RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 296, 25 May 1875, Page 3

RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA.

{Pall Mall Gazette.') A very interesting despatch from Mr Schuyler, Secretary to the United States Legation at St. Petersburg, has been published in the Russian World. It contains some interesting facts about the action of the Russian Government in Central Asia, especially in the conquered province of Turkestan, Mr Schuyler travelled through this district last year, and, though his journey had no political object, his official position brought him in the way of a good deal of political information, Russian Turkestan is under the rule of a governor-general, with two provincial governors and thirteen district prefects under him. The area of the country thus subdivided is about equal to that of France aDd Italy, and its population is somewhat under 2,000,000. In so remote and uncivilised a territory the character of the Russian Administration is determined by the personal character of the governor-general, and of this Mr Schuyler gives a very unflattering account. General Kaufman is very weak, very vain, and very much in the hands of persons who use these qualities to serve their own purposes. Though he has been seven years in office, he knows nothing of the country he governs. He never rides out without a body guard; he keeps Russians as well as natives at a distance, and maintains a stricter etiquette than is observed in the Czar's own palace. He allows his subordinates to oppress the natives at their pleasure, and when it becomes dangerous to connive at their maladministration in one post, he merely passes them on to another. The prefect of the Kuraminski district levied 90,000 roubles of illegal taxation in one year, and no account was ever produced of the manner inwhich theyhad been expended. Money was taken from the natives of all times and under all sorts of pretexts, and they were even forbidden to cross the Syr Daria except at certain points, where there ■were friends of the prefect waiting to levy to on them. Another prefect has been

twice moved to a new district for practising extortion and bribery. At the beginning of the Khivan expedition 14,000 camels were obtained from the natives on the understanding that 50 roubles would be paid by way of compensation for each camel that died. Very nearly all of them died, and a sum of 700,000 roubles became due from the Government to their owners. One of the prefects told the natives that the Government would never pay, and that they had much better put a good face on it and say that the camels were a present to the Administration. By such gentle persuasion as officials of this type are familiar with he succeeded in making them do this. The judges are no better than the prefects. One of them toitured several innocent Khirgizes till they confessed that they had stolen some missing Government funds which an official afterwards owned that he had himself appropriated. In another case a Khirgiz " sultan " holding the rank of major in the Russian service, a man of high character and known to be well affected to the Russian Government, was accused of robbing a prefect on the ground that the stolen property had been found in his tent. It came out afterwards, through the confession of a Cossack, that the property had been placed in the tent of the accused at the instigation of the judge himself. The trial was consequently not gone on with, the judge was removed, and is now the chief judge in the city of Khodjend. One scarcely expects, after hearing these particulars, to be told that the population is, on the whole, well contented with Russian rule. But bad as the administration of these and similar officials is, it is not so bad as the administration of the native rulers whom they displaced. There are no summary executions without cause, and to men who have lived under constant sentence of death it is a great thing to feel that their lives are their own. Again, the Russiaus have acted very wisely in the matter of religion. The natives have in this respect been left to themselves, and, as attendance at the mosques is not discouraged by the Government, while on the other hand there are no longer any native officials whose duty it is to see that all Mussulmans perform their stated religious duties, a good deal of indifference is growing up. Mahommedanism, instead of growing stronger, has grown weaker. The Russians have made no attempt to provide secular instruction, and the prosecution of a scheme for publishing books at a cheaper rate has been absolutely forbidden by General Kaufmann. But the material interests of the province are fairly looked after, The roads are improved, bridges are being built, and even canals are in course of projection.

Mr Schuyler's estimate of the foreign policy of Russia in Central Asia is not a very high one. The Foreign Office, he says, is badly informed of what goes on, and the Government has from time to time been dragged into war rather to support its officials than from any fixed policy of aggression. English opinion is very much considered, and particular steps are often not taken lest some difficulty with England should arise from them. Thus a Kussian merchant living in Khokand was attacked and nearly killed without the Khan being: made to answer for it, because any proceeding directed against him might have misunderstood in England When Mr Schuyler was at Samarcand he had a long conversation with the dethroned Affghan Prince, Abdul Rahman Khan, who receives a pension of 20,000 roubles from the Kussian Government, and is reckoned in the Russian service. In his opinion the Afghans abhor Shere Ali, because of his subservience to England. They are not in the least won over by the subsidy paid by England, and no amount of money would make them other than secretly hostile to English influence. If Russia were to attack India and to proclaim that she had no other object in doing so but to upset the English dominion there and then to leave the natives to themselves, the Afghans would take part in the war in spite of all subsidies ; nor would it need any pressure on the part of Russia to lead them to do so. The testimony of an exiled prince to the dispositions of his iormer subjects must be received with caution ; but Mr Schuyler's concluding words are certainly worthy of consideration:— "If Abdul Rahman answered me sincerely, it would not be difficult for a foreign Power at war with England to give her very great trouble on the side of India." It is needless to add that this applies but to one foreign Power; but, as Mr Schuyler preferred to speak generally, there is no occasion to bring out the only sense which his words can possibly bear. An American diplomatist is not likely to look at Russian policy with any bias in favour of England. Indeed, Mi Schuyler says frankly that it is greatly for the interest of the United States that there should exist a counterpoise against the extension of English dominion in Asia. What he here says cannot consequently be set down to any mere nervous alarm.