanistan — the inaccessible moun- 
 tains and difl&cult roads. Too much reliance 
 must not be placed on irregular Afghan troops, 
 who, disunited themselves, might at any time 
 be persuaded by threats or promises to enlist 
 
2i6 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 under the Russian banner. The expenditure 
 involved must be undertaken by Britaiu herself, 
 for the force necessary to cope with the situation 
 in case of war would mean the financial ruin of 
 India. Indeed, that country is unable to defray 
 the cost of the present inadequate defence of 
 frontiers which is growing every year. We may 
 have to create a Central Asian province, paid for 
 mainly by British revenues. Finance ministers 
 are at their wits' ends even now to meet the 
 ever-increasing demands, and there is danger 
 to India from financial disorganization, as well 
 as from Russian policy. The question is one to 
 tax the powers of the British nation. But the 
 difficulty has to be faced. 
 
 The question of Afghanistan's internal power 
 for defence against Russia is of vital importance 
 as affecting the safety of India. The necessity 
 for providing for the adequate defence of the 
 Indus plains is apparent, and for this purpose it 
 is necessary, having regard to the proximity of 
 the Afghan hills (which might otherwise at any 
 time be in the occupation of the enemy), to see 
 beyond these hills, for without such sight one 
 cannot act decisively but must grope blindly in 
 the dark ; to hold the mouths of the passes ; to 
 
THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 217 
 
 create defeLsive posts and positions (main valleys) 
 within the hills, barring the passages through 
 them ; and, finally, to hold defensive positions 
 in the plains to their rear, and so prevent all 
 egress from them, 
 
 Afghanistan, as we have said, is a mountainous 
 and therefore highly inaccessible country. Its 
 advantages for defence, after the experience 
 of South Africa, are obvious. Just as the 
 mobile Boers, sheltered by their rocks and hills, 
 with an intimate knowledge of the ground, are 
 able to almost defy attack, so a body of even 
 irregular troops, under British ofiicers, would 
 be able to hold the Afghan country for an 
 indefinite period against an invader ; whilst, if' 
 sufficiently trained, and especially if stiffened by 
 regular troops, such as those of the Anglo-Indian 
 army, the defending force could no doubt be 
 rendered capable of even meeting the enemy in 
 the open, if circumstances so required. At the 
 present time the native Afghan troops are not 
 only unreliable, for reasons already given, but 
 suffer from the disadvantages of immobility 
 and of being badly officered. Against trained 
 European troops they would, as at present con- 
 stituted, be practically helpless. 
 
2i8 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 Taking into consideration the number of men 
 which the provinces of Afghanistan could support, 
 it may be concluded that the country as a whole 
 could provide for an army of close on 200,000. 
 A popular leader, with ample means at com- 
 mand, would probably find little difficulty in 
 enlisting from amongst the diflfM^ent native 
 tribes such a force of men, of fair, if not first- 
 rate, fighting efficiency. Under efficient govern- 
 ment, too, cultivation of the soil would increase 
 rapidly. Even allowing for a much slower 
 increase in agricultural production than has 
 taken place of late years in the Indian frontier 
 provinces, Afghanistan could probably, in five 
 years' time, furnish sufficient food to provide for 
 250,000 foreign troops ; and there is little doubt, 
 having regard to the latest information, that, 
 within ten years' occupation of certain districts 
 and the completion of the necessary communica- 
 tions, an army of over 500,000, foreign and 
 native, could be concentrated in the country. 
 Is such an advantage to pass into the h^nds of 
 Russia, while England looks on and submits to 
 " the inevitable " ? If Britain continues to main- 
 tain her position of passive defence, refusing to 
 safeguard her Empire by herself pushing forward 
 
THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 219 
 
 a barrier against aggression, she will eventually 
 find that further passive defence, or indeed any 
 defence at all, is impossible. 
 
 To allow the fighting strength of Afghanistan 
 to faU into the hands of Russia would be a two- 
 fold mistake, for it would not only deprive 
 Britain of valuable allies, but would add just 
 so much strength to Russian power for mis- 
 chief. It is said that the Afghans would be 
 opposed to a British advance. Much, however, 
 can be accomplished by a skilful diplomacy 
 Probably a few easily suppressed risings would 
 be the only result, whilst the majority would 
 soon become contented and happy under a 
 beneficent rule. Had Afghanistan been under 
 British rule since 1842, it would long ere 
 this have been in as orderly a condition as are 
 Britain's Indian provinces ; and, indeed, there is 
 reason to believe that an improved system of 
 taxation, which would be possible under a settled 
 government, would in a single generation com- 
 pletely alter the condition of the country and 
 people. Should Russia, on the other hand, 
 obtain the ascendency, she would then find the 
 absorption of Persia and Beluchistan an easy 
 matter, and the further strengthening of her 
 
220 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 maritime bases and navy in Asia would then 
 confer on her almost limitless power in the 
 East. 
 
 One of the most natural directions for Russia's 
 advance is undoubtedly that from Balkh to 
 Kabul, this being the most direct road to 
 the capital. In conjunction with this route, 
 however, there is another and more practicable 
 line, passing through productive country, and 
 presenting few physical obstacles — that from 
 Herat by way of Farah to Kandahar, and this 
 is certain to be the route taken by the Russians. 
 The mountainous northern zone is not so im- 
 probable a line of attack on India as has 
 commonly been supposed, being accessible on 
 the enemy's side at several points. On the 
 British side a railway line connects Peshawar, 
 the northern terminus, with Karachi, as well as 
 with Calcutta. It is necessary not only to 
 defend the passes here, but to develop communi- 
 cations beyond, an end best achieved by means 
 of a railway to Kabul. The central zone — 
 Ghazni, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan — is another 
 possible route for an attacking force, and it has 
 to be borne in mind that surprises by means of 
 hill roads are easy of accomplishment. 
 
THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 221 
 
 The question is, how far shall Russia be allowed 
 to advance before England not merely raises her 
 voice in protest, but places an insurmountable 
 obstacle in her path ? The Hindu Kush and the 
 chief provinces, at least, should not be allowed 
 to fall into the Tsar's hands. To give up any 
 one of the provinces of Afghanistan to Eussia 
 is to weaken the defence of the entire country, 
 and this applies especially to Herat, Kabul, 
 or Kandahar. Any one of these places yielded 
 to the enemy, provides that enemy with an 
 opportunity for further strengthening them- 
 selves ; while, on the other hand, if occupied 
 first by the defenders, those defenders will hold 
 an inestimable advantage. 
 
