New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-02-14


uesty Of Turkmancha stripped Peria Of several
additional districts, and interdcted her from ths
n,ysstion On her own shores along the Caspiso Sea-
The memory of past spolistons, the endurance Of
pres eat restrictions and the fear OF future eacroaca-
nents, alike coneurred to spur Persia nso desdv
opposition to Rus.is. The AAghans, on their Pet,
although never involved in actual qusrre's win
Russs, were used to consider her as the eterna
foe of their religion, and 8 giant whsch Wss 70
swallow Asia From considering Russis as their
natural foe, beth races-Pcrsians and Asghans-
were induced TO consider England ~ thei, natural
ally. Thus, to maintain her supremacy. England
had but to play the benevolent mediator bctwecn
Persia and Afghazistan, and to prove the decided
adversary Of Russ an encroachucnts. show OF
amty on the one hand and an earnest VI resistance
on the other-nothing else was required.
II cannot be said h,weyer, that the advantages
of this position have been very successfully i'm
proved In 1884, in tbs matter of the seAc ton OF
an heir to the Shah of Persia the English w're III
dsced to cooperate in favor Of the prince proposed
by Russs, and the next year to aid Chat p incc
with money and the active assistance Of 1r fish
military officers in maintaining his clam BY AIMS
sgainst his rival. The English ambassadors dis
patched to Persia were charged to warn the Persiin
Government against allowing itself to b. pushed On
TO make war sgainst the Afshans, which could onF
result in waste of resources; but when these Eus-
bassadors earnestly called for authority to Prevent -
threatened war of this sort, they put in mna.
BY the Ministry at home of an article in al Old
treaty of 1914, by which in case of war between
Persia and the Afghans, the English were not b.
int rfere unless their mediation should be solicited.
The idea of the British ENJOYS and of the British
Indian authorities was that this war WIS planned
BY Russia which power desired to employ the en-
tension of Perssn authority eastward as the means
of opening road BY which at some time or other
Russian army might enter India. These repre-
sensations seem, however, to have made little or
no impression on Lord Palmerston, then at tho
head of the Department of Foreign Affairs, and
in September, 1887, Persian army invaded All
chanstan Various small successes carried it to
Herat before which town it encamped and began
siege operations under the personal direction Of
Count Simonich, the Russian Embassader at tho
Persian Court. During the progress of these war
like acts. Mcneil the British Embassador found
himself paralyzed by contradictory Instructions
On the one hand, Lord Pamerston enoined him
"to refrain from making the relations of Persia
with Herat subject of discuc son." as England
had nothing TO say between Persia and Herat. On
the other hand, Lord Auckland, the GOyernor-Gen-
eral of India wanted him to dissusde the Shah
from pushing on his operations. At the very outset
of the expedition Mr. Ellis had recalled the British
officers serving in the Persian army but Palmerston
had them reinstated. SO, again, the Indian Gov
ernor- General instructng Mcneil to withdraw tho
British officers Pamerston again reversed that de-
cision. On March :, 1888, Mcneil proceeded IT,
the Persian camp and offered his mediation, not In
the name of England, but Of India.
Toward the end of May, 1898, the siege having
now lasted about nine months, Palmerston sent
menacing dispatch to the Persian Court, for tho
first time making the affair of Herat a subject Of
remonstrance, aud for the first time inyeighing
agapst "Persia's connection with Russia"
Simultaneously hostile expedition was ordered by
the Indian Government to sail to the Persian Gulf
and seize upon the Island of Karak-the same
lately occupied by the English. At still later
epoch the English Envoy withdrew from Teheran
to Erzeroum, and the Persian ambassador sent to
England was refused admission. In the mean time.
in spite of very prOtracted blockade, Herat had
held out the Persian assaults were beaten back aad
on Aug. 15 ls3c, the Shah was forced to raise tho
siege and to retreat in hurried marches from
Afghanstan. Here one would have supposed tho
operations of the English might have ended; but so
far from that, matters took most extraordinary
turn. Not content with repelliDg the attempts Of
Persia made, it was alleged, at the instgation and
in the interest Of Russia to seize part Of Afghan.
istan, the English undertook to occupy the whole
of it for themselves. Hence the famous Afghan
war, the ultimate result of which was so dis
astrous to the English and the real responsibility
for which still remains 50 much mystery.
The present var against Persia has been un
dertsken on grounds very similar TO that which pre-
ceded the Afghan war, namely, an attack upon
Herat by the Persians, resulting, on the present
occasion, in the sapture Of that city. striking
circumstance however is that the English have now
been acting as the allies and defenders Of tho some
Dost Mahomed, whom, in the Afghan struggle.
they so unsaccessfully undertook to dethroDe. 1t
remains to be seen whether this war is to have
sequences as extraordinary and unexpected as those
which attended the former one.