The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-03-22
RUssIA's ADVANCE IN ASIA.

l To-night's Debats contains, apropos oi
 a recent book by a Russian officer, M 1 Lebedey, Towards India A Military Statistical and Strategical Study-Rus- | sian Plan of Campaign" an exceeding I ly interesting article on the progressive | march of Russia towards the valley of | the Indus. I quote from this article the | following:
 "The Herat and Kandahar route forming the line of least resistance, ow- | ing to ethnic and geographical condi- tions, the first stage of the progressive march across Afghanistan is to be lim- I ited to the occupation of Herat, the key ] of the whole route, dominating the main
 roads of Afghanstan. The termipus
 of the railway at Kushl1 is only eighty kilometres from Herat, and, although the English are well informed as to all adverse movements by their Consul at
 Meshed, who has at his disposal for the
 purpose of communicating with London
 a wire connected at Teheran with the
 Indo-European telegraph, it is neverthe-
 less certain that ill the present etate of
 things they will inevitably be forestall-
 ed at Herat by the advance of Rus
 sian force, and that this place is all
 ready virtually in the hands of their
 rivals Herat, once occupied, the base
 of operations is thus pushed southward
 most advantageously. A prolongation
 of the railway south of Herat insures communications, while revictualling is facilitated by the fertility of the region and of the neighboring regions of Kho- rasan and Seistan
 The second stage should carry the Russians along the line Kabul- ul-Ghazni- Kandahar, and give them Afghanistan. While the troops of the Transcaspan advance from Herat on Kandahar, those of Turkestan begin their movement to- wards Kabul. At the same time, in or der to cut off the enemy, Russian forces advance to the north across the Hindu Kusb towards Chitral and Upper Kash- mir--Gilgit the Pamir. Other forces meanwhile move through Persian Seistan and cut the frontier of Baluchi stan to march on Quetta and the Bolan Pass.
 "The third stage should end with the passage of the Sulaiman Mountains, and bring the Russians to the Indus by the Gomal and Bolan Passes. The fourth finally, forms the decisive event and consists in bringing the Russian army beyond the five rives of the Punjab to the battlefield which will put the fate of India for the present in Ruesias hands, and offer Russia a means of ef- fective pressure on all English policy for the future"
 The anonymous writer of this sum mary of M. Lebedevs book which has been translated by Captain Cazalas says that this plan is not such as to displeaee the Continental Powers. He. adds:
 Tt is probable that sooner or later Russia will succeed in carrying out this entire scheme; it is even probable that she will accomplish the greater part of it pacifically as she established her base of operations in Central Asia. Events in South Africa are, moreover, of a nature to facilitate Russia's progress in this direction, and her recent conven- tion with Persia, by augmenting her control over that country and affording free passage of her troops across Seis- tan, cannot but have hastened the mo- ment when Herat will drop off like ripe fruit, and the first stage will be found to have been insensibly accomplished before the very eyes of an Indian Elm pre as dismayed as usual, but of an resigned. Correspondence London Times.