Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎120r] (247/312)

been annexed, and Bokhara placed under a
kind of vassalage. Then Khiva came, and the
mouths of the Oxtis were taken possession of.
After this Russia entered the Turcoman Steppes,
■which extend as far as Mero Korassan, and the
neighbourhood of Herat. What the Cossack has done
in these Steppes, and how far he has pushed his
reconnaissances and established his posts, is not
known. Later on Khokandwas annexed, and Russia
advanced as far as the vast solitudes of Pamir, where
the routes of her officers got almost entangled
with those of English explorers. Finally, topo
graphical missions were sent to the Hissar, the
Karaueglione, and the Valley of the Oxus, and a
few months ago General Kauflmann was preparing
to cross that river and encamp at the entrance to
Afghanistan. The security of India might be com
promised in twenty-four hours, and, thanks to the
complicity of the Ameer of Oabul, an army
of invasion might suddenly debouch by the !
defiles of the Soliman mountains into the
rich plains of the Indus and the Ganges,
in imitation of the great Emperors of the
Middle Ages. It is, therefore, of the highest
importance that the English Government should be
master of the passes which lead to its Indian
Empire, whose security can only be obtained at that
price. The Cabinet of Lord Beaconsfield appears
to have seen this fact from the outset, and the
resolutions attributed to it are in conformity with
the view thus taken."
In connection with the antagonism between j
Russia and England in Asia, the i'ewps states that
Persia is likely to play an important part in the
event of hostilities breaking out. It asserts that the |
Shah had been displaying great activity in the
reorganisation of his army. Officers have been
engaged in Austria ; arms have been ordered in
Europe ; and it anticipates that by next spring it
will be possible for Persia to concentrate eighteen
battalions, five squadrons, and thirty guns on the
Afghan frontier. The new Persian Minister of
war, Mirza Hussein Khan, is said to be a partisan
of Russia. The railway between Ezeli on the
Caspian and Teheran is to be commenced on the
1st of December, and a road is being made between
the capital and the Russian Trans-Caucasian
frontier. The Russian Envoy at Teheran is also
said to be assisting the Shah by his counsels, and he
has promised him more substantial support. The
unanimity with which the Russian press urges on
the Government the duty of supporting Shere Ali
is considered by the Temps as a symptom of un
questionable gravity.
Colonel Stanley, M.P., was present yesterday at
the opening of a new Conservative Club at Black
pool. Referring to the Afghan war, he said that at
the present moment we had no right to complain of
the action of any Government; but without wishing
for aggression or conquest we were determined to
conduct our business in our own untrammelled w iy.
The hon. and gallant member also commented at
length upon the negotiations at and subsequent to
the Berlin Congress,
Sir Lawrence Palk, M,P., and Sir J,
Kennaway, M. P ,, speaking at the annual dinner
of the Axminster Agricultural Society, referred to
Eastern affairs. The former explained his motives
for originating a movement to remonstrate with the
Government for inaction on the Eastern question ;
the latter, ref erring to the Afghan war, said that as
we held India by the sword we must plainly
demonstrate that no stranger shall with impunity
meddle with our North-Western frontier.
PALL. MALL(L'iL!•LL'II^. OrrouFR IO, 1878.
SUMMARY OF THIS MORNING'S NEWS.
The correspondent of the Standard at Simla sends a report, for which he says
he has good authority, that the column under General Ross has passed the fort of
Ali Musjid, and is advancing on Dakka, which will be captured at any cost. A
despatch from Calcutta in the same paper, on the other hand, says that it is
considered improbable that any advance will be made beyond Jumrood for some
days. The Daily Telegraph publishes a telegram from Simla, which states that
General Roberts arrived yesterday at Kohat, where the troops composing the
Kuram column are now rapidly collecting. Two regiments marched yesterday
from that place to Thull.
OCCASIONAL NOTES.
Colonel Burcaby writes to us as follows " In the Times of yester
day is found the following information with reference to the dispo
sition of our troops in Hindostan 'It may be of interest to some (?)
[the nole of interrogation is my own] to learn that the total strength of
our forces on the immediate frontier, from the sea to Abbotabad, including
Kurrachee, Hyderabad, .... together with the reserves at Rawul Pindee
.... and the advanced post of Quetta, amounts to 800 British and
7,000 Efctive cavalry; 12,000 British and 21,000 native infantry, with
102 guns. Many of these are at stations which it is absolutely impossible
to denude of British troops—namely, Umritsir, the headquarters of the
Sikh religion ; Lahore, with its fort and large fanatical population ; Feroze-
pore, with its arsenal; Attock, with its bridge of boats over the Indus.
Then, too, any stoppage of the rail at Jhelum will prevent any very rapid
movement up country,' Now, Sir, all this information is telegraphed from
the Russian Embassy in London to St, Petersburg and Tashkend; from
thence it is retranslated and sent on to the Ameer of Afghanistan. Is it
right on the part of the editor of the Times to publish the above military
data at the present time, when we are probably on the eve of one of the
most serious wars that we have been engaged in since 1815 ? "