The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1927. BOLSHEVISM IN ASIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 November 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1927. BOLSHEVISM IN ASIA.

Onk of the leading feudatory princes of India, the .Maharajah of Burdwan, who represented India at the Imperial Conference in 192 U, lias just warned Britain of the danger Lo which her Empirc is exposed by ‘‘the menace of .Moscow.” The ceaseless activities of the Bolshevik emissaries in the Middle East and throughout Southern Asia constitute a peril “'greater and more insidious than that of the autocratic Czardom of a generation ago,” and the Maharajah, a faithful friend of the British llaj, urges the need for precautions. It is a matter of common knowledge, notes a contemporary, that Bolshevik envoys have made it their business to sow the seeds of unrest nud revolution throughout Northern India in recent years. But special interest attaches to the recent reports of their increased activity in Afghanistan. For this mountainous and almost inaccessible country forms the natural outwork of the Indian frontier, and provides the only practicable means of approach from Northern and Western Asia. It was inevitable, therefore that Russia, during her long struggle with Britain throughout the nineteenth century, should endeavour to secure a foothold there for herself, and it is a matter of history that the first Afghan war, which brought about a terrible disaster to British arms, was due largely to the machinations of Russian agents dispatched to Kabul. But we need not go back as far as this for evidence of Russian activities directed against Britain and British India from Afghanistan. In the ’seventies and ’eighties of I last century, and especially after 1870. I when Russia was forced by the Powers to desist from further attacks upon Turkey, the Russian armies in Western Asia gradually absorbed the intervening territory till they threatened Herat, and were thus within striking distance of India itself. SkohelofT. the hero of the Russo-Turkish war, and coii(|ueror of the Turcoman Khanates, had gone so far as to draft a programme for the conquest of India, and this was afterwards elaborated by his lieutenant Kuropatkin, who commanded the Russian armies in Manchuria against Japan. A sudden attack upon an Afghan frontier post thoroughly, alarmed Britain, and even Mr Gladstone regarded ‘‘the Panjdeh incident” as reasonable ground for war. But all this happened over forty years ago and it is rather a remarkabe fact that now, under absolutely different e i. li tions, the Soviet Republic should follow in the footsteps of the Czardom and attempt to strike a blow through Afghanistan at British rule in India. The truth, of course, is that Britain’s hold on India has always been precarious, and it has been weakened in recent years by the growth of nationalist reefing there. The Bolsheviks, who keep themselves well informed on all subjects that may assist their propaganda are well aware of this, and they are now following the lead of the Czars in attempting to embarrass Britain and bring pressure to bear upon her through Kabul. It is no mere coincidence that just at this time the India Vice-Chancellor of Patna University, returning from a visit to Persia, has informed the Indian Government that Communist missionaries are undermining British influence throughout the Middle East. The whole continent is seething with Bolshevik intrigue, and Britain must take these facts seriously into account in shaping her foreign policy in Asia.