THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1884.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7006, 1 May 1884, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1884.

Sir .Charles Dilke has been speaking about the extension of the Russian outposts in Central Asia by the occupation on 13th February of the town of Merv, close to the Afghan border. The matter is being looked to by the authorities in London and Calcutta. It seems explanations are required from the Russian Government, that the position of our ally the Afghan - Ameer will- be strengthened by supplies of arms and money, and that the defensive arrangements within the Indian forntier will undergo considerable enlargement. This last is perhaps the particular one of the three measures we hear of which is likely to be of value. Though it may be right to demand them, explanations from a highly diplomatic Power like Russia can hardly produce much beyond the fullest assurances of eternal friendship. The Russian gradual advance in Central Asia is no new thing. It has been long • casting its .shadow before. For instance, during the last couple of • years it caused the total cessation from Persia and from the Turcoman tribes of the export of horses, to which the Indian Government used to look as one of their several sources of supply, for remounting the cavalry and artillery. For. some time back we have heard

that the horses find a market nearer at hand, and-are sold to the Russian military-purveyors. . ~Kow the Musco-, vite flag waves over.Merv, .and there is no use in the warning off unless it were supported bywar. As for the state of things in Afghanistan, the tribes in that quarter used to consider their independence threatened, both'by Russia and England. As the late Lord Lawrence "pointed out, this ought not to be as regards England, who has no interest in advancing beyond India; whereas Russia, on- the contrary, is always advancing with the visible object of getting to India, and so, as the Afghans lie in the way, her ] policy is a standing menace to them. Therefore, he insisted it would be easy to make allies of the Afghans, who, in their stupendous defiles outside the Indian frontier, would be valuable auxiliaries. The advice of that able statesman, with his local experience, was disregarded, and an opposite policy was preferred. It might do if it were convenient or possible to carry it out in full. But to conquer an extensive region, filled with offshoots of the highest mountains in the world a country where the roads run through precipitous gorges, and that is numerously inhabited by notably warlike tribes—was a thing only to he accomplished at too great an expenditure of money, blood, and time. So it was considered sufficient, to place by force of arms on the throne in Oabul—where at the best of times the Sovereign has but limited authority.over the whole country—a Prince who was to be steadfast to Britiah interests and deaf to Russian intrigues, and to give him a yearly, subsidy to keep him faithful and true. Exactly the same thing was tried there in 1839, but it was found that Shah Soojab. could' not retain the throne. Abdul Rahman is now similarly disliked as the nominee of a foreign Power, and at the present moment two tribes, are in rebellion, and we see lately defeated his troops, capturing four of their guns. There are always some such disturbances in . a tribal country, yet there is no general rising against the Ameer, simply because it might again provoke British interference ; but it is ;not a reliable or satisfactory state of things.

But what after all can this mistake about Afghanistan avail Russia—what could her further advance from Merv really accomplish ? It is now a wellknown opinion' in military circles that India held (by a strong Power cannot be successfully invaded from the northwest, because, besides the difficulties of the mountain barrier, Central Asia for a base of operations presents a total contrast to India. No doubt conquerors have often burst in there, sometimes through the Belooch deserts, sometimes through those mountains which divide 'it from Central Asia. But Alexander, or Tamerlane, or Nadir Shah had no formidable resistance to look out for. They needed to draw no supplies from behind.' They had only to win easy battles, and spread over the fertile country. But a conqueror in Central Asia, still as of old, seems to turn his eyes to the gorgeous- realms of Hindostan. Indeed, the sandy wastes of Tartary, with only scattered patches of good soil, have little attraction for an invader, except as the means to an end, the highway to that land of promise, celebrated in all ages for its riches. The late General Skobeloff, so popular with his countrymen, had his dreams on this subject, like every other Russian comtnander in Turkestan. .Among other things he would reconcile the equestrian hordes who wander over those central steppes to the sway of the Czar by unitingthem as a new Tamerlane fey the promise of the plunder of India. It was an idea mediaeval, not modern, more romantic than practical. Such proposals of devastation would attach the Indian populations more strongly to British rule; and, as for efficacy in war, the wild Tartar horsemen could hardly be more formidable'than the wild Arab horsemen of the Soudan, who the other day rushed to death, so unavailingly under the-fire -of the breechloader. The age has passed wh'en the cavalry of the steppe or of. the desert could be a power in. war, and the dashing ever forward in his action, was looking backward in bis visions. /

> England has now a magnificent army in herOrientalEmpire, the native forces more composite than at any,previous period, including regiments of almost all the various warlike races so numerous within India and around its border. Battalions are raised as of old among the Marattahs, and from the Bajpoot or military caste in Oude, and the neighbouring provinces ; but they are abundantly interspersed with regiments of Sikhs, who belong to the same race, but, nevertheless, love not the Hindoos, from whom they differ in religion. There .are many regiments of Goorkas, from the independent State of Nepaul, where they are the predominant tribe. There are Beloochees —sons of the -men who fought so desperately against Sir Charles Napier at Meanee. There are men enlisted in Mysore and the Carnatic, whose grandfathers were the soldiers of our old antagonists—Hyder Ali and Tippoo Saib. There are men of the aboriginal hill tribes, anterior to the Hindoos, in the country j there are the Indian Mussulmans of mixed blood; and in the far south there are corps of Malays. It is. a motley army in race and in creed, but is uniform in its high martial quality .and discipline. Among the modt valuable improvements are the famous regiments of native cavalry, which -have been curiously misnamed "irregular," merely because their organisation and equipment are a departure from the old regulations, and a great bettering of them. England's Indian army was never so effective and formidable as.at the present moment.