IMPORTANCE OP HERAT.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 1465, 2 June 1879, Page 3

IMPORTANCE OP HERAT.

At this moment (says a writer m the Gentleman's Magazine) no territorial question is, I think, so important to Englishmen as that which is concerned with tha Afghan city of Herat. Compared with the fate of Herat, the future of Cabul — because it is more certain — is unimportant. Whenever we please to take it, Cabul is ours ; but are we to have. and hold Herat 1 And if not, who is to hold Herat 1 Is it to be Afghan, nominally under British influence, but really held by those who now hate the British more even than they fear the Russians] Herat, at all events, iB the only point of Afghan territory about * which there can be any serious question as to Russian interference. Herat is notonly a place of great strength, but also, from a military point of view, it is a place of peculiarly dominant position. There are advantages m approaching it upon the Russian Bide, from Aatrabad, which are not found m traversing the highlands of Afghanistan between the British frontier and Herat. The Persian country between Resht and Astrabad, along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, is level and rich, producing food of all kinds. There is game m the woods ; there is fish m the rivers ; corn and cattle are m the plains ; it is the wondrously fertile but neglected garden of an empiro generally poor and barren. From Astrabad to Herat the country is much of the same character ; less productive m some places, because of the lawless tribes of Turcomans, who hold the country m terror and awe ; and m part it is mountainous. But the path presents no . serious hindrance. It would be far more easy for a force to march front Astrabad to Herat than from Cabul to Herat. From Astrabad to Herat the distance is about 600 miles. That is a long march, but m such a country it is by no means a very great-difficulty. And if the Turcoman tribes— to one of which, the Knjiu tribe, the Shah of Persia belongs—infeßting that region were friendly, and the Persians were m alliance with Russia, distance would really be the only obstacle. Probably no army could safely advance from the

south of the Caspian towards India without securing the goodwill of the Shah. I have seen several regiments nf the Persian army, and I believe tho artillery, which is actually under the direction of European instructors — Dauisih and Italian for the most part — is regarded as the most formidable branch of the service. It would not be a dangerous foe to a European army of anything like equal numbers m tho field, but if it were acting m flank upon an open line of COO mileß, the Persian army could probably ferce the retirement of any expedition. We may assume that Russia would never advance from the Caspian Sea towards India without having secured the co-operation of Persia.