'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎84] (115/714)

PERSIA
Kuropatkin has already (1891) inaugurated quite a new reign in
ranscaspia, and military exercise and movement are the order of
the day. His salary is 1,4007. a year, and 8001. allowances, a
reduction of G00L upon the pay of Komaroff. M. Lessar is better
acquainted, perhaps, than any living Russian with the Central
Asian and frontier questions on their English as well as their
Russian side. General Vrevsky is understood to be a man of
action. His predecessor. General Rosenbach. was a man of peace.
In the coincidence, therefore, of these three appointments,
Englishmen have reasonable cause for believing, not that the
Central Asian question is necessarily about to enter upon a new
or violent stage, but that the interests of Russia in those regions
are likely to be safeguarded with uncommon vigilance. Since
writ in"' these words I have heard that General Kuropatkin has at
the same time given a taste of his quality and initiated his
by ordering the expulsion of all foreigners from Transcaspia,
including the one Englishman whom I have before mentioned.
It cannot indeed escape our notice that Russia is with inuch
prudence utilising a period of peace and repose for the systematic
consolidation of her position in her new territories. The
strain of conquest was great, and produced a temporary
dislocation of force. The crisis of 1885 found her, re
latively, even less prepared for advance than ourselves,
intervening five years, however, she has made great and
invaluable strides, while the still incomplete character of many of
the undertakings to which I have referred is an evidence that her
ambitions fall as yet far short of realisation. Sweeping our eye
in retrospect over the entire stage from the Black Sea to the Oxus,
we note the piercing of the Suram Tunnel and consequent addition
to the utility of the Transcaucasian Railway ; the contemplated lines
from the north of the Caucasus to the south at Tiflis, or to the
Caspian at Petrofsk; the steady enlargement of the Caspian
marine; the change of railway terminus to Krasnovodsk; the
increase of rolling stock and mechanical improvements on the
Transcaspian line; the emancipation of the Transcaspian Govern
ment, and still •further dissolution of tribal cohesion among the
Turkomans; the construction of new barracks at Merv, Amu
Daria, Kerki, and other places, and of military cantonments at
various spots, notably Sheikh Junaid, near Kara Tepe, on the
Afghan frontier; the appointment of Russian officers and non-
Russian
consolida
tion in
Central
Asia
in