 The province of Herat offers incalculable 
 facilities to an invader having designs on 
 India. The province, as we have already said, 
 as the key to Afghanistan has been called, 
 not inaccurately, "the key to India." The 
 appellation is easy to understand. To recapitu- 
 late its advantages : it is fertile, and capable of 
 supporting a large army ; it dominates the roads 
 leading to Kabul, Kandahar, Ghazni, and other 
 important towns, thus indirectly commanding 
 the passes to India ; and its natural features 
 
222 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 make it at once a barrier or a menace, accord- 
 ing to the possessor. Eawlinson considered it of 
 such importance that he expressed his willingness 
 to give up all Afghanistan rather than allow 
 Herat to be controlled by the Kussians. In his 
 pithy phrase, Herat and Kandahar were the 
 Malakoff and Mamelon of India. The pivot of 
 the whole Eastern question, in Eawlinson's view, 
 was that Britain cannot afford to expose Herat 
 to the risk of being taken by a Kussian coup de 
 main. " Russia in possession of Herat," he said, 
 " would have a grip on the throat of India." 
 
 The main length of frontier to be defended 
 between Faizabad and Herat, and that from 
 Peshawar to Peshin are about the same — 
 600 miles. There is a vital diflference, how- 
 ever, in the two cases. In the former the real 
 fighting front extends from the neighbourhood 
 of Kabul to that of Kandahar, a distance of not 
 more than 350 miles, the greater part covered 
 by hills, whose main passes alone it is necessary 
 to hold ; in the latter, the whole extent of 600 
 miles of frontier line must be held, because of 
 its comparative vulnerability. 
 
 The essential difference between the defence 
 of the two lines is at once apparent. In the one 
 
THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 223 
 
 case, conducted from the proper side of the 
 passes, the configuration of the deep intricate 
 hills allows the difficult roads penetrating them, 
 closed by snow for three months in the year, 
 to be economically defended by field armies 
 well-placed in secure positions so as to block 
 the outlets ; their mouths under observation, the 
 passes themselves can be blocked and held at 
 favourable points. In the other it is conducted 
 from the wrong side of the passes. Here the 
 fronting barrier of hills is passable at many 
 points, which can be blocked only by a most 
 costly expenditure of force ; and facing the 
 narrow ragged screen of hills there are elevated 
 plateaux and valleys favourable to the move- 
 ments and concentration of troops, after due 
 preparation of roads and dep6ts.* 
 
 Preparation for possible war should no longer 
 be neglected by Britain. Fortified posts should 
 be established in the Afghan territory, and dep6ts 
 and magazines placed in such positions as are 
 dictated by the geographical conditions of the 
 country, having regard especially to the question 
 of cultivation of the soil, a consideration affect- 
 ing the future support of an army. Suitable 
 
 * Colonel Mark S. Bell, B.U.8. Jownal, 1885. 
 
224 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 positions for such dep6ts are to be found at the 
 great centres of commercial activity— Kabul, 
 Ghazni, Kandahar, Farah, Balkh, Herat, and other 
 places.* It is essential that these points, neces- 
 sary to the organization of field armies, their 
 administration, and maintenance, be held by 
 troops, though not necessarily by fortifications. 
 An ofiensive-defensive plan of campaign, above 
 all, requires for its efficient prosecution rail- 
 ways: from Peshawar to Kabul; from the 
 Indus-Bolan line, via Nushki and south of the 
 Helmand, through Baluch territory to Seistan, 
 with lines to Kandahar, Farah, and Kabul ; a 
 direct military line from Chaman to Kandahar ; 
 and, eventually, a southern extension from 
 Seistan to the Persian Gulf. Seistan, the watch- 
 tower of Beluchistan and Khorasan, at the bend 
 of the Helmand, is the one large oasis between 
 Khorasan and the Gulf, the others to the south 
 being of less importance. 
 
 The cost of construction of such lines would 
 inevitably be heavy, but the expenditure is 
 necessary, for it would secure the protection and 
 increased prosperity of the Indian Empire. The 
 
 * On the map the bases of possible operations are shown, and 
 the main lines of communications by double lines. 
 
THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 225 
 
 value of commercial-strategic railways does not 
 seem to be understood in England as elsewhere — 
 for instance, in Germany and Russia ; and Britain 
 will perhaps too late find out her mistake if, 
 from motives of economy, she continues to favour 
 merely commercial lines. The Trans-Siberian 
 railway is an instance of the value of a line not 
 only commercial but strategic in its objects. 
 Railways, rather than mere armies, will decide 
 the fate of India, and ultimately of Asia, The 
 Russians never ask, " Will it pay ? " They 
 know it will eventually pay them. When Russia 
 is extending her lines from the Caspian to 
 Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, and through 
 China to the Yangtze valley, Britain cannot 
 afibrd to sit still looking always for immediate 
 results. She should reply by a direct overland 
 line from Quetta to Seistan, and thence, vid 
 Kerman, to Ispahan, Mosul and onward, with 
 branches. In time of war these railways would 
 be absolutely necessary for the transport of such 
 an organization as a modern army, and the 
 incalculable importance of constructing such 
 lines while there is yet time should cause all 
 objections to be put aside. 
 
 Not only Britain, but Europe and the United 
 
 Q 
 
226 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 States, have a vital interest in barring further 
 
 Russian progress in Central Asia. The danger 
 
 of Eussian ascendency, and consequently of the 
 
 decline of British power in the East, is not yet 
 
 realized. As was foreseen many years ago, the 
 
 growth of Russia in the East threatens, though 
 
 indirectly, the whole of Europe ; for once 
 
 firmly established in Asia Minor, Constantinople 
 
 would be in imminent danger, the commerce of 
 
 the Mediterranean would eventually fall into her 
 
 hands, and she would command, not merely the 
 
 Indo-European overland highway, but the canal 
 
 through the Isthmus of Suez. All the more 
 
 dangerous, too, as Russian ascendency in China 
 
 is daily increasing, and at an alarming pace. 
 
 Hitherto it has been left to Britain alone to 
 oppose Russia in the East, in doing which she 
 has also been serving the interests of others. 
 It would be wise for the European nations 
 and the United States, whose interests are 
 involved, not to oppose, but to join Britain in 
 safeguarding those interests, and especially in 
 defending that great overland highway of the 
 nations between East and West, the maintenance 
 of which, as an open trade route, is of such vast 
 importance to European and American trade. 
 
THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 227 
 
 In order to defend her Asiatic interests, Europe 
 can no longer depend exclusively on the Suez 
 Canal line of communication. She needs also a 
 more fully developed overland route — a railway 
 line through Mesopotamia ; and this not only 
 for political but for commercial purposes. Such 
 a railway would pass through fertile country, 
 possessing a favourable climate, and populated in 
 great part by agriculturists. By developing this 
 region, Europe would be merely advancing her 
 commercial interests, and for this purpose, almost 
 as much as for political reasons, it is neces- 
 sary to combat Eussian policy. Between the 
 Mediterranean and the Indian frontier lawless- 
 ness and oppression at present prevail, and the 
 introduction of a more civilized control is a 
 necessity of the age, and would be welcomed by 
 the world at large. The cost of constructing 
 such a line, roughly estimated, would be about 
 forty millions sterling. 
 
 Not merely Russia and Britain but Germany 
 also is now involved in Asia, by reason of her 
 economic interests and railway enterprises in 
 Asiatic Turkey and the Far East. Germany, 
 the neighbour of Eussia in Europe, — Germany, 
 always ready for a deal. Shortly Britain in 
 
228 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 India will be bordered on the east by Russia 
 and France, and on the west by Eussia and 
 Germany. Under such circumstances, she can 
 no longer avoid the burdens imposed on great 
 land-powers, and must become a strong military 
 State, especially as Eussia, Germany, and France 
 are now enormously increasing their naval 
 strength. 
 
 The legitimate expansion of Russia does not 
 now lie southwards. As trade outlets she has 
 the Black Sea in Europe and the China Sea and 
 Pacific in the Far East. It is not, cannot be, 
 for any commercial purpose that she seeks to 
 reach the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean, but to 
 create a powerful naval base and arsenal halfway 
 to the Far East, with a great Hinterland behind, 
 opened by Russian railways, as she has done at 
 Port Arthur. 
 
 Forty years ago the Austrian War Minister 
 predicted that Russia would try to reach the 
 open sea by operating through Asia, as she 
 has done. 
 
 " She wiU not reach the shores of the Persian Gulf in 
 one stride," said this far-seeing statesman, " or by means 
 of one great war ; but, taking advantage of continental 
 complications, when the attention and energy of European 
 States are engaged in contest more nearly concerning 
 
THE DEFENCE OF INDIA 229 
 
 them, she will endeavour to reach the Persian Gulf step 
 by step — by annexing separate districts of Armenia, by 
 operating against Khiva and Bokhara, and by seizing 
 Persian provinces. . . . The growth of Eussia in the 
 East," he continued, "threatens, though indirectly, the 
 whole of Europe, as well as the States named above ; for 
 if she were firmly established in Asia Minor, the real 
 apple of discord, Constantinople, would be in imminent 
 danger, all the commerce of the Mediterranean would 
 fall into her hands, and she would command the canal 
 through the Isthmus of Suez. . . . Whatever the com- 
 mercial value of the canal to Central Europe, there 
 is no doubt that it is secondary iu importance to the 
 Euphrates valley, which affords the only means of 
 stemming Eussian advances in Central Asia, and which 
 directly covers the Suez Canal." 
 
 Certainly events in Central Asia and the Far 
 East serve to show the wisdom of the conclusion 
 arrived at so many years ago by this eminent 
 statesman. The expansion of the Northern 
 Colossus — more Oriental than European, whose 
 heart of Empire lies in Central Asia — into China 
 and towards the natural zone of influence of 
 Europe ; her determination to control commerce, 
 religion, and communications, are grave dangers 
 for all other nations, and more especially the 
 Anglo-Saxon peoples. Unchecked, they would 
 lead to the subjugation of Europe by Asia, The 
 
230 RUSSIA AGAINST INDIA 
 
 danger is clear to any one who will take up the 
 map. Russia already becoming a paramount 
 power in Northern China; Russia with a port 
 on the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean treated as 
 a right beyond question; Russia connecting 
 Central Asia with the Persian Gulf by railways, 
 from Askabad southwards, and from Tiflis by 
 Kars and the Turko-Persian frontier, thus 
 making herself independent of the Dardanelles 
 and the Suez Canal, and cutting into the direct 
 Indo-European line of overland communication. 
 A conflict between East and West for the 
 dominion of the old world is imminent. Slav 
 and Saxon must contend for supremacy, even 
 for equality, and upon the skill and determina- 
 tion of the two opponents hangs the future of 
 Asia, and not only of Asia but of Europe. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 In 1864 the Russian Chancellor, Prince Gortschakoff, issued 
 his famous circular note, directed against the suspicions 
 entertained in Britain regarding the Eussian advance in 
 Central Asia, and justifying the Eussian forward move- 
 ment. 
 
 (CrRCULAIRE.) 
 
 " St. Petersbourg, le 21 Novembre, 1864. 
 
 "Les journaux Eusses ont rendu compte des demieres 
 operations miHtaires exteutees par un d^tachement de nos 
 troupes dans les regions *de I'Asie Centrale avec un succes 
 remarquable et des resultats importants. 
 
 " II ^tait a prevoir que ces ^venements exciteraient 
 d'autant plus I'attention du public etranger qu'ils se passent 
 dans des contrees a peine connues. 
 
 "Notre auguste Maitre m'a ordonne de vous exposer 
 succinctement, mais avec clart6 et precision, la position qui 
 nous est faite dans I'Asie Centrale, les inter^ts qui servent 
 de mobile a notre action dans ces contrees, et le but final que 
 nous y poursuivons. 
 
 " La position de la Eussie dans rA.sie Centrale est celle 
 de tons les Etats civilises qui se trouvent en contact avec 
 
 231 
 
232 APPENDIX 
 
 des peuplades k demi-sauvages, errantes, sans organisation 
 sociale fixe. 
 
 " II arrive toujoursen pareil cas que I'intdrgt de la sdcurit6 
 des fronti^res et celui des relations de commerce exigent 
 que I'Etat plus civilis6 exerce un certain ascendant sur des 
 voisins que leurs moeurs nomades et turbulentes rendent 
 fort incommodes. 
 
 " On a d'abord des incursions et des pillages a reprimer. 
 Pour y mettre un terme on est forc6 de r^duire k une 
 soumission plus on moins directe les peuplades limitrophes. 
 
 " Une fois ce resultat atteint celles-ci prennent des habi- 
 tudes plus tranquilles, mais elles se trouvent k leur tour 
 exposdes aux aggressions des tribus plus 61oign6es. 
 
 " L'Etat est oblig6 de les defendre centre ces depredations 
 et de cMtier ceux qui les commettent. De Ik la ndcessitd 
 dMxpdditions lointaines, cotiteuses, pdriodiques, centre un 
 ennemi que son organisation sociale rend insaisissable. Si 
 Ton se borne k cMtier les pillards et qu'on se retire, la le§on 
 s'efface bient6t ; la retraite est mise sur le compte de la 
 faiblesse ; les peuples Asiatiques en particulier ne respectent 
 que la force visible et palpable ; la force morale de la raison 
 et des interSts de la civilisation n'a point encore de prise sur 
 eux. La tS,clie est done toujours a recommencer. 
 
