The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1907.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1971, 5 January 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1907.

The making of history is a curious and absorbing study, and the meeting of the Governor-General and the Commander-in-Chief of India (Lords Minto and Kitchener) with the Ameer of Afghanistan, which is to take place on Tuesday next at Agra in Indian territory, is a history-making event as full of interest as anything that has taken place for a very long time. To fully apxjreciate this fact, one has to cast his mind hack a few years, and survey the curious vicissitudes through which the Afghan country and its rulers have passed, and the anxiety felt by Briton and Russian alike at every sudden or whimsical change that has taken place there, for Afghanistan has for at least half a century formed the bone of contention between those two countries, while its rulers sometimes favoring one, then the other, have in the main endeavored to preserve their own independence and keep aloof from all foreign invasion and interference. That, however, was impossible, and quite opposed to national interests on either side, for Russia yearned to possess a naval base free from winter’s ico, and saw large hopes of the realisation of her dreams by pushing her influence through Afghanistan to the Persian Gulf. Undeterred by her failure to gain a seaboard on the Mediterranean owing to the magnificent foresight of the late Lord Beaconsfield, who forestalled her by the purchase of Cyprus, Russia still saw • visionary railroads through Afghanistan and Baluchistan to the Indian Ocean, and, with that objective, extended the trans-Caspin.i railway by a branch from Merv to Kusk, only seventeen miles north-west of Herat, from which it is divided by the Paropunisus range. Herat, oil the Afghan side of the range, • is the strategic position coveted by Russia, ,apd to gain which Russian agents have been so busy, while Britain on the other hand sought every means to prevent her: but the whole success or non-success of either rested almost entirely in the personality of the Afghan ruler for the time being ,nnd so it is easy to understand that since the days of Dost Maliommed matters have swaved considerably, and that the death of Dost Maliommed, Slier Ali, Abdurrahaman, and Yakub Khan have in succession been of as much interest to the British and Russian politicians as a change of Government in England is to the interested voter; for the personal strength or foibles of cacli meant the rise or fall of British influence on the one side, or of Russian on the other. These rulers, too.

lmd in tin'll their own difficulties with their own petty chiefs and people:., mid more than ono British punitivo expedition have entered tho country in order to restore British iidluonce, and keep the Bear in check. In that connection tho names of Sir John Lawrence (whoso services in that country and India have never been adequately recognised). Sir Donald Stewart, anil Sir Frederick (now Lord) Roberts will be gratefully remembered for tho part they played on behalf of their country. On one occasion, too, at least, the British troops had to vacate the country ; but yet Russia does not appear to have made much headway during their absence, and for many years a British Resident has been stationed at Kabul, and a small garrison maintained at Herat; lor, like his predecessor Abdurrahman, the present ruler, who is now on his way to visit the Indian Viceroy, and to whom King Edward has sent his congratulations, has accepted British advice and assistance against all other nations under terms which practically amount to a British suzerainty. Encouraged in this direction no doubt by Russia’s temporary subsidence, the Ameer is more ready thai ever to fraternise with the Indiai representatives of the Crown, and tho gorg ts Bus character of the cere(for theic things are always gorgeously arranged in India), as well as the cordiality of his reception, cannot fail to impress him favorably. Ho will probably be not unmindful too that Russian intrigue once caused his Persian neighbors to attack his country in order to get possession of Herat by capture, and would probably have succeeded but for tho appearance of British troops in the Shah’s dominions in tho south, which caused them to withdraw. Ho will possibly not have forgotten also that a second Persian invasion at tile same point caused his ancestor, Dost Maliommed, to become a British ally in order to save his kingdom, and if these lessons do not convince him as to who are his real and trustworthy friends, tho cordiality of the coming meeting may do something in that direction, and thus history is made. It may be asked, What interest Britain has in going to all this trouble and expense in preventing Russia gaining access to the waterways .of the South But that question is amply answered by a glance at the results of her temporary footing at Port Arthur, where it cost so many human lives to dislodge her, as it was necessary to do in the interests of the world’s peace.