The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-04-11 00:00:00

BRITISH POLICY IN CENTRAL ASIA

LAHORE, FEB. 23.
the
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chief Lawrence
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betweenstills
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forms
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result
of that inter-
viewintTe Dost
interest
eesMahomed. interviewethe
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nib
has not been formally announced, but the
bargain struck wag I believe, nothing more or
legs than this :—Dost Aahortied undertakes to
fight the battle with Persia in. Herat and Afrgha-
oistAn, and we undertake to furnish him with
Xl2 ,000 per annum so long as the war lasts.
Par of the subsidy, in the P.rst instance, is to con
/3
silt of muskets and other munitions of oar: Three
English officers, the two Lumsdens and Dr. Coxe,
go to Affghanistan to watch the distribution of the
subsidy—in other words, to see that we get our
money's worth. Of course, this arrangement is
the subject of very severe criticism. It is said that
with an embarrassed exchequer we are deliberately
throwing away twelve lacs a year on an ally whose
capacity to serve us, if honest; is doubtful, and on
whose honesty, if once opposed to his interest, no
one,profeSseg to depend. We are not only wasting
the money, we are sowing dragotis's teeth ; putting
arms into the hands of those who never can be
rsal frcends, and who have been, and may well be
again [our deadly enemies. If we are to meddle
with central Asia at all, let us do the work well
ourselves—not pay others to do it ill; which
means, let us send a British force into Affghan
istan, or wherever else events may lead.
Now, it is just the converse of this argument
which, in my opinion, justifies the treaty made
with Dost Mahomed. It is all very well to talk of
the wild sea of Asiatic politics, and say that the
fate of Herat is nothing to us. There is no
doubt of two things first, that Herat is a
most important point strategically; secondly,
that we are bound—wisely or unwisely—by
treaty, to resent an attack on it by Persia.
The question is, then, how is this engagement to
be .met, since meet it we must? Shall we go to,
Herat ourselves or pay others to go? Now, I
fancy that no government, still less the astute
governor of the Punjaub, supposes that we shall
get a direct equivalent for our 120,0001 a year; but
if the government considers that this is a cheap
price to pay in order to avoid sending a British
force through the western passes, I think they
judge wisely. There is no disguising the fact that
there is a party in India which would urge this
fatal policy. It will be resisted by the present
government, but it cannot be too promptly and too
energetically condemned, Every argument
against such a course is as strong or stronger than
ever.

To place" between ourselves and our own frontier
a friend whom the slightest shadow of disaster
would convert into a foe—to abandon an admirable
defensive line for an attack beset by enormous
dangers and difficulties—to withdraw from all India
the protecting shadow of the army—to cripple an
embarrassed finance by sending a force to a country
whereevery cannon shot will be worth its weight
in silver—would be an' act of such utter insanity,
so surely to be followed by frightful consequences,
that the government does well to pay the price it
1&W w avvl,l au 14011104 d ueooSBliy._

Meanwhile the true antagonists of Russian and
Persian design are not inactive. The prospectus
of the Punjaub Railway has just been published.
Mr. Brunton and his staff reached Lahore in
November, and their surveying operations will, I
believe, have been completed by the end of the cold
season, that is, by April. The line is to run from
Amritsir to Lahore, and thence to Moultan. At
Amritsir,it will touch the trunk line from Calcutta
to PeshaWur ; at Moultan it will join the Scinde
Railway to Kurrachee. Thus it will be the great
artery of traffic between the north west of India
and England.
Of the facility of making such a railway no
person who has followed the dry level ridge
which forms the watershed between the Sutlej and
the Ravee can have a doubt ; nor can its import-
ance be denied by those who have seen with
regret the splendid crops of the Punjaub, knowing
that natures bounty is the farmer's loss, that
the excess, when the local population has
been fed, is a mere wasteful loss, or who has
appreciated the fact that the north west of In'dia
is removed from England by a fortnight of unne-
cessary delay for want of the communication
which the Punjaub Railway is intended to supply.
The capital is to consist of £2,500,000 in £2O
shares, two fifths of the 125,000 shares being
allotted to the shareholders of the Saluda Railway
Company.
The force on the frontier lives as usual on the
qui vine, but the Punjaub, like the rest of India, is
profoundly tranquil.
You hove probably heard from other sources that
Sir Henry Lawrence. late head of the Punjaub
Government, has accepted the post of Chief Com-
missioner in Oude.
The officers who accompanied Lieutenant Hand
"to see the Khyber Pass are still under arrest,
but will probably be soon released with a reprimand.
Poor young Hand's murderer is, it is said, well
known, but it is difficult to get hold of him. The
hill tribe to which he belongs is put under the
usual ban. Every soul who stirs out of the moun-
tains belonging to that tribe is seized and
imprisoned. As the hill people depend on the
plain for subsistence, they will be starved out at
last, give up the criminal and pay a heavy fine.
This is the way in which our wild frontier
neighbours are kept in order.