THE SCIENTIFIC FRONTIER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11782, 11 October 1901, Page 4

THE SCIENTIFIC FRONTIER.

The Empire can so little afford to be drawn into international dispute while South Africa engages the strength of its forces that the death of the friendly Ameer of Afghanistan was a somewhat disturbing incident. The peaceful succession of Habibulla and his recognition by his brothers and sirdars after formal proclamation, is correspondingly reassuring. For while the so-called " scientific frontier" of our great Indian dependency is held by our own army, the friendliness of Afghanistan establishes a strong buffer State between trans-Caspian Eussia and the great plain of the Indus. It secures not merely an outlying line of defence, but a series of defence lines, through which any Russian force must break before it can challenge our possession of India. The late Ameer—Abdur Rahmanwas not infrequently charged by writers and critics with being of dubious loyalty to his British allies, but he seems to have won and retained the confidence of the Indian Administration and on several occasions gave remarkable proof of his trustworthiness. His conduct during the last "little war" with some of his unruly tribesmen will be fresh in everyone's memory. In Asia things change slowly, and the Ameer has not even yet that control over Afghanistan which in Western conceptions are inalienable from kingship. But during his reign Abdur Rahman did much to pacify and organise his country. In this he was assisted by British officers and enabled to maintain the necessary forces by a liberal British subsidy and frequent supplies of arms and ammunition. Having been intelligent enough to perceive that the British would support his rule and assert the independence of his country—as we are bound ourselves to do by treaty—and that the Russians would over-run his State, as a prelude to a descent upon India, he remained our friend throughout his life and left bis throne to a kindred spirit, the present Ameer Habibulla. Unimportant as Afghanistan is of itself, its position in the gateway between the rival Empires renders it of vast political importance, and it is much to be hoped that the new Ameer will be able to establish his _ authority without difficulty. A military railway system—crossing the Caspian by steam transportsis connecting St, Petersburg with the northern boundary of Afghanistan. But although the change in the occupancy of this often-con-tested throne may seem to- make the time opportune for Russian intrigue and intervention, the tenor of the cable news indicates that the succession is being quietly recognised If the Tsar has assure d himself that Habibulla is popular and that the Afghan troops and tribesmen can be relied upon to support their Ameer, the Russians are not likely to attempt, without the fullest preparations, such an arduous military feat as a march upon Cabul from he north The South African war has taught the world what a tremendous resistance can be offered in rugged country even by irregular troops when they are well armed and skilfully aided by trained gunners and experienced engineers. By our treaty a Russian attack upon babul would be made not merely in the face of the British-officered and British-armed troops of the Ameer

but in the face (of all possible a*. sistance that cojld be rendered by the Army in Inda. ' iim !