'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎81] (112/714)

THAN SOASPIA
81
and the Volga at the same time by a rail to Petrofsk from Tsaritsin.
Simultaneously a commission lias been entrusted with the task of
reporting upon the feasibility of a tunnel through the main range
of the Caucasus from Vladikavkas or some neighbouring point
to a station on the Batum-Tiflis line. 1 Surveys are also being
made for a line from Adji-Kabul onthe Batum-Baku line to Astara
on the Persian frontier. The fact that all these rival projects are
at the same moment on the tapis is an indication of the importance
most wisely attached by Russia to the improvement of her direct
communications between European Russia and the Caspian; since
any military operations undertaken upon the eastern side of the
latter sea must depend for their reinforcements and supplies almost
wholly upon correspondence with the West.
While in Transcaspia I penned the following words to the ' Times'
newspaper ; ' My ears have been, as usual, assailed with stories of
Russian the intrigues and scandals, the drinking, gambling, and
morale m other vices, that, unknown to the authorities at home,
T ran s- . . . . . 1 . m
caspia are said to prevail in Russian military circles m irans-
caspia. So persistent and, it may be added, so consistent are
these tales, that they must contain a large percentage of truth.
Young men who have committed indiscretions, or lost money, or
taken to bad habits in European Russia are banished to a tempo-
rary purgatory in Central Asia, in forgetfulness of the fact that
the painful tedium of life in those regions is an incentive rather
than a deterrent to repetitions of the old offence. Accordingly,
every Russian station in Central Asia is rife with gossip and
scandal. Every prominent man has a host of enemies who would
stick at nothing in order to pull him down. An outward show of
discipline masks acute discontent, evil tempers, and ill-regulated
habits. Much must be forgiven in consideration of the frightful
climate and the utterly odious life. But it is questionable whether
a Power so represented in Central Asia is one whose moral prestige
is likely to remain in the ascendant, or whether its forces, if
directed against an enemy, might not be found to have been weak
ened by the long-existing canker.'
These remarks, which were not lightly or unadvisedly written,
1 It is said that such a line, leaving the main railway at a station north of
Vladikavkas, might follow the Roki Defile through the Caucasus, pierce a tunnel
less than five miles in length, and emerge, at a distance of 113 miles, upon Gori,
on the Tifiis Railway. But the cost would be enormous.
VOL. I. G