The Russians at Merv and Herat, and Their Power of Invading India (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from The Russians at Merv and Herat, and Their Power of Invading IndiaWhen one Of the principal feudatory princes of India instructs a London publishing house to purchase for him all the books that have been issued by English and European authors on the Central Asian Question, and to make a special point of acquiring such works as embody the Russian view of the problem, an excuse certainly seems to exist for an Englishman to call the attention of his countrymen to the remarkable changes that have taken place in that question since the annexa tion of Askabad and the evacuation of Candahar. Among those changes may be mentioned the introduc tion of the Caucasian factor into the Central Asian Question, the formation of a new base of operations beyond the Caspian infinitely stronger than the Turk estan one, the completion of railway communication between that base and Russia proper, the extraordinary development of the Caspian Marine, the opening up of commercial relations with Merv, the discovery by Lesser of an easy road to Herat, and the surveys of Russia for a railway, needing only a few millions to connect her Empire with India. In 1878, when Kaufmann assembled his troops on the Bokharan frontier to march upon Cabul and India, he was distant six months from the terminal point of I the Russian railway system - Orenburg. Were an advance ordered from Askabad to-morrow, the Russian commander would be only six days distant from the present terminal point of the railway system - Kizil Arvat. The expedition to the frontier of India in 1878 had before it a march of more than 700 miles to Cabul, a broad and rapid river, ill provided with boats, and the stupendous mountain range of the Hindoo Koosh, with passes feet high, to say nothing of the difficult highlands and deserts of Bokhara. Between Askabad and Herat today the distance is only 388 miles the highest point to traverse is a hill-crossing 900 feet above the surrounding locality, no river bars the road, no deserts intervene, and no point exists capable of arresting the Russian advance up to the very walls of the Key of India. Further, by our evacuation of Candahar, we have placed it in Russia's power to occupy Herat whenever she likes, a clear fortnight in advance of ourselves.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.