 " Pour couper a ces d6sordi-es permanents ou dtablir quel- 
 ques points fortifies panni les populations ennemies, on 
 exerce sur elles un ascendant qui pen k peu les reduits a une 
 soumission plus ou moins forc^. 
 
 "Mais au del^ de cette seconde ligne d'autres peuplades 
 plus 61oign6es encore viennent bient6t provoquer les mSmes 
 dangers et les m@mes repressions. 
 
 " L'Etat se trouve done dans I'altemative ou d'abandonner 
 
APPENDIX 233 
 
 ce travail incessant et de livrer ses frontieres k des d^sordres 
 perpetuels qui y rendent toute prospMt^, toute security, 
 toute civilisation impossible, ou bien d'avancer de plus en 
 plus dans la profondeur de contrdes sauvages ou k chaque 
 pas qu'U accomplit les distances accroissent les difficult^s et 
 les charges auxquelles il s'expose. 
 
 " Tel a ete le sort de tons les pays qui out ete places dans 
 les m^mes conditions. Les Etats-Unis en Amerique, la 
 France en Algerie, la Hollande dans ses Colonies, I'Angle- 
 terre aux Indes ; tons ont etc in^vitablement entraines a 
 suivre cette marche progressive ou Tambition a moins de 
 part que I'imperieuse n^cessit^ et ou la plus grande difficulte 
 consiste k savoir s'arrSter. 
 
 " C'est aussi la raison qui a conduit le Gouvemement 
 Imperial k s'etablir d'abord d'un c6t6 sur la Syr-Daria, de 
 I'autre sm- le Lac Issik-Kul, et a consolider ces deux lignes 
 par des forts avances qui peu a pen ont pen^trd au cceur 
 de ces regions lointaines sans cependant parvenir k etablir 
 au dela la tranquillite indispensable a la security de nos 
 frontieres. 
 
 " La cause de cette instabOite reside d'abord dans le fait 
 qu'entre les points extremes de cette double ligne il y a 
 un immense espace inoccup6, ou les invasions des tribus 
 pillardes continuent a paralyser toute colonisation et toute 
 commerce par caravanes ; ensuite dans les fluctuations per- 
 petuelles de la situation politique de ces contr6es, ou le 
 Turkestan et le Khokand tant6t r^unis, tant6t separ^s, 
 toujours en guerre, soit entre eux, soit avec le Bokhara, 
 n'offraient aucune possibility de relations fixes ni de trans- 
 actions r^gulieres quelconques. 
 
 " Le Gouvemement Imperial s'est done vu plac6, malgr6 
 
234 APPENDIX 
 
 lui, dans I'alternative que nous avons indiqtt^, c'est-a-dire, 
 ou de laisser se perpetuer un 6tat de desordre permanent 
 qui paralyse toute s6curit6 et tout progres, ou de se con- 
 damner a des expeditions couteuses et lointaines sans aucun 
 resultat pratique et qu'il faut toujours recommencer, ou 
 enfin d'entrer dans la voie inddfinie de conqu§tes et d'an- 
 nexions qui a conduit I'Angleterre a TEmpire des Indes, en 
 chercliant a soumettre I'un apres I'autre, par la force des 
 armes, les petits Etats independants dont les moeurs piUardes 
 et turbulentes et les perp6tuelles revoltes ne laissent a leurs 
 voisins ni trgve ni repos. 
 
 "Ni Fun ni I'autre de ces alternatives ne repondait an 
 but que s'est tracd la politique de notre auguste Maitre, et 
 qui est non d'etrendre hors de toute proportion raisonnable 
 les contrdes soumises k son sceptre, mais d'y asseoir sa domi- 
 nation sur des bases solides, d'en garantir la s6curit6 et d'y 
 d^velopper rorganisation sociale, le commerce, le bien4tre 
 et la civilisation. 
 
 " Notre t^che dtait done de rechercber un systeme propre 
 k atteindre ce triple but. 
 
 " A cet effet les principes suivants ont et6 pos^s : — 
 "1. II a 6t6 jug6 indispensable que les deux lignes forti- 
 fiees de nos f rontife-es, I'une partant de la Chine jusqu'au 
 Lac Issili-Kul, I'autre partant de la Mer d'Aral le long de 
 la Syr-Daria, fussent r^unies par des points fortifito de 
 maniere a ce que tons nos postes fussent a mgme de se 
 soutenir mutuellement et ne laissassent aucun intervalle par 
 oil pussent s'effectuer impunement les invasions et les depre- 
 dations des tribus nomades. 
 
 " 2. II etait essentiel que la ligne ainsi compl6tee de nos 
 forts avanc6s fut situ6e dans une contr^e assez fertile, non 
 
APPENDIX 235 
 
 seulement pour assurer leur approvisionnement, mais aussi 
 pour faciliter la colonisation regulifere qui seule peut preparer 
 au pays occupe un avenir de stabilite et de prosperite, en 
 gagnant k la vie civilisee les peuplades avoisinantes. 
 
 "Enfin, 3. 11 6tait urgent de fixer cette ligne d'une 
 maniere definitive afin d'echapper aux entrainements dan- 
 gereux et presque inevitables qui de repression en reprdsailles 
 pouvait aboutir a une extension illimitee. 
 
 " Dans ce but U faUait poser les bases d'un systeme fond^ 
 non seulement sur la raison qui peut gtre elastique, mais sur 
 les conditions gfegrapliiques et politiques qui sont fixes et 
 permanentes. 
 
 " Ce systeme nous etait indique par un fait trfes simple, 
 resultant d'une longue experience, c'est-a-dire, que les tribus 
 nomades, qu'on ne peut saisir ni cMtier, ni contenir efficace- 
 ment, sont pour nous le voisinage le plus incommode, et que 
 par centre les populations agricoles et commergantes, fixees 
 au sol et dotees d'un organisme sociale plus developpd, nous 
 offrent la chance d'un voisinage tolerable et de relations 
 perfectibles. 
 
 " La ligne de nos frontieres devait done englober les 
 premieres, elle devait s'arrfiter a la limite des secondes. 
 
 " Ces trois principes donnent I'expUcation claire, naturelle 
 et logique des demieres operations militaires accomplies dans 
 I'Asie Centrale. 
 
