The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1885-05-14

held important conferences with the
Amer OF Afghanistan at the former
place, with many native princes, the re-
suit OF which has apparently been to make
sure of their allegiance against Russia.
Lord Dutferin counselled the home gov
eminent, on receipt Of the news of the
capture of Penideh by KomaroG, to or
der an advance into Afghan territory at
once. In the crisis he evidently had the
master mind among the British states
men.
Gen, Roberts is popularity regarded n,
the best fighting general of the Anglo-In
dian armies. He has distinguished him
self repeatedly in the field and received
we'll merited honor at home.
General Lumsden was appointed by the
British government early in 1884 as the
Commissioner on their part to proceed to
Afghanistan and meet Russian Com
missioner for the purpose of delimiting
the frontier by mutual consent. He is a
veteran in the service and wears medals
for bravery and valuable public services.
Gen. Komaroff is over fifty and hard
fighter. He has seen much arduous serv-
ice in the many Asatic wars 10y which
the eagles OF Russia have been brought
to the position from which they now men,
ace the British empire in India. In the
expedition which captured Merv he dis.
tinguished himself He had been gov.
ernor OF Askabad for some time prior to
that event, which occurred in 1882, and 1t
was under his orders that the dashing
Major Alikhanof whose name occurs
quite often of late in the cable dispatches,
pushed forward and brought the Meryis
to terms 1t was on February 8, 1889, that
the four chiefs and "a notables of Merry
gathered In General Komaroff's drawing
room at Askabad, and took the oath Of
allegiance to the White Gear. Under the
orders Of General Komaroff, Merv was
promptly fortified after the European
hnshion, and is to-day the base of the new
Russian advance southwark. AS re-
ward for this service he received the Or
der of the White Eagle, and his district
(Askabad) was raised to the rank Of
province equal to that of Turkestan, and
he himself was made governor general.
This is the man who fired the first shot at
Ak Tepe recently and the Car promptly
decorated him afresh for the gallant as
sault upon and capture of that place. In
this move if he was not acting under or
ders from St. Petersburg it seems strange
that his success should have received the
recognition it did.
The Russian leader to whom all eyes are
turned as the man most likely to COM
mand the Cars armies is Gen. Kouropat-
kin. He figured conspicuously in the
Turco- Russian war under the late Skobe-
left, and since the latter's death this
dashing man has been popularity regarded
In the light of his successor.
With the geographical, military and
personal data above laid before our
readers, the general conditions of the
great struggle now opening between Rus
STA and Great Britain will, we think, be
tolerably clear. We have drawn upon
various standard authorities for the facts
comprised in this article, and believe its
statements may be fully accepted us cor
rect so far as they 60 To aid the reader
still further in approaching the lay of the
land, as exhibited on the map. and the
relative difficulties of the British and
Russian advance toward Herat, we ap
pend table of distances between the diff
ferent points: