RUSSIA AND INDIA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1157, 2 May 1884, Page 4

RUSSIA AND INDIA.

With res'llrd to Russian advances towards India a recent Home pap r says:—lt is perhaps because we have so much of our own business to attend to in the share of Egypt and the Transvaal, and the very many other matters too numerous to mention, that we are not wary enough in respect of the advances thadebv Russia in the do potion of Merv. Busy people absorbed in the pursuit of gain seldom give themselves time to look over their shoulders, even though they should discover an unscrupulous neigh hour leaping their fence intent on plunder, Just so with M erv. Bordering upon Afghanistan, and regarding Afghanistan as a menace to India, we receive with the utmost equanimity the news 'that Merv and its hordes have elected to submit to Russia. 11 is also significant in this connection that Russia ■considers “ Persian interests identical with her own,” because it needs but a Very mild application of Russian diplottiacy to mould that moribund country to its own purpose. The earthquake in Java disturbed verv many land marks, and in not very far distant future the action of Russia in Merv •may react upon Persia and India. The Government will he well advised, says the Gl he, to make a clean breast of it on the subject of the annex ation of Merv by Russia. Mr Gladstone, when questioned by Mr Onslow, showed a disposition to shirk the question. As it is impossible to imagine that General Komaroff’s dispatch announcing the submission of the Merv '’"uveomans was a mere romance, we ■make no sort of question that the independence of the last Central Asia Khaiate has vanished. No doubt Merv itself lost the chief part of its strategical value when the Russian frontier was advanced to Askabad Our rival then secured a nearly straight and perfectly practical road from the Caspian to the confines of Afghanistan. But there is, nevertheless, a very distinct gain to Russia in flying her flag ■ over the “ Queen ot the World,” as hi erv used to be called. In the flist place, it gives her prestige, and that ►till counts for a good deal in Asia. •Secondly, the annexation removes a ‘possible enemy from the left flank of the Russian line of advance to fglianistan. Instead of having to detach a ‘Strong corps to watch Merv, the com■mauder would have, the active help of these predatory hoixles against the English. In the third place—and this is the most important matter of sll—the territory nominally subject to Merv si retches right up to the northwest corner of Afghanistan, and the Czar will be sure to put in a claim to ■exercise sovereignty over the whole. J a that event, Russia and Afghanistan ’will at last become conterminous in ‘the vicinity of Herat, whereas the i.earast English post in a very long •distance from the Key of India.