New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-05-24

and Of writer's for the public press which ham
pers TO such a degree the activity and opera
tions Of the Foreign Office in Downing-st Al
St Petersburg the Ministry Of Foreign AZ
fairs is divided into two great departments the
one for European matters. while the other deals
exclusively with Asiatic questions, and il Is to
the Asiatic division that the cieverest men are
invariably assigned. where promotion and hon
ors come the quickest, and which. by Oh skin
the resourcefuIness and the activity OF ifs off,
GERS and through the mystery "ith which i
manages to enveIo2 its dealings. has won Fog it.
self fame and fear in every capital Of the Old
World.
The Foreign Department at Calcutta equally
well Differed and having at its disposal large
Secret Service funds that are not subject to
legislative investigation. may be described as
the Asiatic division Of the Foreign Office in
England The chief aims Of the Foreign De-
partment at Calcutta are, If Coulse. TO
strengthen England's hold India, vel IS
her predominant influence upon all vas-a- and
independent rulers within what may be de-
scribed as the Indian sphere, and to counteract
any efforts that may be made BY European
powers either to endanger the lines Of c9mlnlni-
cation with the mother country OF To f5ment
anti-English intrigues among the native rulers
and races Of Asia, and to Illustrate all designs
of Hindostan. Now. the most powerful e-e.a=nt
in India is undoubtedly that which accorIs
spiritual allegiance to Mahomet- England has
probably some eighty million MahcmeJan sub
jects in the Decca~ Peninsula, and at least
thirty millions more in Africa Indeed, Great
Britain is without exception the greatest Ma
hometan power of the world and has won the
confdeI &c and the good will Of the followers OF
the Prophet to degree enjoyed b no other
Christian power, through the religious tolerance
of her government, through the respect shown
alike by state and people for the religious preju-
dlces and practices of Islam. and through their
refusal TO force the Bible upon those who built
their hope of salvation upon the Koran.
Since the British Crown took over Lh= adj
ministration of Hindostan from the old East
India Company it has been able to place I'M
pIicit trust in the loyalty of the Mahometan
princes and People of the Deccan. and it is the
eighty millions of Mahometans that constitute, 50
speak, the backbone of India in a military,
we'll as in a political and economic, sense. The
confidence is mutual and the only clouds by
which it has ever been mOmentarily Obscuret
have been traced to the influence of the sultan
at COnstantinopIe. Until about thirty years ago
the English, for some reason or other, believed
in the pretensiOns of the Turkish ruler to the
dignity Of Caliph that is to say, the spiritual
supremacy of the entire MahOmetan Church
throughout the world. 1t was, indeed, this, even
more than the dread of seeing COnstanunople
fall into the hands of Russia. that led Great
Britain to champion the cause of the Ottoman
Empire. and to expend vast quantities of Brit
ish blood and treasure in its defence. The Eng
lish thought that they owed it great Ma
hometan power to their Mahometan fellow citi-
zens in India to protect the chief of the laJter's
Church But Abdul Hamid by his readiness 10
lend himself to every anti-British intrigue at
ConstantinOple, and by his reluctance to accept
English advice, ere long convinced the states
men at Calcutta and at Downing Street that. as
the spiritual head of the Mahometan Church. he
constituted not only a perpetual source of rrou-
BILE but likewise very serious danger in the
Moslem possessions of the British Crown.
Realizing the hopeessness OF the situation at