Show s p j THE REVIEW The Russians Designs on Herat Forshaclowed THE AfiBlTBATIOX SHJDDLE The Possession of Tenjdeh Has Vheu the Appetite of the Voracious ltu RianiJear The Weeks Review LONDON May 9The AngloRussian situation continues to be enveloped in a cloud of uncertainty It is absolutely impossible to predict what a day may bring forth No sooner had the people begun to become reconciled to the idea of a submission of the difficulty to arbitration than reports began to prevail pre-vail questioning the probability ot there being any arbitration after all the talk as to the great things it was about to accomplish Tonight no one professes to understand what the precise condition condi-tion of the negotiations with Russia may be The average Englishman finds it difficult if not absolutely impossible im-possible to disabuse himself of the feeling feel-ing that whatever Gladstone and Granville Gran-ville may say to the contrary the Russian diplomatists are getting the better of the British Every delay in the negotiations has redounded to Rus sias advantage while the ministers have been talking the Russian railway has been actively pushed towards the Afghan frontier and the Russian troops have seized debatable territory These are facts and the average Briton grows impatient when an attempt is made to belittle their importance or obscure them with a cloud of words The position posi-tion of affairs tonight is so involved in uncertainty and doubt as to create a general feeling of insecurity The feeling feel-ing thnt the proposed arbitration is likely to fall through gains weight from the announcement made today that there is likely to be a considerable delay in preparing prepar-ing the preliminary details There is no denying that this announcement is received by many people with a smile The delay it is said will be necessary in > order to allow the Cabinets of the countries to come to a decision upon the precise points to be submitted to the arbitrator ar-bitrator Some people profess to think this process of arriving at a preliminary understanding will be so fruitful a source of delay that the chances of the arbitration taking place at all are decidedly de-cidedly slight The Cabinet it is thought mayfind themselves as much at sea in deciding what shall be sub mUteiLta the arbitrator asthey veiein trying to come to al understanding in regard to the original difficulty It is humorously suggested that they may be obliged to resort to preliminary arbitration in Order to determine deter-mine what shall be submitted to the arbitrator The possibilities of this sort of diplomacy opens up a rich field to the imaginative statesman This view of the situation gains additional likelihood when one considers the latest exchange of views that has taken place between Granville secretary of State for foreign affairs and De Stael Russian minister Between these diplomats diplo-mats the difference of opinion about such primary questions as the scope of the proposed arbitration and the zone of the delimitation still remain unsettled un-settled Whether these divergent views can be reconciled and a common com-mon standpoint reached from which to consider the main question is by no means certain De Stael has proposed that the whole scheme of arbitration shall be abandoned in case a comparison com-parison of the evidence regarding the Penjdeh incident shall be found to sustain Russias interpretation of the agreement of March 17th Granville is inclined to accede to this proposition but only on condition that Russia will grant a definite defin-ite treaty in which she shall pledge herself her-self not to made any further advance into Afghanistan There is little like lihoqd that Russia will make any such treaty as Granville suggests There is an increasing reason to believe the possession pos-session of Penjdeh has whetted the appetite ap-petite of the voracious Russian bear and that nothing but Herat will long appease its cravings The Russians here in London who are 0 on terms of intimacy with the officials of the Russian embassy do not hesitate to declare openly that Russia intends to take Herat They assert as-sert itwill be an easy matter to obtain the assent of the Ameer to a Russian occupation and they declare that no treaty which should propose to forbid such action on the part of Russia would have any binding effect when the oppdrtunity comes dna made to seize Herat Herat will be seized no matter what the treaty stipulations may be This opportunity is not likely to come immediately they think and Russia they aver will for the present make no advance beyond the line of the frontier front-ier which shall be agreed upon in the coming negotiations atLondon They say further that Russia does not contemplate con-template intervening in the affairs of Herat proprio motu of her own accord but when the local tribes together with the Herates shall ask for the protection of the Czar Russia is bound to incorporate them in her dominions do-minions Englishmen familiar with the story of the annexation of Merv think they understand what the Russians mean when they speak of the local tribes asking the protection of the Czar There a shrewd suspicion afloat that the importunate askingfor protection by the Iervii which the Czarhad no heart to withstand was not quite proprio motu These expressions of opinion and belief on the part of Russians who i have access to the Russian Embassy are a fair reflex of the tone of De Steels recent communicatons to Granville The practical upshot of the whole matter is that Russia refuses to enter into a treaty fixing a definite limit to her territory and binding her to a maintenance of the frontier so fixed unless the rule of the Ameer shall be so firmly kept within r the line of the frontier that all tribal If Ii I i I dis urbances will be promptly repressed I < re-pressed collisions between the Sarakhs J and Afghans prevented and o j Ii I Herat preserved H I |