 " En effet, la ligne piimitive de nos frontieres le long de 
 la Syr-Daria jusqu'au Fort Perovski d'un cote, et de I'autre 
 jusqu'au Lac Issik-Kul, avait I'inconvenient d'etre presque 
 a la limite du desert. Elle etait interrompue sur un immense 
 espace entre les deux points extremes, elles n'offrait pas 
 assez de ressources a nos troupes et laissait en dehors des 
 
236 APPENDIX 
 
 tribus sans coMsion avec lesquelles nuUe stability n'etait 
 possible. 
 
 " Malgr6 notre repugnance a donner a nos fronti^res une 
 plus grande ^tendue, ces motifs avaient neanmoins 6t& assez 
 puissants pour determiner le Gouvemement Imperial a etablir 
 cette ligne entre le Lac Issik-Kul et la Syr-Daria, en forti- 
 fiant la ville de Chemkent rdcemment occup^e par nous. 
 
 "En adoptant cette ligne nous obtenons un double r6- 
 sultat. D'un c6te la contr^e qu'elle embrasse est fertile, 
 bois6e, arrosee par de nombreux cours d'eau ; elle est habitue 
 en partie par des tribus Kirghiz qui ont dej^ reconnu notre 
 domination ; elle offre done des Elements f avorables k la 
 colonisation et k I'approvisionnement de nos gamisons. De 
 I'autre elle nous donne pour voisins immddiats les populations 
 agricoles et commergantes du Khokand. 
 
 " Nous nous trouvons en face d'un milieu social plus soHde, 
 plus compact, moins mobile, mieux organist ; et cette con- 
 sideration marque avec une precision g6ographique la limite 
 ou I'inter^t et la raison nous prescrivent d'arriver et nous 
 commandent de nous arrSter, parce que d'une part toute 
 extension ultdrieure de notre domination rencontrant desor- 
 mais non plus des milieux inconstants, comme les tribus 
 nomades, mais des Etats plus rdguliferement constituds, 
 exigerait des efforts considerables et nous entrainerait d'an- 
 nexion en annexion dans des complications incalculables — et 
 que d'autre part ayant desormais pour voisins de pareils 
 Etats malgre leur civilisation arrierde et I'instabilite de leur 
 condition politique, nous pouvons neanmoins esperer que des 
 relations reguli^res pourront un jour se substituer pour 
 I'avantage commun aux desordres permanents qui ont para- 
 lyse jusqu'ici I'essor de ces contrees. 
 
APPENDIX 237 
 
 " Tels soat, Monsieur, les interets qui servent de mobile a 
 la politique de notre august Mattre dans I'Asie Centrale ; tel 
 est le but final que les ordres se Sa Majeste Imperiale ont 
 trac6 a Taction de son Cabinet. 
 
 " Vous ^tes invite a puiser dans ces considerations le sens 
 des explications que vous fournirez au Gouvernement aupres 
 duquel vous 6tes accredite, si vous etes interpelle ou si vous 
 voyez s'accrediter des suppositions erronees quant a notre 
 action dans ces contrees lointaines. 
 
 " Je n'ai pas besoin d'insister sur I'int^rSt evident que la 
 Russie a ne pas agrandir son territoire et surtout a ne pas se 
 creer aux extremites des complications qui ne peuvent que 
 retarder et paralyse son developpement interieur. 
 
 " Le programme que je viens de tracer rentre dans cet 
 ordre didees. 
 
 " Bien souvent durant ces demieres annees on s'est plu a 
 assigner pour mission a la Eussie de civiliser les contreSs qui 
 I'avoisinent sur le continent Asiatique. 
 
 " Les progres de la civilisation n'ont pas d'agent plus 
 efficace que les relations commerciales. Celles-ci pour se 
 developper exigent partout I'ordre et la stabilite, mais en 
 Asie elles r^clament une transformation profonde dans les 
 mceurs. H faut avant tout faire comprendre aux peuples 
 Asiatiques qu'U y a plus d'avantage pour eux a favoriser et 
 assurer le commerce des caravanes qu'a les piller. 
 
 " Ces notions elementaires ne peuvent penetrer dans la con- 
 science publique que 1^ ou il y a un public, c'est^-dire un organ- 
 isme social et un Gouvernement qui le dirige et le repr^sente. 
 
 " Nous accomplissons la premiere partie de cette t^che en 
 portant notre frontiere k la limite ou se rencontrent ces 
 conditions indispensables. 
 
238 APPENDIX 
 
 " Nous accomplissons la seconde en nous afctachant desor- 
 mais a. prouver aux Etats voisins par un systeme de fermete 
 quant a la repression de leurs mef aits, mais en m^me temps 
 de moderation et de justice dans I'emploi de la force et de 
 respect pour leur ind^pendance, que la Eussie n'est pas leur 
 ennemi, qu'elle ne nourrit a leur egard aucune vue de con- 
 qufite, et que des relations paciiiques et' commerciales avec 
 elle Bont plus profitables que le desordre, le pillage, les re- 
 pr^sailles et la guerre en permanence. 
 
 " En se consacrant a cette t&che, le Cabinet Imperial 
 s'inspire des int6r6ts de la Eussie. II croit servir en mime 
 temps les int^rSts de la civilisation et de I'humanite. II a 
 droit de compter sur une appreciation equitable et loyale de 
 a marche qu'il poursuit et des prinoipes qui le guident. 
 
 " (Signe) " GrOKTSCHAKOFF." 
 
 The Will of Peter the Geeat, 
 
 As given in " Des Progres de la Puissance Eusse," by M. 
 Lesur ; published in Paris in 1812. 
 
 I. Neglect nothing which can introduce European manners 
 and customs into Eussia, and with this object gain the 
 co-operation of the various Courts, and especially the learned 
 men of Europe, by means of interesting speculations, by 
 philanthropic and philosophical principles, or by any other 
 suitable means. 
 
 II. Maintain the State in a condition of perpetual war, 
 in order that the troops may be inured to warfare, and so 
 
APPENDIX 239 
 
 that the whole nation may always be kept in training and 
 ready to march at the first signal. 
 
 III. Extend our dominions by every means on the north 
 along the Baltic, as well as towards the south along the 
 shores of the Black Sea ; and for this purpose : — 
 
 IV. Excite the jealousy of England, Denmark, and 
 Brandenburg against the Swedes, by means of which these 
 Powers will disregard any encroachments we may make on 
 that State, and which we wiU end by subjugating. 
 
 V. Interest the House of Austria in the expulsion of the 
 Turk from Europe, and under this pretext maintain a 
 permanent army and establish dockyards on the shores of 
 the Black Sea, and thus, by ever moving forward, we will 
 eventually reach Constantinople. 
 
