THE KEY OP INDIA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 119, 24 April 1885, Page 2

THE KEY OP INDIA.

Mr Charles Marvin, m his work, " The Russians at Merv and Herat," says ; — " Thanks to the evacuation of Candahar, we stand m this position with regard to the key of India that, although we may protest, we cannot enforce compliance with oar wishes. Had we retained. Candahar, we could hold over Russia's head the threat of occupying Herat m the event of the railway being poshed menaoingly m that direotion. That power has gone from us for ever. The Gladstone Government flung it heedlessly away, together with all other fruits of the eighteen millions sterling invested m the Afghan war. The threat to occupy Herat is .a weapon which is now m Russia's hands. Before a single sepoy could arrive before Herat to defend it, Russia, thanks to the Trans-Caspian railway and her new position on the Perso-Turkoraan frontier, could be mistress of the place an entire fortnight, any fraction of which period would basaffioienfc for her troops to put the fortress m a position to resist an English siege ; while at the same time conld pour reinforcements into Herat from the Caucasus a clear month m advance of English snecour arriving on the scene from this country*" -