The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-29 00:00:00

THE RUSSIANS IN CENTRAL ASIA.

(From the Anglo-American 2 imes.)
The Fortnightly Review has a paper on Central
Asia and the Russian advance towards India, worthy
of careful reading. We differ from the writer's con-
clusions which point to an advance of the British
into Affghanistan, and there is nothing in his argu-

ment to change our views. We lately gave some
sketches of the country on the Indian side of the
Hindoo Kooch, which carries its barrier of snowy
ranges around the frontier, leaving the only passage
for an army into India through the Khyber Pass.
Mr. Griffin puts the distance from Attock to Herat
at 750 miles, and from Herat it is less than 500
miles by road to Samarcand. The Russian advance
towards Bokhara will shorten the way to Herat,
and if the Oxus becomes a Russian river, there are
points to which it is navigable distant from Cabal
only 440 miles by road, and about 640 from Pesha-
war. The mountains which the British troops in
Peshawar see towering up to the north-east give
birth to the Indus, flowing to the sea on their side,
and the Jaxartes and the Oxus which flow to the
sea of Aral on the Russian side. Granted the dis-
tances are great, the features of the country being
stupendous, still these ranges of the Hindoo Kooch
alone separate the British frontier from the country
in which the Russians are now operating. Mr.
Griffin says--" Central Asia is a very indefinite
term, usually including Affghanistan, which bounds
India on the north-west, and the north-eastern
part of Persia which lies between Affghanis-
tan and the Caspian. But these two dis-
tricts are the southern boundary of a wide
but clearly defined area, to which the name
is of.en restricted ; the western boundary
of that area being the Caspian Sea and the river
Ural; the eastern the lofty table land of the Bolar,
the mountains which bound to the west the Chinese
Turkestan and Dryungaria, and the river Irtisch ;
and the northern boundary of Western Siberia.
The northern half of this area consists of the
Kirghiz desert, mountainous and rugged on the
east, and full of saline steppes on the west ; in the
midst of the southern half lies the Sea of Aral, on
the western side of which stands a broad desert to
the Caspian, while to the eastern side is a fertile
oasis region, watered by the two great rivers, the
Jaxartes and the Oxus. It is this last oasis, the
furthest from Russia, the nearest to India, which is
the scene of the conquest which now makes some
noise. Before, the work of Russia was confined to
the desert between the Caspian and the Sea of Aral
and the mountains and steppes of the Kirghiz de-
sert, a progress of which little heed was taken, till,
in 1864, the south east corner of the fertile district
was entered. From it to the River Ural and South-
ern Siberia the shortest routes were from one to
two thousand miles over a barren track, and unless
secure highways had been formed no army could
have been maintained across it. The progress since
1864 is easily marked. In that year three for-
tresses or fortified towns belonging to Kokand
were carried by assault—Aoulietta, Turkestan,

and Chenkend:and these with the country around
formed the first of the present series of annexations.
Their possession gave Russia the right hank of the

Jaxartes as high up as the town of Turkestan, and
from that point the frontier line to Lake Issyk-
_

kuul, among the mountains bordering China, could

be easily traced by the fortresses. In the spring of
1865 a battle was fought in defence of the newly-

acquired district, ending in the defeat of the Kokan-
dians and the death of their chief, and in June fol-
lowing the important city of Tashkend, about 60
miles south of Cheukend, and still higher up, was

stormed. So far the conquest had only been on
the right bank of the Jaxartes, and in the princi-
pality of Kokand, but the operations of 1866
brought Russia across the river. A great battle
was fought on the 20th May at Irdjar, close by the
left bank ; this time with the army of Bukhara,
and the victory gave the Russians various fortresses
on the left bank and the town of Khojand, which
was carried by storm in the beginning of June.
Advancing South the Russians captured the strong
fort of Oratepe, on the road from Kokand into Bok-
hara, and a month or two later the equally strong
fortress of Juzak on the same road, but within 40

Kaufmann under the walls of
miles of Samarcand, which thenceforth became ex-
posed important engagement on
13th
toattack.iayby
GeneralAno aufmann
Samarcand was followed next day by the surrender
of the town to the Russians." The late victory and
the capture of Samarcand merely repeat the
story of the British in India. The Russians
are impelled to conquest and annexation, whether it
be their desire or not, as it seems to be impossible
for a civilized power to establish itself in the neigh-
bourhood of one comparatively uncivilized, and
continue to maintain its boundary. Asiatic poten-
tates are more moved by impulse than policy, and
even were they not they cannot so control their
subjects as to prevent grave causes of luarrel. If
the civilized power submits to inroads and insults,
it will quickly fall into contempt, which would be
instantly followed by invasion. 'ro judge from the
telegram of General Kryjanovski, Governor-Ge-
neral of Orenburgb, after the capture of. Juzak, it
is clear he did not desire to recommence the conflict.
He said, " The war with Bokhara, as far as we are
concerned, is over, I hope for long, if only the Ameer
will not himself renew it." Judging, too, from
the storm of Juzak, the last of the King of Bokha-
ra's strongholds in the Valley of the, Jaxartes,
which, though defended by the Ameer'a best troops,
was taken by assault after five days' siege, and
nearly all its garrison captured or killed—it might
fairly be supposed that the Ameer would long wait
before lie renewed the war, but we find the next
year both armies again in the field, and Samar-
cand captured. The "total strength of the Rus-
sians in the Valley is said to be but 40,000
men ; the fleet ou the Sea of Aral, and the Jaxartes,
numbers 4 steamers, 7 steam launches, 3 transports,
and 1 tug. The line of Russia is then across the
desert to the Sea of Aral, and up the Oxus, when
that river passes into her possession, to a point
within 440 miles of Cabul, or 610 from Peshawur, a
position she may be said to have attained. We
grant the nearness, and might consider it a cause
of danger but for a weighty reason. Not only is
the oasis wherein Russia has established herself
separated by a mighty barrier from India, but it is
divided from Russia by barriers still more difficult.
She has there a handful of troops more isolated from
the mother country than the British are in India. If
Russia swayed a vast population in Turkestan, and
was connected with the Empire by rail, there would
be obvious danger, and some day, long distant,
this may be the case ; but the Muscovite has much
to do within his own proper boundaries before he
dircc's railroads of hundreds and hundreds of miles
through. deserts. To give the sense of nearness the
reviewer, alluding to Cabul, Balkh, and Ilerat,
towns within the sphere of
now
and modern
Indian history, which Russia touches, says, one
of them hasbeen occupied by English troops, and ano-
ther has been the post of no little Indian diplomacy ;
an English regiment has also been within ten days'
march of the Oxus, now becoming a Russian stream,
having surmounted the most difficult part of the march
which lies between it and the Indus. The dangers
of invading Affghanistan are strangely underrated
by so acute a writer as Mr. Griffin, who notices the
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