 VI. Keep up a state of anarchy in Poland, influence the 
 national assembhes, and above all regulate the election of its 
 kings ; spUt it up on every occasion that presents itself, and 
 finally subjugate it. 
 
 VII. Enter into a close alHance with England, and main- 
 tain direct relations with her by means of a good commercial 
 treaty ; allow her even to exercise a certain monopoly in the 
 interior of the State, so that a good understanding may be 
 by degrees established between the Enghsh merchants and 
 sailors and ours, who on their part are in favour of every- 
 thing which tends to perfect and strengthen the Russian navy, 
 by aid of which it is necessary to at once strive for mastery 
 over the Baltic and in the Black Sea — ^the keystone on 
 which the speedy success of the scheme depends. 
 
 VIII. Bear in mind that the commerce of India is the 
 commerce of the world, and that he who can exclusively 
 command it is dictator of Europe. No occasion should 
 
240 APPENDIX 
 
 therefore be lost to provoke war with Persia, to hasten its 
 decay, to advance on the Persian Gulf, and then to endea- 
 vour to re-establish the ancient trade of the Levant through 
 Syria. 
 
 IX. Always interfere, either by force of arms or by 
 intrigue, in the quarrels of the European Powers, and especi- 
 ally in those of Germany ; and with this object : — 
 
 X. Seek after and maintain an alliance with Austria, 
 encourage her in her favourite idea of national predominance, 
 profit by the slightest ascendency gained over her to entangle 
 her in disastrous wai's, so that she may be gradually 
 weakened ; even help her sometimes ; but incessantly stir 
 up against her the enmity of the whole of Europe, but 
 particularly of Germany, by rousing the jealousy and distrust 
 of the German princes. 
 
 XI. Always select wives for Eussian princes from among 
 the German princesses, so that by thus multiplying alliances 
 based on close relationship and mutual interest, we will 
 increase our influence over that Empire. 
 
 XII. Make use of the power of the Church over the dis- 
 united and schismatioal Greeks who are scattered over 
 Hungary, Turkey, and the southern parts of Poland, gain 
 them over by every possible means, pose as their protectors, 
 and establish a claim to religious supremacy over them. 
 Under this pretext, and with their help, Turkey will be 
 conquered, and Poland, unable any longer to stand alone, 
 either by its own strength or by means of political 
 connections, will voluntarily place itself in subjection 
 to us. 
 
 XIII. From that time every moment will be precious to 
 us. All our batteries must be secretly prepared to strike 
 
APPENDIX 241 
 
 the great blow, and so that they can strike with such order, 
 precision, and rapidity as to give Europe no time for 
 preparation. The first step will be to propose very secretly, 
 and with the greatest circumspection, first to the Court of 
 Versailles and then to that of Vienna, to divide with one 
 of them the Empire of the World ; and by mentioning that 
 Russia is virtually ruler of the Eastern World, and has 
 nothing to gain but the title, this proposal will probably not 
 arouse their suspicion. It is undoubted that this project 
 cannot fail to please them, and war will be kindled between 
 them which will soon become general, both on account of 
 the connections and widespread relationships between these 
 two rival courts and natural enemies, and because of the 
 interests which will compel the other Powers of Europe to 
 take part in the struggle. 
 
 XIV. In the midst of this general discord, Russia will be 
 asked for help, first by one and then by another of the 
 belligerent powers ; and having hesitated long enough to 
 give them time to exhaust themselves, and to enable her 
 to assemble her own armies, she will at last appear to decide 
 in favour of the House of Austria, and while she pushes 
 her irregular troops forward to the Rhine, she will at once 
 follow them up with the hordes of Asia ; and as they 'advance 
 into Germany, two large fleets filled with a portion of the 
 same hordes must set sail, one from the Sea of Azoff and the 
 other from the port of Archangel, under convoy of war 
 vessels from the Black Sea and Baltic. They will suddenly 
 appear in the Mediterranean and Northern Ocean, and 
 inundate Italy, Spain, and France with these fierce and 
 rapacious nomads, who will plunder a portion of the in- 
 habitants, carry off others into slavery to re-people the deserts 
 
 R 
 
242 APPENDIX 
 
 of Siberia, and render the remainder incapable of escaping 
 from our yoke. All these distractions will afford such great 
 opportunities to the regular troops, that they will be able to 
 act with a degree of energy and precision which will ensure 
 the subjugation of the rest of Europe. 
 
©EH^M^jl 
 
U ASIIA 
 
INDEX 
 
 Afghan Boundary Conunission, 
 the, 46 
 
 Afghanistan, British disasters in, 
 1841-42, 14 ; a huffer between 
 India and Bussia, 150 ; the Af- 
 ghan wars, 151 ; two schools of 
 British policy, 152 ; nature of 
 country, 164 ; food supply, 165 ; 
 origin of people, 168; religion, 
 169 ; relative positions of Eussia 
 and England, 170; impossibility 
 of the country remaining neutral, 
 172 ; a " scientific "frontier, 173; 
 with Beluchistan the only real 
 barrier for defence of India, 214 ; 
 country admirably adapted for 
 defence, 217 ; plentiful fighting 
 material available, 218 
 
 Akhal Tekk^s, expedition against 
 the, 40 
 
 Ak-Mechet, fortress of Khokand, 
 capture of, 19 
 
 Alexander I., scheme for invasion 
 of India, 10 
 
 Ashurada, Bnssia takes possession 
 ^of, 16 
 
 Assurances of Bussia in 1869 and 
 1873, 37 ; in 1878, 38 ; in 1881, 
 43 
 
 Bazaabs, Central Asia, 83 
 Bell, Colonel Mark S., on food 
 supply in Afghanistan, 165 ; on 
 lines of defence for India, 223 
 Beluchistan, facilities for travers- 
 ing, 177 ; with Afghanistan, the 
 
 real barrier for defence of India, 
 214 
 Black Sea, nature of Bussian con- 
 trol of, 190 
 Bokhara, subjugation of, 21 
 Brackenbury, Sir H., on want of 
 British officers in Indian army, 
 214 
 British Muscovy Company, the, 6 
 British policy regarding Bussian 
 
 advance, 150 
 Bureaucracy in India, 128 
 
 Cavagnaei, Sir Louis, murder of, 
 
 42 
 Central Asia: climate, 55; minerals, 
 
 57 ; races, 58 ; religions, 75 ; 
 
 towns, 81 ; modes of travel. 111 ; 
 
 ancient civilization, 117 
 Chimkent, seizure of, 20 
 Chinese travellers in Central Asia, 
 
