The Indianapolis journal., 1885-04-23
THE RUSSIAN ENVOY.

G. w. Smalley. in New York Tribune.
M. Lessar has been here for some weeks. If
there had been no dispute about the Afghan
frontier his presence might have passed un-
noticed. But as soon as it was known that M.
Lessar was the accredited exponent of Russian
pretensions, his company was coveted not
think, because society was eager to know all
about the contested boundary Dne, but because
M. Lessar was celebrity and novelty The
more celebrated houses DO not compete for him
as the more sensational do, but neither do they
close their portals to him. So various are the
sections of society where NJ Lessar has been on
view, that man must be very much recluse
not to have met him somewhere
He is we'll worth meeting. Like most Rus
slams, he has fexibility of character which in
sures his getting on comfortably with the most
dissimilar people. He will talk to you with the
utmost fuency, not to say volubility, on the CEN
trail Asian question. He has absolutely nothing
of that affectation of reserve which the profes-
sional dplomatist so often displays. One reason
for this may be that he is not professional
diplomatst. III. Lessar is by profession an en-
gneer-a military engineer, 1 understood him,
or rather inferred from his account of himself.
The first impression he makes is one of surprise.
He is SO young. When you hear of an envoy
from Russia on grave question like that now at
ISSUE you expect to meet man of middle age,
or past middle age. NJ Lessar looks and be-
lieve is, under thirty. Slight in build, medium
in stature, he has th well-bred manner which
Russians out of Russia all have; as if
subjects to travel abroad. The features good;
the eyes keen, restless changeable; very soft in
expression while he is talking frivolties piercing
when he looks suddenly at his interlocutor to
diconu fhn of Tonnr hay 11x1
courageous remark which their owner has just
hazarded. If he has the Slav mouth, it is hidden
by the full mustache and close-cut beard, dark
brown and black. Unlike any Russian l ever
not the language of the country to which he is
on mission He understands, | fancy, more
English than he is supposed to understands but
the only language have heard him use in the
English capital is French, which he speaks
with extreme rapidity, and an accent difficult to
define. They say he is by birth or by descent a
French Jew.
When first met M. Lessar, I was introduced
to him as an American, and began by remark
about the traditional friendship between Russia
and the United States. This in my innocence,
hoped might induce him to talk frankly on the
merits of the Anglo Russian controversy, in
which case l should have had as little to impart
to you as have now. But nothing of the kind
happened. Either failed to inspire M. Lessar
with confidence in my discretion or he has
adopted uniform rule of discourse with all
comers, and from this does not depart so long as
he is in London He talked to me long time,
and his talk was extremely interesting. But
when it came to an end felt that had been lis
tening to just such statement of the Russian case
as that which the cosmopolitanism of Mr.. Stead
enables us to read every evening in an English
paper 1t can be no novelty to any human being
to be told on Russian authority that Russia has
no designs against India no scheme of agrees
ion or conquest in Central Asia: never meant to
take Khiva; accepted Merv as an unwelcomed
cession; and advances, when peradventure
she does advance, in obedience to the force
of circumstances which are stronger than her
own will. Perhaps it added piquancy to this
familiar account to hear that Russia not only had
no wish to go to Herat but would not accept it
as gift
from the lips of the man who is. in all probabiY-
ity, the sole author of the present difficulty M.
Lessar has spent four years in Central Asia. It
was his business to survey and report on the
slept at night with nothing between him
and the stars. At first the country was
dangerous. The Turcomans had been conquer
ed, but not reduced to order They failed to
perceive in the beginning that the mission of
Russia was civilizing mission. Having
thriven for centuries by pillage and the slave
trade. they were slow to understand that the
authors of the massacre of Geek Tepe looked
ith,disfavor on violent methods. They required
further convincing and got it. They were re-
duced to subsist on the proceeds of purely
agricultural and pastoral life. The country, OBJ
served M. Lessar, with pardonable pride, is
now le plus pacific in Asia. l am not sure that
he did not say the world. Not crime has been
committed in Turkestan for two years and
half. The obvious retort that there was nobody
left to commit one would have gone beyond the
limits of friendly conversation.
Encouraged by this pacifed state of the
desert NJ. Lessar pushed his surveys further
south He overpassed the well-known line from
Khoja Saleh on the Oxus to Sarakhs, on that af
fluent of the Herr -Rud known as the Tejend.
He penetrated to the tract of country lying be-
tween the River Murghab and the Heri-Rud,
called the Badgheis. He found it, to his sur
prise, in great part well watered, abounding in
fertile valleys, and opening the easiest of mill
tary roads to Herat. He formed the opinion
that Penjdeh was the key, or one of the keys,
Of military communication between Herat and
Afghan Tnrkestan. He warned his chiefs-of
course am not quoting M. Lessar-that they
had made grave mistake in consent
ing to the Khoja Saleh-Sarakhs line,
and that means must be found to