Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-27
ANGLO INTERESTS In ASIA

Events In occidental Asia have acquired
great prominence Of late in diplomatic cir
l. cles. II. Rene Henry has
S0nPko written q very interesting
Probable. article in La Revue des
Questions Diplomatiques ct
Coioniale. entitled "Asiatic Turkey and
the Bagdad Railway The author COM
mences by citing q writer in the Fortnightly
Review for July. 1901. who signs an article
entitled Russia and Her Problem over
the signature of 'Calchas."
From Passau to Peking." he says. from
the very heart Of Europe through Austria
Hungary and the Ottoman empire to the
shores of the far east, the whole political
world is liable to pass into a state of fux
There may be reason here for compro-
misses"
Nj. Rene Henry declares that there is
great reason for an Anglo-Russan com
promise. He cites the fact. that prior to
the Russo-Japanese war such rapproche-
ment was contemplated, and that Lord
Salisbury and Mr.. Balfour had said there
was plenty of room in Asia for both Eng
land and Russia" The diplomats of Lon
don and st. Petersburg began by admit
ting the possibility of railway junction
or Asiatfc Russia with British India The
line from Orenbourg- Tashkend was then in
course OF construction. and 1t was pro-
posed to connect 1t across Afghanistan with
the indian system. M. Rene Henry on this
neao cites from the Messenger of Russian
FINANCES. M Whites organ: lit is af-
hrmed that such an arrangement would
place Russia face to face with England
ana become thus a source of danger and
complications. But that objection Is more
oid than just and Is based upon the ira
ditional distrust that Is reciprocal. Russia
and England are not rivals in the markets
or the world. and there are none where
sneir interests may not be deiimited. In
une universal domain of commerce and in
dustry England has rather to fear the RI
valry Of Germany.
"As to Russia and England, they seem re-
ciprocally dangerous because they know lit
may touch by railway line traversins
Herat the mists of ancient misunderstand-
ings and apprehensions will be promptly
dissipated and the gordian knot of mutual
distrust which lies in the Pamir will be
severed"
The Persian plateau and the Afghan
wall" as M. Victor Berard has said in '"The
Revolt of ASIA" have been
cradles OF the cradles Of the vast en-
Empires. pires of Cyrus, Cambyses,
Darius and Xerxes. They
join In the south the vast domain of civil
lied hindoos. and In the north the steppes,
where fourished Samarkand. the famous
tuted his capital. Was the empire of the
car preparing before the last war to cross
natures barriers? Was q conflict imminent
between England and Russia for the pos
session of Persia? was Russia indeed pre-
pairing to conquer India? This opinion was
current then and 1t Is so even now"
But M. Rene Henry maintains that a diff
ferent theory is being accepted. THE en-
sides from the SEE. surrounded. seeks a
maritime outlet. Shut out Of the Balkans
and the Mediterranean by the treaty of Ber-
lin. Russia carried the plan Of Peter the
routes. one led to the gulf of Alexandretta,
In the Mediterranean; one to the Indian
ocean. and the other, which resulted in war,
to the Pacific"
OF india was never the object of Russian
politics. and those who have thought so
have seen in 1t a precious way, which. in
deed. was forced upon them. In 1887
II cannot think Of quitting this country,
because 1 believe firmly in it's offensive
value as a proper agent in the solution of
the question Of the east"
THE question of central ASIA says M.
Cheradame. has been more clearly defined
these late years between Russia and Great
Britain and the invasion Of India by I'D
frequently discussed. But the object of
Russian expansion in central Asia liz not
the conquest Of central Asia, nor the con-
quest Of India. 1t Is a question of launch
ing from trans-Caucasia or the trans
Caspian Russian locomotives to a Russian
port on the Indian ocean at Bouchir-Ben-
dar, Abbas or Tchabar."
Politics or diplomacy is not science but
merely a system of experiments or acci-
dents. Germany suddenly thrust herself
into this occidental Asiatic question in
which England and Russia were almost
alone. 1t was simply an experiment. The
'Bagdad railway may indeed hasten the
conclusion of a general Asiatic accord be-
tween Russia, weakened by her late war,
and England. likewise. weakened In South
Africa.
The Emir Of Afghanistan, Habib HULA.
is at this moment at Agra. the guest of
Lord Mimic. the viceroy
Anglo-Afghan of India. Heretofore it
Relations. may be recalled. every ef-
fort by England to effect
a rapprochement. with Afghanistan since a
century has been marked by resistance. In
1888 the Burnes mission to Cabul provoked
the Russo-Afghan alliance. The English
expedition Of 1910 was followed by the mas
sacre of the garrsons. In 1875 the nego-
tiations of the emir with Lord Northbrook
and Lord Lytton resulted In a Russo-Af-
CHAN rapprochement, followed by the
Anglo-Afghan war. the treaty of Ganda-
max. and then the massacre Of the Cav
argni mission. Afghanistan has until now
opposed all overtures from Great Britain
and manifestly because Of the prestige of
Russia.
The ng-deferred visit of the emir is
due to the results Of the Russo-Japanese
war. but 1t is not impossible that Russia
has adopted a policy of ''laisser faire'' in
complete accord with England in creating
Afghanistan into a buffer state
On the north of Asiatic Turkey. where
Armenians and Kurds are in constant con-
flict. Russia and Persia hold In fact the
routes of invasion. Asiatic Turkey is the
cradle of civilization. and here were Gre
ated empires and religions-Ancient Chal-
dea and Babylon. Suza, Nineveh, Assyria,
Tyre and Sidon, Asiatic Greece, Jerusalem.
In these arid, burning wastes were once
opulent cities. There lived Homer. Thales
of Milet. Heraclite. Heroditus. Pythagoras
There Apelles was born and the Ionian art
was perfected.
Arabia likewise is country where an
Client civilization lies covered by the dust
Of ages. Just now in the Yemen and the
Hedjaz the people are In fermentation and
revolt against Turkish rule. It Is in the
Yemen perhaps where England, in accord
with Russia. proposes to break the force Of