 120 
 Communications, importance of, 
 
 recognized by Bussia, 194, 225 
 « Comwallis Settlement," the, 137 
 Cossacks : expedition to Ehiva, 4 ; 
 
 description of, 70 ; mode of 
 
 fighting of, 73 
 Crimea, annexation of the, 8 
 Cnrzon, Lord, on concession of port 
 
 on Persian Gulf to Bussia, 176 
 
 DoLQOEorKOPP, Prince, on policy 
 of Bussia in Central Asia, 38 
 
 Dufferin, Marquis of, on defence 
 of India, 149, 202 
 
 243 
 
244 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Duhamel, his scheme for invasion 
 
 of India, 18 
 Dnrand, Sir Henry, on " fictitious 
 
 importance" of Herat, 167 
 
 Elliott, Sir Charles, on Indian 
 poverty, 138 
 
 Europe, danger to, of Bussian as- 
 cendency in the East, 226 
 
 Gebmant, interests of, in Asia, 
 227 
 
 Gladstone, action of, in Afghan- 
 istan, 42 
 
 Golden Horde, the, 1, 187 
 
 Gortschakoff, Prince, circular note 
 by, on Bussian forward move- 
 naent, App. 231 
 
 Griffin, Sir Lepel, on difference in 
 fighting quality of various races 
 in India, 131 
 
 Grodckoff's ride to Herat, 39 
 
 Heeat, Grodckoff's ride to, 39 ; 
 its seizure by Bussia easy, 51 ; 
 probable early occupation of, by 
 Bussia, 163 ; importance of com- 
 munications with, 165 ; already 
 at Bussia's mercy, 171 ; the 
 "key of India," 221 
 
 Hindu money-lenders in Central 
 Asia, 87 ; in the Punjaub, 133 
 
 Hordes, the three, 31 
 
 Horse-breeding in Central Asia, 
 108 
 
 Ignatiefp, mission to Khiva and 
 Bokhara, 18 
 
 India, British rule in, nature of, 
 126 ; tendency towards bureau- 
 cracy, 128 ; different races, 130 ; 
 unsuitability of complex admin- 
 istration for Orientals, 132 ; in- 
 crease of discontent, 133 ; Hindu 
 money-lenders in Punjaub, 133 ; 
 impoverishment of peasantry, 
 
 184 ; necessity for reform, 135 ; 
 taxation contrasted with that in 
 Bussian dominions, 136 ; charac- 
 ter of assurances of loyalty by 
 native princes, 136; dangers 
 from over-taxation, 138 ; educa- 
 tion, 189; frontier administra- 
 tion, 141 ; turbulence of trans- 
 frontier tribes, 146 
 
 India, importance of, 203 
 
 , invasion of, project of Napo- 
 leon I, and Emperor Paul I., 9, 
 190 ; of Napoleon I. and Em- 
 peror Alexander I., 10; of 
 General Duhamel, 18 ; Bussia's 
 methods for, 195 ; probable route 
 of, 220 
 
 , the defence of, different pro- 
 posals for, 211; true defence is 
 to preserve Afghanistan and 
 Beluchistan as barriers, 214; 
 present policy ineffective, 215; 
 what must be done, 223 ; strate- 
 gic railways ', wanted, 224 ; a 
 European question, 226 
 
 Indo-Bussian question, date of 
 beginning of, 150 i 
 
 JoNBB, Sir Harford, the first British 
 statesman to recognize Bussian 
 danger, 10 
 
 Kabul, British retreat from, 15 ; 
 foundries and factories at, 169 
 
 Kahnuks, the, 66 
 
 Kbanikoff mission, 19 
 
 Khiva, Cossack expedition to, 4 ; 
 the Khanate of, 12 ; the door to 
 Central Asia, 25; capitulation 
 of, 29 
 
 Kirghiz, the, Peter the Great's 
 definition of, 17; antiquity of, 
 31; subjection to Bussia, 83; 
 tribes, 60; description of, 61; 
 method of reckoning time, 122 
 
 Kok-tash, the, 97 
 
 Krasnovodsk, occupation of, 24 
 
 Kuldja, annexation of, 23 ; evacua- 
 tion of, 24 
 
INDEX 
 
 245 
 
 Lackencb, Sir John, on Afghan- 
 istan, 157 ; on Russian advance, 
 158 
 
 Lazareff, General, expedition 
 against the Akhal Tekkes, 40 ; 
 ite defeat, 41 ■ 
 
 Lomakin's expedition against the 
 Akhal-Tekkes, 40 ; its defeat at 
 Dengha Tepe', 42 
 
 Mabkasoff, expedition to Khiva, 
 
 26; campaign against the 
 
 Tekke's, 27 
 Merv, occupation of, 43 ; value of, 
 
 for communications, 44 
 Merv-Kushk railway, the, 49 
 Mesopotamia, necessity for railway 
 
 through, 227 
 Muscovite power, rise of, 2 
 
 Napoleon I., schemes for invasion 
 of India, 9 ; despatch of envoys 
 to Teheran, 178 
 
 Okenbtjrg, 99 
 
 Pandjbh incident, events con- 
 nected with, 47 
 
 Paul I., scheme for invasion of 
 India, 9, 190 
 
 Perovski, expedition of, 12 
 
 Persia: Eussian plans regarding, 
 176; the easiest overland route 
 to liidia, 177; intercourse with 
 Britain, 177 ; increase of Russian 
 Influence, 179; importance of 
 Persian Gulf to England, 180 ; 
 Russia's policy, 182; necessity 
 for British activity, 182 
 
 Persian Gulf, Russian desire for 
 railway to, 48, 176, 211, 228; 
 British treaty rights in, 178; 
 control of, indispensable to 
 England, 180 
 
 Peter the Great, the Will of, 8 ; 
 
 text of, 238 (Appendix) ; his 
 
 desire to gain access to the open 
 
 sea, 190 
 Present-giving in Central Asia, 
 
 114 
 
 Qtjbtta, railways to, 174 
 
 Railways: Merv-Kushk, 49; Quet- 
 ta, 174 ; Russian lines in Persia, 
 181 ; Russia's conquests by, 193 ; 
 strategic, necessary for defence 
 of India, 224 ; necessity for line 
 through Mesopotamia, 227 
 
 Eawlinson, Sir Henry, on danger 
 of Russian occupation of Herat, 
 152; on nature of Eussian ad- 
 vance, 199; on importance of 
 Herat, 222 
 
