RUSSIAN DESIGNS IN AFGHANISTAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 88, 13 April 1880, Page 4

RUSSIAN DESIGNS IN AFGHANISTAN.

(Pioneer Mail, Feb. 19). The (ime has now come when Government at borne will probably be worried in the House of Commons, to give up the papers found at Cabul. Our readers will remember that soon after (heir discovery, we indicated the serious importance of these papers. So far, they bave been kept back from public knowledge ; but Parliament is less easily refused, whtn thirsting for , information, than ordinary curiosity. Probably, even in Parliament, tha ] Government will try to put off inqair- j ies, if theso are not very urgent. Bur, in presence of a resolute appeal, it will, most likely give way. And then some revelations will be made (hat, even at the present date, will seem startling. We believe that the Russian Government wiil be found to have made proposals to Afghanistan of a kind tbat the | Biitish people will not hear of without indignation. One schemp, laid before the late Ameer, complete in all its details, contemplated the invasion of Northern India. , Absurd as it is to imagine the Russian army that has just b_en broken up and dispersed by the Turcomans, making its way to Pesbawur, and there overcoming the British forces, the iniquity of the Russian proposal is not tbe less striking po tbat account. Russia, according to this ' notable scheme, was to have assisted the Afghans in conquering India as far as Lahore. This place, end all (he loot of lha campaign generally, were to be given to the Afghans, as their reward for 'assisting in the enterprise. The gunpowder, arms, and so forth, found stored in Cabul, were to be subservient to this scheme. Of course, there is something ludicrous in the notion oi such a plan. Its naive villiany is surpassed by its stupidity. One gets into the habit of thinking of the Russian Government as cf a power so far civilJzed, at ali events, as (o be incapable of hugely misunderstanding the relations } of stttes, and (he possibilities of warfare. 3i.nd hy- patient pressure onwurds, Russia has actually done so much in ma.y directions, that one cau understand her entertaining a boundless belief in the ultimate possibilities of (be future. But expectations relating (o these, in order cot to be absurd, must ovoid fixing dates, and shrink especially from precipitate programmes. Meanwhile the question is .what view lbe English will take of the attitude assumed by Russia. The defence for her conduct will be, of course, tbat the present scheme was arranged at a- time when war between Russia and England seemed imminent, and tbat the project was merely a far sighted preparation for a contingency which would have justified any measures of hostility. This theory, (o have any value; mu.t

correspond with dates which the proposals to Afghanistan may be found to have anticipated. But, in any case, it must be remembered that the apparent imminenoe of war Was due from first (o last, entirely to (he action of Russia; that all along her Government must bave felt that they had the iseues of peace and wor in (heir own hand*. Tbe design for invading India, bn any hypothesis, waß a design for supporting au unnecessary war ia Europe, by an unnecessary war in Asia. And it puts the latest hostility ot Russia for England befote the public mind in a more tangible form tban it has yet assumed, i It is difficult (o imagine that the , present papers will be produced without at least creating a . eientis&ement that will affect the future course of our relations with Russia.