| Show ABIDING TIME The announcement comes from across the seas that Russian newspapers frankly avow that the matter of the Zulkifar Pass will be kept open until after the English elections are over causes some excitement excite-ment in English political circles Whose influence shall dominate in Afghanistan Englands or Russias is the one question ques-tion that today disturbs the diplomatic sea of Europe England is apprehensive lest her empire in India be threatened and any and every movement of Russian troops in Central Asia is not only viewed with alarm but seems to turn the brains of half of England At every such new and unapologizedfor movement on the part of Russia the Tory press of England mourns the death of Beaconsfield and cries aloud for the scientific frontier which that statesman was to have given England on the Indian Empire A writer in the Nineteenth Century for July Mr John Slagg M P gives a history his-tory of that phantom thing in British politics a scientific frontier for India and he shows in an incontrovertible way that the scientific frontier is as indefinite indefin-ite as the boundaries of the Garden of Eden The first frontier which military science defined yas a plan by the late Sir George Colley which was to describe it in the language of Sir George a line running from the Hindoo Kush along the Paropamisus to Herat and thence down the western frontier of Afghanistan and Beloochistan to the Arabian Ara-bian Sea Beaconsfield merely adopted this plan he in no wise formulating it The next frontier was the one acquired by the Treaty of Gundamuk which was merely the occupation of the Pisheen Valley after the evacuation of Candahar in accordance with the terms of that treaty the third and last scientific frontier was the occupation of the country coun-try included within the sides of the triangle tri-angle formed by 1 Cabul Ghuznee and Jellalabad This latter was abandoned in accordance with the advice of General Sir Frederick Roberts The scientific frontier has been a catching phrase rather than an established fact But why should England be so fearful for her Indian Empire that every time Russia has moved sho has had spasms Mr Slagti in the article referred to gives the whole history of the difficulty between the two countries He says One of the chief causes however of our recent difficulties with Russia is the unreasonable un-reasonable attitude which during the last fifty years it has pleased this country to maintain in relation to the Russian advance in Central Asia During this halfcentury we have added enormously to our Indian Empire We have waged wars deposed princes and annexed territories and unquestionable as may be much that Russia has done in Central Asia no part of her action there from a moral point of view could be more indefensible inde-fensible than our annexation of Oude our conquest of Sind our to invasions of Afghanistan our seizure of Berars and many other of our proceedings in India that might be named Nevertheless no European Power has thought fit to address protests to our Foreign Office on the subject of our Indian In-dian policy or to inquire at every movement of our Indian garrison what we were about now what we intended to do next and how far it was our purpose to go It is quite certain that if any Power had done so it would have been told very curtly and decisively I de-cisively to mind its own bussines Yet for the last fifty years precisely this has been I the course which we have pursued in relation I tion to Russia Because we chose to regard j I Herat as tho key of India our Ministers II our Press and the nation itself have brought I themselves to believe that we had some I right ts interfere with the Russian advance i in Central Asia It is to be regretted that Russia did not at the outset declare that she acknowledged no such right of either interference I inter-ference or inquisition and that her action in Central Asia would be regulated by her I own interests and not by British susceptibilities I suscepti-bilities j Such would have been Russias true policy and her attitude in regard to the I Zulkifar Pass would seem to indicate that she proposes tq adopt it 1 It is plain to see that Mr Slagg is a i i Liberal and prefers to rely on commonsense j common-sense instead of being forever in a state j I of nervousness and alarm He believes j that the frontier upon which to oppose an i invasion if any such shall be undertaken i I under-taken is India herself At any rate we must make up our minds to meet a Russian invasion on Indian soil or we must undertake the conquest and fortifi1 i cation of Afghanistan No third course is open to us An alliance with the Afghans Af-ghans and not merely a paper alliance t I with a puppet Ameeryhiis been rendered J impossible by our own action and we r1IiIii lf i < t 1QiII must enter their country as conquerors or enter it not at all Meanwhile Russia is abiding her time itf |
