The Afghan Difficulty.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1682, 15 May 1885, Page 2

The Afghan Difficulty.

The Earl of Granville, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, recently made a statement in the House of Lords to the effect that a Conference had taken place between M. de Staal. Eussian Ambassador to England, M. Eessar, Eussian Commissioner, the Earl of Kimberley, Secretary of State for India, and himself, and that the Conference had resulted in an agreement on the Afghan frontier question which was perfectly satisfactory to both England and Bussia. This indicates that the Afghan difficulty has now emerged from its critical stage and that all prospect of war is, for the present at an end. What the terms are of the agreement arrived at remains to be seen. But the prospect of a conflict between England and Eussia still remains as a strong possibility of the future. In his recent speech at Auckland, Sir George Grey, whose great knowledge of European Political Questions is generally admitted, remarked on this point “ The people of this colony were not done with the Eussian difficulty, and should not lay that flattering unction to their souls. It would go on, and they would have to endure it for years. No Government in the world could keep the Eussians from pouring into Central Asia, and finding an outlet for teeming millions. The Mother Country had to obey the same law of nature herself. He did not say Great Britain’s present attitude was an augusji one, but it would inevitably lead to disputes and wars, perhaps for a century or two to oonje- It was merely a question of time when war would come, and they should prepare for it. for Russia would finally and conclusively occupy Central Asia.” Our recent “ war scare ” has forced the Government into making provision for the defence of the colony. First and last, the defence works carried out and the preparations made will cost the colony half a million of money. It is a large sum for a young colony to turn out on non-reproduotive works, but the expenditure need not be regretted. It is right and necessary that the colony should be placed in a proper position of defence, because the danger which has _ for the time passed away will almost certainly threaten us again in the future.