The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1903-08-05
RUSSIA IN AFGHANISTiN.
NsR PLAN TO INCREASE HER INFLU-
ENCE IN THAT COUNTRY.
The Brilliant Move of the Cars
AGENTS TO Obtain Representation
at the Afghan Capital

According to late arrival from 1n'
Ola with large trading connections In
the northern provinces, it is interesting
TO notice how the Russians in spite of
xheir preoccupations in north China are
doing the utmost that lies in their pow
er to permeate Afghanistan with their
influence and subvert that hitherto eX-
ercised by Great Britain in the country,
says the Pail Mall Gazette.
Their opportunity undoubtedly came
when death removed the Ameer Abdur-
rahman, who, jealous as he was ready
to show himself of every fancied Brit
ssh encrOachment, was nevertheless an
inveterate opponent of the aggressive
bower on his northern borders, whose
offers of amity he so we'll knew how to
estimate at their true value. When he
died the dread and hatred of the Rus
sian to great extent lost that vitality
in Afghan policy with which it had al
ways been inspired by Abdurrahman's
intimate personal acquaintance with
she methods and aims of his former
jailers.
Consequently those points of discus
sion with the Indian government which
We're always subordinated to the SUI
preme distrust entertained for the Mus
covite have under his successor acquir-
ed a less restrained acerbity. Proper
tionately,. too the increasing friendly
advances by the Russians, to the At
CHAN government in particular and to
the people generally, have not of late
encountered anything like the same I'M
compromising attitude as in former
times.
Everywhere in the baZaars of India,
those mysterious receptacles Of news,
there is talk at the present moment of
increasingly strained relations between
the Indian government and the ameer.
And there is now little doubt in Official
circles that the recent seizure and de-
tention of Colonel Yate was due to di-
rect inspiration from Kabul or that the
incident forms a very unpleasant indi-
cation of the disposition of the present
lancer toward the Indian government.
While this feeling Of hostility has
been developing fortune has proved sig
nally favorable to Russian attempts
at closer intimacy. The recent increase
of famine in the northern districts of
Afghanistan afforded an excellent OPP
portunity, which the Russians have not
allowed to pass, of posing in the gulse
of generous benefactors OF the people
IN their hour of need.
They have thrown open their stores OF
grain to the starving people and pro-
vided them with the necessities of life
free of all charge. That such highly
polite action will go unrewarded by
corresponding inclination of Afghan
sentiment is highly improbable. The
gratitude of hungry men is not largely
swayed by considerations of high policy
which they do not altogether under
stand. And Russia may congratulate
herself on an achievement which is
likely to bear excellent fruit.
Bat this is not all she has been doing
in this direction. For some time she
has persistently endeavored to obtain
representation at the Afghan capital.
Hitherto she has failed, but that by no
means implies an abandonment OF the
attempt Russia abandons nothing.
The desire to establish a Russian en-
bassy In Kabul, apart from the suspi-
Cion with which it was always regard
ed by the late ameer and in a second
hand fashion by his son, is a project
which England could never permit
Bot that by hook or by crook her agents
should 60 to Kabul, whether officially
accredited or not, Russia was fully de-
Sermined. Accordingly she has set
about it in her own characteristic way.
Carefully selecting her men some
months ago, she sent them, to the num-
Der of FIVE, in the guise of ordinary
travellers through the country to the
capital. Here for q short time they
Were placed under a sort of arrest 1t
was not long, however, before they OBJ
tained their freedom. Their next bril-
Aiant move was to embrace Mohamme-
xlanism and become subjects of the
ameer, after which no further reStr1c-
%ons were placed on their going and
coming among the Afghan people. They
have approved themselves most sedu-
lous and devout followers of the proph-
et, and, with the judiCious backing of
The Russian government to assist them,
this surrephHous crusade has been
prosecuted under the happiest auspices.
There is much. therefore, affecting
the present relations or india with Ar
ghanistan which in nowise can be said
to tend toward the continued mainte-
nance Of the close connection which has
subsisted since Lord Roberts marched
from Kabul to Kandahar and discov-
cred thousands of pounds in Russian
gold, even in those days conspicuous
element in Afghan politics.
While the ameer is, through his peo-
pie, accepting Russian hospitality in the
north and is himself admitting Rus
slams to residence in Kabul, he Is ar
resting and imprisoning British officers
ON the Indian border line. 1t is an I'M
pleasant conjunction Of circumstances
which cannot but presage a fresh de-