The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 1887. RUSSIAN MOVEMENTS IN CENTRAL ASIA:

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1545, 29 April 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 1887. RUSSIAN MOVEMENTS IN CENTRAL ASIA:

With the apparent cessation of the activity of Russian intrigue m Bulgaria, I comes the news of the Muscovite prei paring the way for a further advance J towards India. The brief telegrams \ which have come to hand during the past two or three weeks are ot a very 1 disquieting character, and the fuller information which we published yester T day does not throw any more peaceful , light on the situation. We are told , that the Governor of Russian Turkestan has been making a tour of the provinces under his rule, decreasing .taxes, heaping rewards on chiefs, and l persuading the Khans to ally themselves : closely to Russia by promising high [ offices m the event of a campaign : against India. These are old tactics of • Russia : to make tools of by exciting the cupidity of the semi-barbarous [ tribes by whom the steppes of 1 Central Asia are inhabited, and no- ! body will feel very surprised at the , Governor of Russian Turkestan making | a tour with the object of enlisting the l Khans under the banners of the "White Czar, though m view of the reported • fact that, the Russian troops at . Penjdeh have been recently reinforced, 1 it gives an ominous look to affairs m ! Central Asia. Does the fact of Russia | massing troops at Penjdeh indicate ; that she is preparing for a further , southward advance, despite her l promises to respect the frontier line be- ( tween her Asiatic possessions and j Afghanistan ? It would seem very much | like it, especially as Russian spies, it is I asserted, are openly moving about the i country of the Ameer, though he is j sufficiently alive to the danger of the , situation to be taking measures to check • them. The revolt of some of the [ tribes under the Ameer's rule, fomented, . m all probability, by Russia, is, we are | informed by a telegram received last , night, rapidly spreading, and to make • matters worse great dissatisfaction exists | among the Ameer's troops themselves, \ who complain of being paid m pro- ■ visions instead of cash. To complicate \ the situation still more the Ameer is m I very bad health, although he fully realises the import of the movements ! of Russia, as is evidenced by his calling : upon his subjects to raise a holy war, 1 the Czar being denounced as a great , tyrant What new developments may arise have yet to be seen, that there will be some seems extremely probable, for the Great Beai is evidently determined to make a further advance on his road to India.