NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16220, 24 May 1918, Page 7

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

"Hamburg to Herat'' lias token the place of "Berlin to Bagdad" as an expression of Germany's immediate policy in the East. 'Whatever political objects were embodied in the scheme of the Bagdad railway—and that Germany had such objects is beyond all doubt — they were more or less masked by the commercial purpose of the line. * Tho new cry has. however, no such disguise. German possession or control of Russia's Trans-Caspian railway would bo the beginning or a system of penetration fraught, with much present danger to Britain's position in Mesopotamia, and grave future menacc for the safety of British rule in India. It would mean the realisation of Germany's long treasured dream of an Asiatic Empire.

So far as control of that railway, wliich passes through lands which were the cradle of tho race, is concerned, Germany has it in large measure now. By breaking Roumania, and securing a permanent footing in tho Ukraine, she has made the Black Sea, to all intents and purposes, a German lake. Bulgaria and Turkey know too much to interfere with her plans. From Odessa, tho great Russian port on tho Black Sea, thero is a short steamer route to Batoum, and from there a railway runs south of Caucasus range to Baku, on the Western shore of the Caspian Sea. lvrasnovodsk, on tho oastorn shore, is reached by an eighteen hours' passage across the lake, and at Krasnovodsk begins tho railway which runs for many hundreds of miles across Central Asia, until it stops a hundred miles or so short of the frontier of China.

This is Germany's new "corridor" to tho East. It opens up no old-new "granary of tho world" as tho railway to Bagdad will do when it is finished—by the British. But it would give Germany the position with regard to Persia that Russia, in whose sphere of influence the northern part of that country lies, now exercises, and would heljj her to work there against Britain, within whose sphero is Southern Persia, with its rich oilfields. In its coursc tho Trans-Caspian line passes through Merv, Bokhara, and Samarcand, and from the first of these places a branch line runs down across tho border of Afghanistan to within some fifty milos of Herat. A generation ago —the railway reached Merv in 188C3, and Samarcand in 1888—Russia was the threatening danger, and it seemed possible that we should have to light her for the possession of India. That danger passed out of mind, though the secret service of the Indian Government always kept a watchful eyo on tho great Power to tho north. Germany, by 'her treaties with Russia and Roumania, and by her occupation of Ukrainia and Odessa, has, in the words of a recent writer, acquired those Russian ambitions of the eighties and hopes_ to use, for her own ends, tho machinery created for the realisation of Russian dreams. Germany, in Russia's place would be a still greater danger to India, and though the Amir of Afghanistan has remained oordially neutral so far, thoro was evidence in the Viceroy's speech at the recent Delhi conference that tho Indian Government fears the possible cffccfc of German propaganda among tho wild people over whom ho rules. Hence the call for another half million troops from India.

This menace lies, however, in the future, though it is not far distant unless Germany's hold on Russia can be broken. Just now Germany has too much on hand to send an army into Central Asia. Tho present danger to which we have referred, lies in the fact that from the Batoum-Baku railway, a branch line runs down to the Persian frontier above Tabriz. It was by this line that Russian troops were sent to Tabriz during tho period of international rivalry in that part of the world between Britain and Russia, which closed with the agreement arrived at in 1907 between the two Powers. And it is by this railway that Germany could, if she oould spare them, send troops through Persia to attack the British, in flank in Mesopotamia.

We have not touched on what might become the greatest peril of this new development in tho position in the East —the scheme by which. Germany, with the help of Turkey, hopes to organise the Mohammedan populations of Turanian stock in Central and Southern Asia into a Pan-Turanian League, to fight against the British rule and influence and of course assist in the formation of tho desired German dominion in Asia. This matter has recently been dealt with in our leading oolumns. But it may be pointed out that this policy has already been at work in Persia. A cable was published this week stating that Turkish regulars and Kurds were advancing in Persia towards Mosul, and that tho Turkish objective was Enzeli on tho Caspian Sea, which had become the base for the Central Powers and a menace to tho British. German agents were busy in Persia almost from the outset of the war. They stirred up troublo among the tribes, and penetrated, even into Afghanistan, while the Turks overran the western part of Persia and occupied inany of tho towns. Great lawlessness followed, but a Russian army did a {jood deal to restore order, though the Turks still remained in occupation of a. large area of Persian territory. It is a portion of these troops who are now advancing eastward, in the hope, apparently, of threatening our position in Mesopotamia.