The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-05-10
THE REVIEW.
The Russians Designs on
Herat FOrshadowed.
THE ARBITRATION MIDDLE.
The Possession of Penjdeh Has
"ne''~' the Appetite of the
'oracious Russian Bear,
The Weeks Reriew-

| LONDON, May 9.-The Anglo-Russian
situation continues to be enveloped in
| cloud OF uncertainty. 1t is absolutely
impossible to predict what day NAV
bring forth. No sooner had the people
begun to become reconciled to the idea
of submission of the difficulty to
arbitration, than reports began to pre-
vail questioning the probability or there
being any arbitration after all the talk
as to the great things it was about to
accomplish. Tonight no one processes
TO understand what the precise condi-
ton of the negotiations with Russia
may be: The average Englishman
| finds it difficult. if not absolutely i'm
possible, to disabuse himself of the feel
ing that whatever Gladstone and Gran
| vile may say to the contrary, the
Russian diplomatists are getting the
better of the British. Every delay in
the negotiations has redounded to Rus
sia's advantage; while the ministers
have been talking the Russian railway
has been actively pushed towards the
Afghan frontier and the Russian troops
have seized debatable territory. These
are facts and the average Briton grows
impatient, when an attempt is made to
belittle their Importance or obscure
them with cloud of words. The posi-
ton of affairs tonight is so involved in
uncertainty and doubt as to create
general feeling of insecurity. The feel
ing that the proposed arbitration is
likely to fall through gains weight from
the announcement made to-day
that there is likely to "a. be
considerable delay in prepar-
! H. J1f -,
no denying that this announcement is
received by many people with a smile.
The delay, it is said, will be necessary,
in order to allow the Cabinets of the
countries to come to decision upon the
precise points to be submitted to the ar
bitrator. Some people profess to think
/ this process OF arriving at preliminary
understanding will be so fruitful
source of delay that the chances of the
arbitration taking place at all are de-
cidedly slight. The Cabinet, it Is
thought, may find themselves as much
at sea in deciding what shall be sub
! naItted to the arbitrator as they were in
trying to come to an understanding in
regard to the original difficulty. 1t is
I humorously suggested that they may be
obliged to resort to preliminary
arbitration in order TO deter
|
the arbitrator. The possibilities of this
sort of diplomacy opens up rich field
to the imaginative statesman. This
view of the situation gains additional
likelihood, when one considers the
latest exchange of views that has taken
place between Granville, secretary of
State for foreign affairs, and De Stael,
Russian minister. Between these diplo-
mats the difference of opinion about
such primary questions as the scope of
the proposed arbitration and the zone
of the delimltation still remain un-
settled. Whether these divergent
views can be reconciled and a COM
mon standpoint reached, from which
to consider the main question, is by no
means certain. De Stael has proposed
that the whole scheme of arbitration
shall be abandoned in case a COM
parison OF the evidence regarding
the Penjdeh incident shall
! be found to sustain Russia's
Interpretation of the agreement of
March 18th. Granville is inclined to
accede to this proposition, but only on
condition that Russia will grant detin-
tie treaty, in which she shall pledge her
self not to made any. further advance
into Afghanistan There is little like
treaty as Granville suggests. There is
an increasing reason to believe the pos
session of Penjdeh has wheJted the APP
I petite of the voracious Russian bear,
4 and that nothing but Herat will long
appease its cravings.
! 10 The Russians here, in London, who
are on terms of intimacy with the
officials of the Russian embassy,
do not hesitate to declare, openly, that
Russia intends to take Herat. They as
sert it will be an easy matter to obtain
the assent of the Ameer to Russian
occupation and they declare that no
treaty, which should propose to forbid
lsuch action on the part of Russia,
would have any binding effect when the
opportunity comes, or is made, to seize
Herat. Herat viii be seized, no matter
what the treaty st1pulations may be.
This opportunity is not likely to come
/ Immediately, they think, and Russia,
they aver, will, for the present, make
no advance beyond the line of the 'front.'
Ter, which shall be agreed upon in the
! coming negotiations at London. They
say, further, that Russia does not con-
| template intervening in the affairs of
! Herat, pr0prio nlotu, of her own accord;
but when the local tribes, together
with the Herates, shall ask for
| the protection of the Car, Russia is
bound to incorporate them in her do
minions.
Englishmen familiar with the story
of the annexation of Merv, think they
understand what the Russians mean,
when they speak of the local tribes
asking the protection of the Gar.
There is shrewd suspicion afioat that
the importunate asking for protection by
the Mervii, which the Gar had no heart
TO withstand, was not quite proprio
nlOtu.
These expressions of opinion and
belief, on the part of Russians, who
have access to the Russian Embassy,
are fair reflex of the tone of De Stael's
recent communications to Granville.
The practical :upshot of the whole
matter is, that Russia refuses to enter
into treaty, fixing definite limit to
her territory, and binding her to a
maintenance of the frontier so
fixed, unless the rule of the
Ameer shall be so firmly kept within