THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN SITUATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 1754, 4 July 1885, Page 8

THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN SITUATION.

A London special of May 27 says the Russian censors of the Press are exerting themselves to the utmost to suppress the fact that, notwithstanding favourable prospects of peace, Russian preparations are still being pressed with extraordinary vigour. News, however, reaches London by various round-about routes, and it is known there is an immense movement of troops towards Central Asia. Large bodies of infantry, cavalry, field artillery, and railway and telegraph builders are pressing forward in almost a continuous stream from European Russia through the Trans-Caucasian province across the Caspian Sea towards the Afghanistan frontier. The work of strengthening the Russian defences on the Black Sea is actively pro- J

grossing, and tho fortification of Hebaatopol is especially being pressed with feverish energy. A Standard St. Petersburg despatch confirms the Daily News' statement with reference to the settlement of the Afghan frontier question. Many European papers consider Russia's acceptance of the English proposals prompted by a desire to prevent the overthrow of the Gladstone Cabinet. The building of the Central Asian railway is proceeding with extreme rapidity. Thirteen hundred Russian navvies have left to work on 1 the road, and (iOOO were to follow immediately. Sir Peter Lumsden, in an interview, said, referring to the Anglo-Russian situation, i.hat it might be weeks or months before matters were again brought up, but that the difficulty was sure to break out afresh sooner or later, and that before Jong. The old frontier included all that was best in the SO miles of desert land that was now to be given up to Russia. Sir Peter further said that Russia is now able, through the possession of Penj-deh district, to provoke fresh complications. Russia wants an ethnological frontier, and he proposed a geographical one. The Ameer has now 15,000 troops at Herat. When the Russians first advanced that place was quite open, and it would have fallen at once, for the population were, and even now to some extent are, siding with Russia. Sir Peter Lumsden arrived at Vienna on 5, and proceeded to London. In an interview he said Colonel Alikanoff had openly boasted to the Afghans that the Russians wanted to take Herat, and a great deal more. He further said Russia would never have urged her absurd demands if she had believed England was in earnest in resisting them. Later despatches from London say the Government is in despair over the fierce and outspoken denunciation of the Afghan breakdown which Sir Peter Lumsden has scattered along his path from Constantinople to Paris. He is thoroughly exasperated, and he does not care who knows it. When he arrived in Paris, almost the first greeting he received was v telegram from the War Office ordering him to see no more interviewers. Efforts are being: made to cashier Sir Peter Lumsden, but it i.-r^ known he has great influence in the highest quarters.