Affairs in Afghanistan.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 87, 16 March 1885, Page 2

Affairs m Afghanistan.

The Bombay Gazette says: — " The : outlook m Central Asia is by no means clear. The Russian Government, when brought to the point, aro : not at all ready to weaken any future claim., they >may make to the possession of Herat. Delay and prevarications may give them valuable a*lv\antagei^whi^^ they- gaiii nothings, but helping us to pnt a limit to their ambition. It is probably true that a Russian scheme for the occupation of Herat, if nob for an attack on India, is actually m existence, and only awaits a fitting opportunity to be carried into execution. From the very beginning, the arrangements made for the despatch of the Afghan Boundary Commission have been marked by errors and want of judgment. In the first place, there was Lord Ripon's obstinate reluctance to : hear the project of a Boundary Cominis-: sion as much as mentioned. Our late Viceroy shut his ears as long as possible to the need of takmg some action ; and it was all the Foreign Office could dp to rouso him to. the gravity of the situation. Most likely if his late Excellency had persisted m his policy of ignorant inactivity, , the Russians, by this time*would have been firmly established m Herat. All that we may have yet «to sufter, m consequence of Lord Ripon's dilatoriness, has still to be learnt ; but, as it is, it has cost us something. Then there was the ' mistake of sending the wrong men at the head of the expedition. What now seems still more to be regretted are the arrangements that were entered' into with Russia. The; negotiations proceeded entirely on a wrong foot-: ing. The question — how much of Af, ghan. territory we are prepared to defend, - — is for .ourselves to settle : and thgre was 1 no necessity Whatever for any arganaent with Russia regarding the frontier* We should have started with the assumption that the Russian dominions do .pot yet'tbuch the 1 Afghan frontier, arid that the line we lay. down is meant to limit, not Russian, but Afghan territory. Con* sidering our relations with Afghanistan, as explained more than once to the Russian Government j there was no need at all to iritorm Russia beforehand of our proposals. The presence of Russian officers m our camp would be a guarantee* m a way, of security ; and as soon as the British Commission reached Herat or Serrakhs, Russian officers should have been invited to accompany it, not as joint commissioners, but as attaches to whom the result of our inquiry would be communicated. This arrangement might have been accepted by Russia without loss of dignity; and the mere fact 1 tlhat we were prepared to do things with something of a high hand would have had a good effect. As it is, we have let the Russians get the best of us. The more they delay the . delimitation the hotter lor them. It has not yet been officially stated that General ■. Zelenoy will not be allowed to join Sir Peter Lumsdon ; and perhaps we shall bo told before, long that the original agreement stands, but that General Zelenoy is again detained m Tiflis by illness. The Russians. evidently mean to play a waiting game. If our expedition meets with any difficulty, or worse, they reckon on the result being a disinclination on the part of England to meddle with affairs so far beyond our frontier. The final result of the murder of the envoy and our reverse at Maiwandwas our withdrawal from Cabul and Kandahar, whereupon Russia took Merv."