RUSSIA AND ENGLAND.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 112, 15 April 1885, Page 3

RUSSIA AND ENGLAND.

RUSSIA AND HERAT. The London Timen says :— « Russia has possessed herself of Khiva and Merv. Russia must not suppose that if we hesitate to occupy Herat she acquires thereby carte blanche to advance herself upon the position and so to place herself with a drawn sword at the gateway of our Indian dominions She can understand plain language as well as renned ethnological and geographical arguments, and she has been plainly told by every English statesman entitled to speak on this matter that her advance to Herat would be a casus belli. Upon I that position this country will take its stand, and Russia will act unwisely if, reckoning on the intervention of " peace at any price " politicians or imagining that the power of England is paralyzed by the task we have undertaken m Egypt, she proceeds to disregard her own pledges and our warnings. It is possible, however, that M. Lessar may be only proceeding tentatively, and that the process of ' squeezing' the British Government, to which M. Goschen alluded the other day, will be abandoned when it is found that Mr Gladstone's Cabinet is not at present ' squeezable.' If this be so, we shall be well pleased to renew the negotiations on the original basis, and to carry out the delimitation of the RussoAfghan frontier by settling a line of positions — towns or fortified places — to be held by the Ameer along the border line. If, on the other hand, the Russian demands are pressed and the English Commissioners are left alone to do the work, it will clearly be necessary to pro- ! yide against the possibility— we hope it is no more — of a Russian advance on Herat. It can hardly be needful to explain to the Russian Government that India is not quoit denuded of troops because two or three thousand men have been dratted off for service m the Soudan. Nor, though the reasons for strengthening the navy have certainly not been diminished by recent events, is it the fact that any foreign nation can yet afford to despise the power of England on the seas. When Englishmen, at home and abroad, are united and resolute m support ot a policy, there are still vast resources to be drawn upon for | the defence of the Empire." [Age Specials.] (Per s.s. Waihora at the Bluff.) (UNITED PBKBS ASSOCIATION.* Londov, April 2. It is expected, m the event of war between Great Britain and Russia, that Turkey will remain neutral. It is now found that Russia demands that the Afghan frontier territory under consideration shall be extended southward. April 5. A special meeting of the Cabinet was held to-day (Sunday) to consider the reply received from the Russian Government on the Afghan frontier question. It is suspected that Russia's pacific reply and acceptance ot a commission to settle the frontier difficulty is only a device to gain time, and that an attack will be made upon Herat as soon as her military preparations are more advanced. The commission appointed to settle the frontier difficulty, will, it is thought, be certain to disagree, and general fears are entertained that a crisis will recur, and that war is imminent. Extensive naval and military preparations m England and India are being hurried forward with the utmost despatch. -