Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, SEPT. 26, 1891. Russia Again.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 26 September 1891, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, SEPT. 26, 1891. Russia Again.

A week ago news arrived that reports had reached Vienna that the Russians and Afghans were fighting in the Hindoo Eoosh mountains. Russia is a delightful neighbour, and is ever on the look-out for a chance for a quarrel. We know that periodically she raises some point against Turkey, and about the same time she worries away at the hill tribes to the north west of India, making two shots to overpower England in the East. We showed, only the other day that Turkey suffers owing to her practically blocking the Russian navy within the Black y ea, and for similar reasons, the Afghans suffer, because they hold the country adjacent to the hill passes from Asia, into India. It is not later than 1886 that the boundary line against the Russian advanced was fixed, yet within a fortnight we learn that Russia has really arranged a passage for her vessels through the Dardanelles, and has again been creating a row on the Indian frontier. This frontier line took two years of diplomacy to determine, and it was complained of in England that too much had been given way to, to Russia. This Pamir where the Indian officers have been excluded by Russian " explorers " is a high table-land from which fall the chains of mountains dividing that portion of Asia to the South of Russia. It is occupied by some of the numerous hill tribes. Cashmere was on the south, Chinese Turkestan on the east, Turkestan on the north, and Afghanistan on the west. Pamir has the poetical meaning of " the roof of the world." The great disinclination of the European Powers to do anything to create a chance of a disturbance is evidently being freely discounted by Russia, and it will be

only when some very energetic steps are taken by England, that she will withdraw from her plotting to get a southern seaboard.