 Ridgway, Sir George, on Herat 
 Valley, 166 
 
 Russia: methods of dealing with 
 Asiatics, 5, 198, 208 ; policy in 
 Central Asia, 32, 38, 182 ; man- 
 ner of encroachment upon India, 
 205; rising prestige in Asia, 
 208 
 
 in Central Asia: policy of 
 
 expansion, 183; migratory na- 
 ture of Slav race, 186 ; desire to 
 gain access to open sea, 190; 
 Russia's awakening, 192 ; at- 
 tempts at extension of empire 
 in Europe, 192; expansion of 
 empire in Asia, 193 ; conquests 
 by railway, 193; motives for 
 absorption of Central Asian pro- 
 vinces, 194; rebellion impos- 
 sible, 197 ; Russian methods of 
 dealing with natives, 198 
 
 Russian advance towards India, 
 two schools of British policy 
 regarding, 152; diflScnlties ex- 
 aggerated, 167; what England 
 has done, 173 
 
 Russo-Turkish Campaign, the, 34 
 192 
 
246 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Samarkand, siege of, 21 ; his- 
 torical importance of, 94 
 
 San Stefano, events leading up to 
 treaty of, 34 
 
 Serfdom, abolition of, 188 
 
 Shore Ali, position of, after Berlin 
 Congress, 36 
 
 Siberia : iirst advance of Russians, 2 ; 
 Yermak's expedition, 3; area 
 sufficient to meet wants of 
 Bussia's population for centuries, 
 195 
 
 Skobeleff, expedition to Khiva, 25 ; 
 on Central Asian Eailway, 50 ; 
 on invasion of India, 35, 195, 201 
 
 Slav race, migratory nature of, 186 
 
 Sobolev, General, on the destiny of 
 Herat, 171; on balance of povrer 
 in Asia, 202 
 
 Steppe Commission, the, 22 
 
 Steppe forts, method of construc- 
 tion of, 74 
 
 StolietofE's mission to Kabul, 36 
 
 Tadjiks, the, 59 
 
 Tashkent, surrender of, 20; 
 
 typical tovfn of the new regime, 
 
 81 
 Teheran, Convention of, 43 
 Tekkes, campaign against the, 27 ; 
 
 final subjection, 29 
 Thorburn, S. S., on litigation in 
 
 India, 132 ; on English system of 
 
 education in India, 140 
 Trans-Caucasus, various races in- 
 habiting the, 69 
 Trans-Siberian Eailway, strategic 
 
 value of, 225 
 Travel, modes of, in Central Asia, 
 
 111 
 Turkestan, formation of, 22 
 Tnrkistan, Mosque of, 98 
 Turkomanchi, Treaty of, 15 
 
 Uzbeks, the, 59 
 
 Wyllie, Mr., on the " phantom of 
 a Russian invasion," 152 
 
 Yakoob Khan, deposition of, 42 
 Yermak's expedition, 3 
 
 THE END 
 
 LOHDOK : PHINTBD BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIUITED, 
 STAFFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 
 
HARPER & BROTHERS' NEW BOOKS. 
 
 SOUTH AFRICAN PROGRAMME. 
 
 By ARCHIBALD E. CoLQUHOUN. [/« the press. 
 
 An attempt to forecast the reconstruction of South 
 Africa which will be rendered necessary when the English 
 conquer the two Repuhlics. 
 
 A New Cheap Bdition of 
 
 WHITE MAN'S AFRICA. 
 
 By PouLTNET BiGELOW. With a Special New Intro- 
 duction by the Author. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. 
 
 NOTE. — The Daily Mail says : " One of the best personal accounts 
 of President Kruger is contained in Mr. Poultney Bigelow's 'White 
 Man's Africa.' " 
 
 " By a long way the best, fullest, most interesting, and most enter- 
 taining account of South Africa as it exists to-day." — African Critic. 
 
 " Mr. Bigelow's volume is the brightest, the most comprehensive, and 
 the most impartial of the dozens that have reached us about South 
 African affairs." — Athensswn. 
 
 THE UNKNOWN. 
 
 By CAMItLE FliAMMAEION. 
 
 An inquiry into psychical phenomena by the great 
 French scientist. Demy 8vo, 488 pages. Cloth, 7s. Qd. 
 
 CONVERSATIONS WITH . . . 
 
 . . . PRINCE BISMARCK. 
 
 Collected by Heineich von PoscHiisreER. English 
 
 Edition, edited, with an Introduction, by Sidney 
 
 Whitman. Crown 8vo. With Portrait. Cloth 
 
 decorated. 6s. 
 
 Much has been already given to the world of the life of the Great 
 
 Statesman. But here, togeuier with some of his most important political 
 
 conversations, will be found, for the first time in book form, the most 
 
 remarkable of the interviews which startled the world after Bismarck's 
 
 dismissal in 1890. 
 
 London and New Yokk: HARPER & BROTHERS. 
 
standard Works on the Eastern (Juestion. 
 
 By ARCHIBALD R. COLQUHOUN, 
 Gold Medallist of the JBoyal Geographical Society, 
 
 OVERLAND TO CHINA. 
 
 In decorated cloth biuding. With Maps, Plans, and 
 Index. 16s. 
 
 Being an account of the development of Asiatic Eussia, 
 the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and a study 
 of the rapid ascendency of Eussian Influence in China 
 during the past few years. 
 
 CHINA IN TRANSFORMATION. 
 
 By the same Author, ^fith Maps, Plans, &c. 16s. 
 
 Sib C. Scott writes to Lobd Salisbukt : " St. Petersburg. — I en- 
 deavoured in vain to obtain some light as to the real direction of the 
 line in question " (Tien-Tsin to Sin-Ming-Ting). " I v^as finally able 
 to find a copy of Colquhoun's ' China in Transformation,' to which a map 
 of Manchuria ie attached, giving the exact locality of Sin-Ming-Ting 
 . . . and on this same map I found for the first time traced a project 
 for the northern extension of the line, Tien-tsin-Shanhaikan to Siu- 
 Ming-Ting, and from thence to Mukden." 
 
 Extract from Blue Bode, " China, No. 2," 
 
 By LORD CHARLES BERESFORD. 
 
 THE BREAK-UP OF CHINA. 
 
 With an Account of its present Commerce, Currency, 
 Waterways, Armies, Railways, Politics, and Future 
 Prospects. With Maps. Cloth, 12s. 
 
 By STAFFORD RANSOME. 
 
 JAPAN IN TRANSITION: 
 
 A Comparative Study of the Progress, Policy, and 
 Methods of the Japanese since their War with China. 
 With 4 Maps and fully Illustrated. Cloth, decorated 
 in gold, 16s. 
 
 London and New Yobk: HARPER & BROTHERS.